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Irony Wakes Up Your Reader With the Unexpected

Nov 17, 2016 | Writing | 4 Comments

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Definition of Irony

Irony is a literary technique in which the writer sets up the reader’s expectation and then reverses it.

Common Examples of Irony

Andy opens the door to a blast of snow that stings his face, then says, “Nice day.”
A finicky chef comes home to his high-tech kitchen and nukes a TV dinner.
A giraffe has a garage full of ladders.

Types of Irony

Verbal: The character says one thing and means the opposite.

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Dan would kiss her tonight. She could feel it in her toes. He’d skirted the armchairs for a change and sat with her on the love seat. What else but kisses could be on the man’s mind? She breathed in his musky cologne, and studied his lips.

He tapped her hand. “You know, Simone, I don’t think you took me seriously outside. If you don’t get the grunge cleaned off your carburetor, your Camaro could break down.” He scrutinized her face. “What’s the matter?”

“Don’t stop talking dirty to me.”

Situational: At the end of a narrative, something happens that’s unexpected or contradictory.

image by ruben_gal0

Rick approached the porch, his hands in his pockets.

Nance managed a thin smile. “I’m so glad you came over, Rick. Johnny’s been acting strange. I wonder if he wants to scare me off so I’ll break up with him and he won’t feel like the bad guy.”

Rick sat beside her on the top step and grasped her hand. “Come on, Nance, Johnny adores you. You know that.”

“Then why’d he break our date in front of his friends.”

“You know jocks. They need to save face around other guys.”

“He’s never been that rude to me. And how about Saturday when he went inside the house to wash off car grease. I asked him to bring me a soda, and he didn’t.”

He squeezed her hand. “Sometimes when men work on something like cars that mean a lot to them, they forget everything else.”

“Yesterday, I made myself a Cobb salad, and when I turned from the refrigerator, he was chomping it down.”

“He probably thought you’d made it for him.”

“I guess I’m being overly sensitive.”

Rick stood and pulled her up.

She nodded toward the door. “You want to come inside for a ginger ale?”

“Naw. Come watch me beat some sense into Johnny.”

Dramatic: What a character says, contrasts with what the reader knows is true.

End of scene A on the porch swing:

Sally kissed Ronnie passionately, then pulled away. “I gotta go. My boyfriend, Tim, is waiting for me. He has a ballgame tonight. Will you come over while Tim’s gone?”

“Sure.” Ronnie tugged her ponytail. “Wear your hair down, darlin’.

Start of scene B outside the house of Tim’s friend, Ed:

Tim accepted the can Ed slapped into his hand. “Thanks, man. We’re gonna beat them Blue Devils tonight.”

Ed pointed behind Tim. “Sally’s comin’ up the sidewalk.”

Tim turned and grinned. “Have you ever seen such an angel in all your life?”

Irony can give your story unexpected flavor. Click to tweet.

How have you used irony in your stories?

Juxtaposition Boosts Comparisons – Behind the Scene

Nov 10, 2016 | Writing | 0 Comments

image by Hans

Definition of Juxtaposition

Combining my research: Juxtaposition is a literary technique in which the writer places two story elements side-by-side for the reader to compare and contrast. Elements can be characters, places, concepts, events, actions, or objects. The elements are related but distinct. The comparison can show irony, humor, or sadness.

Common Examples of Juxtaposition

All’s fair in love and war.
Making a mountain out of a molehill.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

image by johnhain

Examples of Possible Comparisons

Good and evil
Despair and hope
Spring and fall
Poverty and prosperity

Examples of Juxtaposition in the Elements

Characters

Purpose: Highlight our protagonist’s failures.

Introduce into the story the protagonist’s successful brother, best friend, or colleague.

Places

Purpose: Shape a character’s beliefs about prosperity.

The character is invited to an estate with lovely gardens, opulent buildings, and stone statues. On the way home, he gets lost and ends up in a shantytown. Show how he reacts to each place.

