Why Use Literary Devices?

Structure is how a story is built. Design is what shapes it. Literary devices are the tools we use to bring the story to life emotionally.

This category delves into the tools of emotional execution in writing. These are the techniques that create resonance. They also add intensity and meaning on the page.

At Story Structure Studio: Device & Design, the Devices series is about much more than metaphor and simile. It’s about the visceral and vicarious emotional reactions these tools are designed to elicit in your reader or viewer.

Whether you’re writing a novel or a screenplay, it’s not enough to tell a story.  You must make your readers/audience feel it.

Starting this week, I’ll guide you through a series of literary devices from A to Z. We’ll focus on one each Thursday.

We’ll break down what each device is. You’ll learn how to use it effectively with your design elements. These elements entail character, plot, conflict, tone, POV, theme, dialogue, and pacing. Most importantly, you’ll discover what emotional impact it can create.

For example, let’s take irony:

• Use verbal irony to avoid writing “on the nose” dialogue and instead build tension through what’s unsaid.
• Use situational irony to provoke shock, awe, and transformation, not just at the end of your story but throughout.
• Use dramatic irony to stir dread, fear, heartbreak, or even humor, depending on your intent.

These aren’t abstract tools. They are the precise “emotional levers” that shape every character, scene, sequence, act, and beat.

Devices are how you execute with power, giving your story not only shape and meaning, but emotional gravity.

Every Tuesday, we’ll focus on story structure but using an emotional outline to add to your story beats.

Every Wednesday, we’ll explore story design elements, like character, dialogue, setting, conflict, theme, etc. We’ll also look into exposition, summary, and narration.

Each Thursday, we’ll cover one to two literary devices that make your writing pop on the page. You’ll learn the range of emotional responses the devices can evoke. I’ll show you how to apply it in your current work-in-progress with confidence and flair.

Welcome to the Devices series at Story Structure Studio: Device & Design.

Let’s use the tools that make stories unforgettable.

Happy Writing!