#EditDash – Day 18 – Rhetorical Devices (and When to Use Them)

Rhetorical devices can level-up your prose by adding style, voice, and rhythm, but note:

1. Not all stories NEED rhetorical devices.
2. Rhetorical devices should be consistent with the POV character/narrator. Don’t have them make comparisons or allusions to things they wouldn’t think about. Don’t have them wax poetic if they aren’t the kind of person that would do that.
3. Using too many rhetorical devices creates undesirable “purple prose.” If your devices stand out and draw attention to themselves, you probably have too many.
4. Using rhetorical devices at the wrong moments ruins your pacing. Stick to emotionally important and climactic moments. Those are the best spots to slow down time a little with some rhetorical devices.

The following are just a few common rhetorical devices.

• Simile: direct (and temporary) comparison using “like” or “as”
• Metaphor: indirect comparison stating one thing is the other. Contributes to theme.
• Allusion: reference to a well-known event, person, or place.
• Climax: Arranging phrases in increasing order of importance (usually at least 3)
• Alliteration: beginning multiple words with the same letter or sound
• Assonance: multiple words with the same vowel sound (doesn’t have to be at the start)
• Anaphora: beginning multiple lines or clauses with the same word or phrase
• Epistrophe: ending multiple lines with the same word or phrase
• Anadiplosis: beginning a clause or sentence with the same word or phrase the last clause or sentence ended with.
• Zeugma: using one verb to govern different objects

For a more comprehensive list, with examples, check out this site. Or this one.

Challenge 1: Post a line from your WIP that contains a rhetorical device OTHER THAN simile or metaphor.

Challenge 2: Which rhetorical devices can you find in this famous speech by Tolkien’s Aragorn?

“A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight!”