How to Round out Flat Characters with Backstories To add some curves to stock or flat characters, try to give them some memories. Having a backstory can help shape the future, or it can frame the motivations behind characters’ actions. If you find yourself writing about a character that you’d like to add some depth…
“Busy bees buzz brightly.” “Sally sells seashells by the seashore.” “Cats can create catastrophes constantly.” These sentences use alliteration. Alliteration is a literary device in which the writer repeatedly uses words that start with the same sound. That’s why alliteration makes for really great tongue twisters—alliterated passages are so hard to enunciate! Alliteration can be…
Like simile, metaphor is a literary device that references another thing in order to tell you something about an object or idea. As we mentioned, simile compares two things using words such as like or as. Metaphor, however, equates two things, using the words is and are. Take, for instance, the example we gave in…
Have you ever heard someone say, “Shhh, the walls have ears!” Huh? That sounds like one creepy house, right? Just kidding! This doesn’t mean the walls literally have ears; rather, it’s an example of personification, or giving an inanimate object human qualities. One of the most popular uses for personification is in poetry. Lots of…