I wanted to share some literary devices because, during a recent workshop, I had a fair few who weren't sure what some of these were or how to apply them to their writing. I am calling this craft notes because I will also be sharing performance tips and notes on anything writing related. I want to start with something that I use frequently and is a widely used poetic technique. I am talking about personification. This is attributing human traits to non-living things. It is taking the basic descriptions and replacing them with an exact image. For instance, instead of saying 'it was a quiet morning,' we could say 'the silence tiptoed.' To expand upon personification, we can then provide a setting. 'The silence tiptoed through the house', and then we can blend two examples of personification to create something like this:
The silence tiptoed through the house, trying not to wake the morning.
This gives life to both the silence and the morning it exists in, and when things feel alive, then so does the writing. Like all things, there is a limit to this, and you don't want to turn every description into a living thing. However, there are times when this really helps paint an image and give a presence. To try this, ask yourself what living things can we breathe life into? What unexpected way can we explain the behaviour of a non-human thing through a human trait?
The leaves ran across the road.
The rain crashed into the soil.
Then how can we expand on these? If the leaves are running away, then that poses two questions. What are they running from and where are they running to? The second example gives us plenty of options. The poem that surrounds this could be about rain, or the rain could be the setting. What happened in the wreckage of the rainfall? What tragedy struck while the world fell around you? The rain crashing gives a certain feeling of disaster that we can easily play on.
Personification enables us to provide more specific and detailed descriptions, allowing readers or listeners to understand what we have witnessed. By saying 'the pen danced on the paper,' we can sense the energy. Please try a few of these and let me know how you get on. I would love for you to share some of the ones you write, and we can see if I get the same feelings you were trying to embed. Take a non-living behaviour and transform it into something alive. Frankenstein the world around you and have fun.
Keep kind and stay true, Woofenberry’s.