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Figurative Language; The Important Ingredient in Fantastical Concoctions

Updated: May 3, 2021

Reviewing the Most Common and Engaging Literary Devices in Fiction


Taking a little dive into a developmental editor’s waters, this copy editor will share some notes about figurative language: when writers use words in a way that moves away from the conventional structure and meaning to convey a new, complex meaning, clarity, or a comparison.

Any sort of creative narration uses figurative language to build emotional connections between readers and its text. When you follow a character’s journey after all, you don’t just observe their movements, but the manner or color of their movements and their own subjective experience. Figurative language can help set up layers of subjectivity; the reader and the leading character(s) almost seem to become one if the writer succeeds in drawing the former in and familiarizing them with the character(s). However, an essential part of this is the connection between objects, behaviors, persons, etc., the writer makes to create impressions, establish patterns, and ultimately make meanings which then, as parts of a whole, make the style, mood or tone, and voice of the entire work.

Though a copy editor doesn’t really supply critiques or suggestions about characterization or how to create imagery, it helps for a writer to have a clear understanding about what figurative language they’re using and to what exact effect they create using them. Rather than helping the writer to conceive an idea or message, I look at the logic of the connection being made or fact-check a reference so that the message created is as clear as possible or is based on objective facts. None of us want to read an allusion to an image we, as part of a specific cultural group knows, and later realize that the reference we enjoyed was referring to another of the artist’ works! Less help to mental dissonance, please!


So, without further ado, I will let the list of definitions speak for themselves…..







Imagery: language using vocabulary appealing to the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste to create mental pictures; usually very specific and descriptive

Example

The white hairs fringed the leaves thinned by winter bitterness.



Simile: a comparison between two things that aren’t like each other ideologically or physically using the words “like” or “as”

Example

The Alma Keys are like the backdrop of a mediocre Michealangelo.



Metaphor: a comparison between two things that aren’t like each other ideologically or physically without using the words “like” or “as”

Example

Love's bright flame may die, but it leaves a sear.



Analogy: a comparison between two things that may not immediately share any qualities but actually share specific ones; used for clarification or explanation; the element that defines a metaphor or a simile

Example

Being close to him was as troubling as when a recovering addict is locked in a room of meth.



Symbol: a thing that represents or stands for another thing, usually a physical object representing an abstraction

Example

Ladders as the link between heaven and hell.


Personification: non-living objects or animals are imbued with human-like qualities or behaviors

Example

The wind howled.


Onomatopoeia: a word that sound like the thing they refer to or describe words may become onomatopoeic in the context of a poem or novel

Example

Roar!


Allusion: a reference of another text, song, lyric, image, person, etc., whether explicit or implicit

Example

They were three pairs of star-crossed lovers, stuck in a party of lies.


Wordplay: a play or manipulation of words’ meanings, homophones, homonyms, and/or even context to create or emphasize new meanings

Examples

nymphet"(a neologism)

dormitory--->dirty room (anagram)


Pun: a play or manipulation of words’ homophones to create an ironic twist of those words’ meanings, usually for comedic effect

Examples

sun/son (Hamlet)


I dropped an electron somewhere!

Are you sure!

Yes, I'm positive!



Hyperbole: an intentional over-exaggeration for emphasis of emotion or absurdity

Example

Reyes felt smaller than a speck of dust.


Idiom: particular phrases which a group of people (who live with the same language) is familiar enough with to immediately understand their meaning

Example

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.


Allegory: a story, image, or poem which has a moral or political significance that can be interpreted

Example

Aesop's Fables

George Orwell's Animal Farm



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