Smiley-Face Tricks~With many thanks to MaryEllen Ledbetter
1~ MAGIC 3—Lists, examples, adjectivs......three examples in a series can create a rhythm, or add support for a point, they add emphasis and a poetic, musical quiality for listeners/readers :
In those woods, I spent hours LISTENING to the wind rustle the leaves, CLIMBING trees and spying on nesting birds, and GIVING the occasional wild growl to scare away any pink-flowered girls who might be riding their bikes too closely to my secret entrance.
2~REPETITION FOR EFFECT—Writers often repeat specially chosen words or phrases to make a point, to stress certain ideas for the reader........repeat a symbol, sentence starter, important word for importance. This is not because you can't think of another work, repetition for effect is always conscious!
The veranda is your only shelter AWAY FROM the sister in bed asleep, AWAY FROM the brother who plays in the tree house in the field, AWAY FROM your chores that await you.
3~ SPECIFIC DETAILS FOR EFFECT—Instead of general, vague descriptions, specific sensory details help the reader visualize the person, place, thing, or idea—uh, you know, a SHOW as opposed to tell! Add vivid and specific information to your writing to clarify anf create word pictures. thundered instead of noise, cadillac instead of car.....you get the point.
It’s one of those experiences where you want to CALL A RADIO STATION and tell your problems to SOME GUY WHO CALLS HIMSELF DR. MYKE but who isn’t more of a doctor than your pet hamster is, one of those experiences where you want to READ A SAPPY HARLEQUIN NOVEL and LISTEN TO BARRY MANILOWE with a BOX OF BONBONS AS YOUR BEST FRIEND, one of those experiences where you wouldn’t be surprised if someone came up to you and asked EXACTLY WHAT TIME YESTERDAY YOU WERE BORN. Yeah, one of those.
4~ FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE—Non-literal comparisons such as similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, symbolism, irony, alliteration, assosance etc —add “spice” to writing and can help paint a more vivid picture for the reader:
~SIMILIES~ comepare using like or as...stiff AS a board
~METAPHORS~ compares without using like or as... her face is an opsn book
~HYERBOLE~ an extreme exaggeration... so hungry i could eat a horse
~ONOMATOPOEIA~ a word that sounds like what it means... BAM! BOOM! ZAP! CRUNCH!
~ALLITERATION~ repetition of beginning consonant sound...peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...gives noise and music to the piece of writing
~ASSONANCE~ related to alliteration, the dark side of it, repetition of vowel sound in neighboring words...rain in spain....but it doesn't have to rhyme...hEat of the mEan girls' argument is a near rhyme
The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses on its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. (Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting)
5~ FULL-CIRCLE ENDING - When you include an image at the beginning of a piece of writing and then mentioning it again at the end, it gives your piece a sense of closure.
6~ HYPHENATED MODIFIERS— When you connect two adjectives or adverbs together with a hyphen to describe a noun, it lends an air of originality and sophistication to your writing. Sometimes a new way of saying something can make all the difference; hyphenated modifiers, or single-thought adjectives, often cause the reader to “sit up and take notice.” They add originality and more flavor to writing and allow you to invent words:
She’s got this chestnut hair with reddish-orange highlights, parted in the middle, past her shoulders, and straight as a preacher. She’s got big green eyes that all guys admire and all girls envy, and this I’m-so-beautiful-and-I-know-it body; you know, like every other super model.
7~ EXPANDED MOMENT—Instead of “speeding” past a moment, writers often emphasize it by “expanding” the actions, developing it fully to make your reader take notice. Taking a moment you would ordinarily speed past and stretch it out intentionally. This makes writing BETTER, not longer!
But no, I had to go to school. And, as I said before, I had to listen to my math teacher preach about numbers and letters and parallelograms. I was tired of hearing her lecture about a=b divided by x. I glared at the small black hands on the clock, silently threatening them to go faster. But they didn’t listen, and I caught myself wishing I were in a swimsuit again, mindlessly nudging white sand that married pale-blue water, flipping the soft stiff pages of Camus’ The Stranger… I don’t belong in some dumb math class. I belong on the beach where the wind whips wheat-colored strands of hair into my eyes and where I thickly slurp virgin Pina Coladas all day. I want to grip a straw not a mechanical pencil that will try unsuccessfully to write the answers to meaningless questions.
8~ HUMOR—Professional writers know the value of laughter; even subtle humor can help turn a “boring” paper into one that can raise someone’s spirits. Whenever possible and appropriate, inject a little humor to keep your reader awake. Remind the rader that reading is fun!
And you—yes, you, Justin!—were the guilty party who, after I took off my shoes to enjoy the hot pavement in early spring, put a frog in them. Of course, I didn’t look at the shoes when I put them back on; it was the squish that gave your prank away.