Concepts

Purpose: Show despair in the strong and joy in the weak.

A self-centered, successful prizefighter suddenly becomes a lost child at the deathbed of his frail grandmother. His grandmother, who raised him, pats his hand and praises God that she’ll soon be with the Lord, whole and joyous.

image by ThePixelman

Events

Purpose: Contrast in third world countries suffering during war and peace.

A soldier runs through a village fighting the enemy, his Uzi rat-tat-tatting. In the next scene inside a hut of a nearby village, a nurse missionary ministers to a woman sick with malaria. The sick woman’s two young sons sit cross-legged on the dirt floor, playing a game with stones.

Actions

Purpose: Differentiate between leaders and followers.

At a women’s military boot camp, women are sent on a long run. The women complain. They can’t go any farther. This isn’t training; it’s torture. A woman, a peer among them, jabs a finger at a telephone post ahead and yells, “Come on. You can make it to that post. It’s not that far.” The women stagger on to the post. The same woman points to the next post and shouts the same thing.

Objects

Purpose: Show man’s penchant for rebellion that hurts only man.

On the grass beneath a billboard depicting a man dying due to smoking cigarettes is an accumulation of cigarette butts.

Juxtaposition can support important story comparisons. Click to tweet.

How have you used juxtaposition in your stories?

Hyperbole in Description Piques Interest As High As Pike’s Peak

Nov 3, 2016 | Writing | 5 Comments

image by isabellaquintana

Definition of Hyperbole

Combining my research: Figurative language technique with visual impact that deliberately uses an extreme, fanciful, humorous, or ridiculous exaggeration (possibly applies a simile or metaphor) that makes a point about a real circumstance.

Common Examples of Hyperbole

Grandma is as old as Methuselah.
I’m dying to go.
I’ve told you a million times I don’t like mushrooms.
That’s the biggest cake of all time.
The cleanup took forever.
I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.

Fresh and Humorous Hyperbole

image by pgbsimon

“I’d bungled everything. The planet didn’t produce enough Grecian Formula to stop this church youth director from turning prematurely gray. If I begged, would the senior pastor assign me to an easier job? Maybe I could singlehandedly build the new Family Life Center.”

“At my wits end” wouldn’t produce a mind picture. The hyperbole describing the youth director at risk of prematurely turning gray does.
The second use of hyperbole in which he wishes he could exchange his position for the job of constructing the Family Life Center, provides images of the young man alone, riveting steel, laying bricks, and putting up drywall.
Through hyperbole, the youth director shows and makes the point that his job is extremely stressful and difficult.

Spend Time to Develop Hyperbole

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“Maybe it was time to visit the unemployment office. What would I say when asked for my qualifications? I could share that, behind my back, the senior churchwomen, affectionately called me the youth director from Mars. I’d heard the Granny Girls had considered Venus, but that planet was too close. They’d awarded me the Mars moniker after I forgot to power up Miss Lily’s windows before unleashing the teens to hose down her Lincoln Town Car at the annual car wash. If that qualification failed to beguile an unemployment rep, maybe the Saturday night lock-in I’d arranged in the gym would. Cleverly, I’d planned the night to redeem myself after my car wash debacle. I stationed adult volunteers at the doors from the basement to the attic fan. Then at four in the morning, the senior pastor called. The police had arrested three of our teens wading in the town’s fountain, singing “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” Who knew I’d need to enlist a hundred watchdogs to guard the windows. I counted my blessings, though. The Granny Girls hadn’t upped my home planet to Pluto.”

image by KERBSTONE

Examples of Hyperbole:

Time to visit the unemployment office.
Youth director from Mars.
Unleashing the teens
From the basement to the attic fan.
Enlist a hundred watchdogs.
Upped my home planet to Pluto.

Try adding hyperbole to give story description a fun facelift. Click to tweet.

How have you used hyperbole in your writing?

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