What's your favourite literary device?

[Breaker]

... and why?

I really like alliteration, as you probably realized if you've read any of my threads. I find it helps the overall flow of sentences and paragraphs. I also like the feel it gives to action sequences.

Metaphors, and more specifically personification, are two that I love but need to work on. I strive to come up with original comparisons but don't have the same eloquence some of the greats possess.

What do you guys like?

[Melancor]

I also use figurative language a lot. Probably because my character is a poetic one.

I actually just like It, I am not sure why though.

[Tshael]

I love alliteration. It always makes me smile, but one that I find really powerful when reading it is personification.

[Godhand]

Bold.

[Breaker]

Bold.

Ahahaha. WHY NOT JUST TYPE IN CAPS? IT MAKES YOU SOUND COOL!

Another one I left out before (mostly because it's not technically a device) is short sentences. Sometimes ms word will tell me they're fragments, but particularly in action sequences I find that splitting one long sentence into three short ones gives the writing a dangerous edge.

[Into Dust]

I love using original types of personification that animate every part of what the character or environment is doing. Sometimes, I might overdo it and I have to cut a few of them out, espicially because sometimes they don't make sense.

[Valentine]

Oh, don't make me choose from the many in my repertoire.

[A Nony Mouse]

I love fragments too.
I think that, used correctly, they can help a reader get deeper into the action of a scene.

[Kially Gaith]

Minimalist, where the few words used tell the full story. Just a shame I'm a weak writer.

However. If writing is good enough to make me go 'Aww', it's already won.

[Karuka]

Onomatopoeia. I love using the sounds that occur in any given situation. It gives a touch of realism. There are some others I'll use, too.

[Ataraxis]

Zeugma.

For obvious reasons.

[Saxon]

Metaphors because they can be the meat of the story if you use them right, and it often one of the most interesting things a writer can use to give he and his work identity and individuality. ;)

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

Anything that keeps me reading it.

[HikariAngel]

I personally like personification. My metaphors could use some work, but limited alliterations and fragments make nice scenes as well.

[Cyrus the virus]

I don't know what you'd call it, but I like to write simultaneously in an omniscient perspective and a non-omniscient one. I'll switch seamlessly from my speaking to Izvilvin's perception, for example, without expressly pointing out the switch. Of course I always provide an indication (through word usage, or something else) that you're now being told about something from his perspective.

The only frustrating thing about it is when people don't pick up on it and assume I'm being inconsistent. Careful reading should eliminate that. I've lost several points in judgings from that, when I really shouldn't have.

[Tsukiko]

I don't know what you'd call it, but I like to write simultaneously in an omniscient perspective and a non-omniscient one. I'll switch seamlessly from my speaking to Izvilvin's perception, for example, without expressly pointing out the switch. Of course I always provide an indication (through word usage, or something else) that you're now being told about something from his perspective.

The only frustrating thing about it is when people don't pick up on it and assume I'm being inconsistent. Careful reading should eliminate that. I've lost several points in judgings from that, when I really shouldn't have.

No offense but switching perspective like that without warning is poor rhetoric. It's fine to switch perspectives but you need a warning or have it be predictable to prevent confusion. Usually it's in the beginning of segment of the story or as an end note. Or you can have an quote from a diary. I think the book the Fox Woman did it best out of the books I read but it doesn't use omniscient 3rd person at all and just first person between the three main characters. Only time I've seen a mix in a middle of a story was Interjections between chapters in Steven Brust's Dragon which accounted events that the main character did not witness. But in those books the reader got warning and knew about the change.

My favorite Literary device is the first person perspective. It interjects personality into the writing and makes the story more personal. It's both more fun to read and more fun to write.

[Cyrus the virus]

What I'm talking about isn't an issue whatsoever if the reader is mindful of the words I'm using, and realizes I use specific words for a specific purpose at specific times. A reader doesn't need to have a glaring indication of a perspective change given to them; after all, though I'm not a great writer by any means, I'm not exactly writing for children.

Your favorite device might explain why I write like this, even. I find it injects that personality into a third-person perspective, giving the best of both styles. It offers not only the omniscient truth of a scene, but also the character's perspective on it. It may take a bit of getting used to for a reader, but a lot of literature takes getting used to.

[Veatrix]

Italics.

I'm not sure what it's called, if there's even a word to call it, but reference to anything. But usually pop culture, combined with fantasy, can sometimes be very entertaining.

[Breaker]

Italics.

I'm not sure what it's called, if there's even a word to call it, but reference to anything. But usually pop culture, combined with fantasy, can sometimes be very entertaining.

Allusion.