Plot Ideas, Writing Prompts, Character Building: What can I write?

Spice it up: What makes my writing more interesting?

Many things can make your stories more captivating, besides an engaging plot and intriguing characters. It's not just the story that people like or don't like. It's also how that story is written. A story with a thrilling plot and amazing characters might be disliked by most who read it if only because how the book is written is boring, lacks character, or is just too simple and it feels like reading a very long story meant for six-year-olds.

1. Use a thesaurus

A thesaurus, for those who might not know, is a dictionary for synonyms and antonyms (words that mean the same thing or the opposite thing). These jewels of the writing industry keep your writing from being boring and repetitive. Take what I wrote as an example: instead of using the word interesting in the phrase 'many things can make your stories more captivating, besides an engaging plot and intriguing characters', I used synonyms such as captivating, engaging, and intriguing. Now, look at the following sentences. Which do you prefer?

'Many things can make your stories more interesting, besides an interesting plot and interesting characters.'

'Many things can make your stories more captivating, besides an engaging plot and intriguing characters.'

Of course, there is a literary technique that consists of repeating the same word several times, but say the same thing too often and it may become monotonous.

2. Metaphors

A metaphor, like most of the rest of this list, is a literary technique. It consists of comparing something to something else without using the connectors 'like' and 'as'. Metaphors are useful for descriptions where the reader really needs to get a mental picture of a character, place, action, or other.

For example, 'the monster was huge' is not as mental-picture-inducing as 'the monster's size resembled that of an elephant on steroids.' (Note: no elephants or any other animal were given steroids or any other drugs during any step of the making of this book.)

3. Simile

Imagine that similes and metaphors are cousins. Similes do the same thing as metaphors, except now you are allowed to use 'like' and 'as'.

For example, 'the cheetah was fast' and 'the cheetah was as fast as a rocket' or 'the cheetah ran fast like a rocket'.

4. Hyperbole

Hyperbole has absolutely nothing to do with the Super Bowl unless a team uses it in their ads or something (sorry, football fans). It is in fact exaggeration. Have you ever heard, or said yourself, something like 'I haven't seen you in a million years!' 'it took forever to get there',' the line to get into the amusement park went on forever.'

Those are all hyperboles. They are essentially extreme exaggerations meant to get a point across or express emotion and are very useful when writing because somehow characters have to get their emotions across 2D words on a page with no facial expressions to make things clearer.

5. Asyndetic and Syndetic listing

Sydetic listing is the use of several conjunctions in a sentence. It is generally used to describe something detailed, to put emphasis on a single descriptive factor, or describe a series of actions.

Example one: "The huge library was filled with books and more books and chairs around long tables with lamps here and there and the shelves towered above her head as she stared around in awe."

Example two: "The beast was big and it grew larger and larger and larger as it drew closer."

Example three: "He ran and ran and ran until he could run no longer and collapsed right there in the softly swaying grasses of the moor."

Asyndetic listing is the opposite of syndetic listing. In this case, no conjunctions are used, replaced instead by commas.

For example: "They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corn cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us."

-To Kill A Mockingbird

6. Anaphora

Not to be confused with epizeuxis, anaphora consists of repeating the same word or words at the beginning or end of consecutive sentences, paragraphs, verses, etc.

For example: "I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun."

-The Hunger Games

7. Euphemism (no, this is not a sneeze)

You've probably heard the phrase 'he/she passed away', or the less respectful 'he/she kicked the bucket.' These are both examples of euphemism, a technique that is basically saying something bad or unpleasant or socially unacceptable in a not-so-horrible way. Instead of saying that person is dead outright, the two sayings earlier in this paragraph are often implemented. I just suggest not using the kicking the bucket one around the relatives of the deceased, or in general, because you might just get kicked out of the funeral ceremony.

8. Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is a kind of comparison. A visual example of juxtaposition would be to put the shortest person in the world next to the tallest one. What do you/would you notice? Well, the difference in height of course, as well as other things too probably. Well, that's what juxtaposition is, placing two things next to each other to bring to attention their differences. Of course, up to now, everything has been physical sort of examples. But here is how you can use juxtaposition in writing:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

-A Tale Of Two Cities

(I'm not done here, don't worry. But simply going online and looking up literary techniques works too, if you want to learn more.)