There are many techniques that authors use in order to enhance and develop their stories and characters. Below are just a few:
Similes
Similes use the words "like" or "as" in order to compare two things. For example:
Interior monologue
Interior monologue means a character's inner thoughts. For example:
Repetition
The repetition of words, phrase, or sentences. For example:
Dialogue
Dialogue is conversation between two or more people. For example:
“It’s those same boys,” I said. “They’ll beat me.”
“You’ve got to get over that,” she said. “Now, go on.”
“I’m scared,” I said.
“Go on and don’t pay any attention to them,” she said.
Imagery (sensory language)
You can describe something in detail by showing us what you saw, smelled, taste, felt, and heard. For example:
Metaphor
Comparing two things with similar qualities by saying that something “is” something else.
Personification
Giving human qualities to inanimate (non-moving, non-living) objects
Flashback
When the narration/current story is interrupted in order to show readers a memory or moment from the character’s past.
We were about to get into the car just as Morty the cabdriver double-packed this Yellow taxi.
Good old Morty. The first time I waited on him, he unloosened his belt a notch before he even looked at the menu.
Similes
Similes use the words "like" or "as" in order to compare two things. For example:
- "Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one."
- "sleeves all stretched out like you could use it for a jump rope."
- "...the red sweater's still sitting there like a big red mountain."
Interior monologue
Interior monologue means a character's inner thoughts. For example:
- "In my head I'm thinking how long till lunchtime, how long till I can take the red sweater and throw it over the school yard fence, or even leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it up into a little ball and toss it in the alley."
- "If I were beaten at home, there was absolutely nothing that I could do about it; but if I were beaten in these streets, I had a chance to fight and defend myself."
Repetition
The repetition of words, phrase, or sentences. For example:
- "Not mine, not mine, not mine."
- “They’ll beat me; they’ll beat me,” I said.
Dialogue
Dialogue is conversation between two or more people. For example:
“It’s those same boys,” I said. “They’ll beat me.”
“You’ve got to get over that,” she said. “Now, go on.”
“I’m scared,” I said.
“Go on and don’t pay any attention to them,” she said.
Imagery (sensory language)
You can describe something in detail by showing us what you saw, smelled, taste, felt, and heard. For example:
- "I put one arm through one sleeve of the sweater that smells like cottage cheese [smell], and then the other arm through the other and stand there with my arms apart like if the sweater hurts me and it does, all itchy [touch] and full of germs that aren't even mine." (Note: This line also contains similes!)
Metaphor
Comparing two things with similar qualities by saying that something “is” something else.
- “And all at once everything you feel is a forty-foot wave of water…”
Personification
Giving human qualities to inanimate (non-moving, non-living) objects
- “The cold air slapped my warm face.”
Flashback
When the narration/current story is interrupted in order to show readers a memory or moment from the character’s past.
We were about to get into the car just as Morty the cabdriver double-packed this Yellow taxi.
Good old Morty. The first time I waited on him, he unloosened his belt a notch before he even looked at the menu.
