4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Writing fiction is fun.
C.S. Lewis hits the nail on the head when he says,
“You can make anything by writing.” – C. S. Lewis
It is so true. Anything your imagination can dream up, you can write, and if you can write it, then it can come true in your reader’s mind. Even if just for a moment.
Walt Disney said “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.“
That’s the wonderful side for the writer is we get to have fun creating the impossible.
But there’s a down side too.
Creating the impossible takes a ton of work, discipline, stress (at times), and know-how.
And our work isn’t necessarily an art form as much as it is a work of building entertainment.
Fiction is supposed to be entertaining; otherwise, readers wouldn’t read fiction.
So how do we help our readers gobble up every page?
There are certain literary techniques that have been used in storytelling for a long time that are powerful and should continue to be used in the stories we create today.
There are many literary techniques to make your fiction more digestible, but these four have been used uniquely throughout literary history and have become pillars.
Parallelism
What is parallelism?
It is the state of something corresponding or being parallel to something else.
Example,
“He came. He saw. He conquered.“
Story details can parallel too.
In the Star Wars Saga, Finn, Poe, and Rey parallel Luke, Leia, and Han Solo.
So you too can add parallelism to your story by adding characters that parallel each other.
Events can parallel.
You can have a story within the story that parallels what will happen to the main characters.
In Stranger Things, we see the boys playing Dungeons and Dragons. The game adventure they are playing with the “Demogorgon” parallels what will happen with them in real life very soon.
How is Parallelism used?
Parallelism is a way of leaving dynamic clues or breadcrumbs for your reader to follow. It makes the material more magical and creates powerful “re-readability” with your story.
Meaning, if they pick up your story a second time they may notice the parallelism in a way they didn’t before. This instantly makes your story more interesting to pick up again than stories without this technique.
I personally love “re-watchability” and “re-readability” in the stories I get into. It makes the difference between whether a story is good or amazing for me.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing and parallelism are very similar.
What is foreshadowing?
It’s a warning or indication of a future event.
In Stranger Things, the “Demogorgon” is also a foreshadowing of what’s to come.
A common “foreshadowing saying” that has been used a billion and one times in storytelling is the famous line,
“Be careful what you wish for…“
This usually happens after the character has lost her temper and said something like,
“I hate my life. I wish I was never born!“
Then some mentor or well meaning older character says “be careful what you wish for.“
And then the next day nobody remembers them as if they were never born and the main character learns a life lesson through the events that follow.
We see this happen to Macaulay Culkin in the Home Alone movies.
Foreshadowing is a powerful way to build a relationship with your reader.
By giving them foreshadowing once you will have shown them that you are clever and thoughtful about your writing and the foresight of where your story leads.
They will be looking forward to this same cleverness in all your stories henceforth.
Thus giving you “re-readability.” 😎
Repeating Important Details
The repetition of details whether it is about objects, people, or events will get your reader’s mind pumping.
It will alert them that something very important is happening in the repeated details and they will try to figure it out before you flat out tell them.
They might also be the sort of reader that just loves a good build up to a reveal.
So repetition is appealing to most readers.
The main character could be trying to remember something about a certain day so you can take the reader into your character’s imagination as they try to remember certain details about the past.
Or you can bring up an object several times. Something as simple as a keychain will do.
But is there more than meets the eye about this keychain?
In Men In Black, we see the cat Orion many times before it is revealed to be wearing the thing that everyone is looking for.
We see the most important piece of the puzzle time and time again before we could ever guess just how important the cat is. And even more important the little keychain looking world dangling from its collar.
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Enjoying 4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible? Consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.
Need a Cheaper Plan? Try DreamHost.
If you enjoy 4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
Try Grammarly, The Free tool that should be in every writer’s toolbelt.
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Check this out.
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Symbolism
Symbolism is a great writing skill to learn how to use well.
What is Symbolism?
Symbolism is when you have an object, person, animal or thing that represents something else.
To many Americans the bald eagle represents America and freedom.
That’s symbolism.
The epitome of symbolism can be found in the book Animal Farm.
A story about personified animals on a farm where a group of sinister animals manipulate and convince the rest of the animals to work for them instead of being free to work for themselves.
The story represents the early years of the Soviet Union and how socialistic minds took over and took away the freedoms of the common people.
Symbolism is a wonderful literary tool to take from real life and create a story that is easier to digest than a documentary or history book.
For example, allowing animals on a farm to represent the Soviet Union allowed many readers to learn how the Socialist Soviets took the freedoms from their people.
It made the historical event more digestible for a wider audience.
