Euphemistic language is everywhere in polite society, used to speak and write sensitively about taboo subjects or to tackle difficult situations.
Parents sometimes refer to “the birds and the bees” as a euphemism for sex when speaking to their kids.
Euphemisms can make it both easier and harder to talk about uncomfortable topics, so they can be used in interesting ways in literature.
“Stream-of-Consciousness” is a literary technique that focuses on sensory details, what we see and hear and feel and think in the moment. It’s usually written in incomplete sentences that jump around as they please. It’s the type of writing that tells you to completely forget everything else you’ve learned about writing and give in to the flow of ideas.
Allegory is one of those literary terms you’re pretty sure you learned about in school, but it can be difficult to put it into words. So what is an allegory in literature? Today you’ll be able to define it and identify allegory in some well known examples whether you’re studying allegory for school or for your own writing!
As writers, we are always working to make our stories the best they can be. One of the more advanced techniques that can help you do this is by giving an underlying meaning in a scene—otherwise known as subtext.
In a story, subtext can be implied by the surface action and dialogue.
When you think about the books and stories that you most enjoyed reading, chances are that story’s scenes were woven with something deeper than what appeared on the surface.
Today I’d like to teach you seven simple techniques for using subtext in your story, which I’ll also teach with some subtext examples.
Using the novel Divergent by Veronica Roth as an example, we look at the difference between a symbol vs. motif, and how they affect the story.
According to Merriam-Webster, a colloquialism is “a colloquial expression.” Wasn’t that helpful?
When we look up “colloquial,” we learn that it means, “used in or characteristic of familiar and informal conversation.”
So, a colloquialism is an expression used in or characteristic of casual speech. It can also be a local or regional dialect expression. This is critically important to understand as you write dialogue for characters.