One flaw with symbolism is that it almost always has to be explained outside of the story, it’s difficult to reveal in the story without the writer leaving notes behind that otherwise explain the symbolism. Symbolism almost always has to be explained.
The upside to this is people being able to have open conversations with each other about hard topics that might not otherwise be open to discussion.
Symbolism is definitely a great teaching tool and a way for a writer to share their views about real-world times, events, economics, societies, laws, religion, politics, etc.
Topics that are otherwise harder to talk about openly.
Another creative outlet for symbolism is the writer is able to write about things that happened in their own life without writing an autobiography or saying “hey, this happened to me.”
For example, Stephen King explains some symbolism for IT.
He explained that the story came from the troll under the bridge and the bridge represented the passing from childhood and adulthood.
He also explains that Derry, Maine represents his childhood home Bangor, Maine.
He ultimately decided that the bridge would be the city of Derry and that something terrifying lived under the city, IT.
When you think of the story in light of the terrifying nature of the journey of childhood passing into adulthood and all the problems that could follow, this makes sense as to why he had the story so woven between the two major themes of their child lives and there adult lives and the 27 year gap he chose to put in between.
You can see more about his explanation here: Stephen King Explains…
We can do this.
We can use symbolism to write about parts of our own lives or stories that inspire us or that we find intriguing, or and especially hard events in our lives.
Most of us in our lifetimes will, unfortunately, go through hard times and traumatic events no matter what background we come from, and writing about those events is a way to share whats going on inside us with other people.
Use these 4 literary techniques to help your readers digest your stories and enjoy them and come back for more.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Other Popular Posts you might enjoy:
5 Tricks How to Hide Your Villain Right Before Their Eyes
10 Tips How to Write Villains that Play Mind Games with Their Victims
Psychopath: How to Write The Perfect Psychopath
10 Toxic Bad Habits That’ll Crush Your Fictional Character’s Relationships
How to Write From Your Villain’s Mind.
How To Write 4 Scenes That Reveal Who Your Character Is Seamlessly
4 Tips How to Write your Character Hitting Rock Bottom
8 Tips How to Write the Perfect Sociopath
Fictional Characters: 28+ Bad Habits to Introduce to Your Fictional Characters
List of 10 Weapons for Fictional Characters
List of 10 Bad Habits Fictional Characters Need Help Breaking
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Resources:
How to Start a Blog in 11 Simple Easy Steps in 2020
Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.
Need a Cheaper Plan? Try DreamHost.
If you enjoy 4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
Try Grammarly, The Free tool that should be in every writer’s toolbelt.
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Check this out.
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Enjoying 4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible? Consider sharing this social-friendly image to say thanks and feel free to comment with your thoughts below! 🙂
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Interested in starting a blog of your own? Check out Bluehost.
Need a Cheaper Plan? Try DreamHost.
If you enjoy 4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
Try Grammarly, The Free tool that should be in every writer’s toolbelt.
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Check this out.
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Make sure your posts are readable. Use this readability score check
Want to check out a writer’s community to test your writing and get feedback?
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
Check out these FREE trial resources from Amazon for when you work from home (or are stuck at home 🙂 )
Free Prime Membership Trial:
Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial
Try Prime Discounted (Free Trial)
Make your Free Amazon Wedding Registry:
Create an Amazon Wedding Registry
Get Free Video Channels Trial with Prime:
Join Prime Video Channels Free Trial
Try Free Amazon Family Trial:
Join Amazon Family (30-day Free Trial)
Get Unlimited Music for Free (30-day free trial):
Free movies and TV shows trial:
Join Amazon Prime – Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime – Start Free Trial Now
Free Prime for students trial:
Free Baby Registry:
Shop Amazon – Create an Amazon Baby Registry
Free trial of Twitch Prime:
4 Literary Techniques to Make Your Fiction More Digestible
And for when you REALLY work at home:
Create Amazon Business Account
It is the Amazon you love, for work. Make workplace procurement easier with convenient delivery options, simplified purchasing workflows, multiple payment options, and a competitive marketplace with business-only pricing and quantity discounts. Anyone who makes purchases for work (eg. procurement specialists, office administration, IT departments, etc.) can create a FREE account for their business. Customer must be from a verified business in order to successfully create their Amazon Business account.
We hope you enjoyed: 6 Thoughts on Writing Schools in Fiction!
What Are Your Writing Insecurities? You write for yourself of course, but there is a small part of you that Read more
Are You Having Trouble Creating Your Fictional Town? If you are like many other creative writers fictional towns are a Read more
7 Tips How to Create a Healthy Reading Habit Let’s be honest, the easiest way to start any habit is Read more
5 Oppressive Settings for World Building 1. Violent Religions Violent religions come and go with time, but some stick around Read more
