30 Literary Elements | How to Use Them + Examples
Bella Rose Emmorey
book editor, rogue behaviorist, digital marketer, writer, brand builder, plant aunt, and cheese enthusiast.
Do you need to have all the literary elements memorized in order to be a good writer? No. But they are helpful for understanding both the vocabulary of writing and how to use that terminology to $ improve your writing$ .
If you’re taking writing seriously, having a literary elements list handy is helpful, especially if you’re getting stuck and want to give your writing an extra oomph.
Without further ado, here is a fat list of literary elements, starting with the most common and helpful.
Most Common & Useful Literary Elements List
Your writing will likely naturally have these. You just might not know exactly what they are or how you can intentionally use them.
1. Metaphors
A direct comparison between two unrelated things that’s used to create a sense of something.
Here’s an example:
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." From Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Juliet is not literally the sun, but Romeo compares her to it to express her brightness and beauty, and probably the way she makes him feel all warm and cozy.
2. Similes
A comparison using "like" or "as". This one is typically used best to convey character. What they use to compare in this way showcases something about their background.
Here’s a good example:
"Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of Pisa." This is from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
This simile compares old women to the leaning tower, emphasizing their unsteady posture. It helps to create a vivid picture that’s more interesting than just "they leaned".
3. Personification
You probably already know this one. It’s when you give human traits to non-human things.
This example is from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien:
"The trees whispered their secrets in the wind."
As you know, trees don’t actually whisper, but this personification makes them seem alive and mysterious, which goes well with this part of the book. It’s used well to create tone.
4. Imagery
Descriptive language that appeals to the senses. Imagery is one of those things that, depending on your style, you can use a lot or a little of. But you have to use it or the reader will only have a vague picture in their mind (but sometimes, you might want that).
Here are a couple different examples:
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." From 1984 by George Orwell
The stark, unnatural description creates an ominous and unsettling atmosphere. Clocks don’t strike 13. So that with the detail about the bright and cold creates a very specific image and feeling.
"A single drop of sweat slipped like a tear from her temple down her cheek." From The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
This imagery appeals to the reader’s sense of touch and sight, making the scene feel vivid. It also helps to create the tone. Couldn’t the author have said it slipped like a raindrop on a window? Instead, she compared it to a tear, for good reason.
5. Symbolism
$ Symbolism$ is using objects or elements to represent deeper meanings. It’s the one where English teachers will have you convinced the author was very specific about the color of the curtains. In truth, many authors do think of symbolism.
Here are a couple examples:
"He had meant the red as a badge of shame; but the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom." From The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The scarlet letter "A" symbolizes both sin and later, resilience.
The green light at the end of Daisy’s dock in The Great Gatsby represents Gatsby’s unreachable dream and the American Dream itself.
6. Hyperbole
Exaggeration for emphasis. It’s commonly used more as a character tick in order to create the feeling of a dramatic character.
Here are a couple examples:
"I was quaking from head to foot, and could have hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck out so far." From The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Huck is exaggerating his fear, making it humorous.
"I must have read a thousand books before I turned ten." From Roald Dahl’s Matilda.
While Matilda is brilliant, this is an exaggerated way of showing her love of books.
"I was so tired I could have slept for a decade." In Beach Read by Emily Henry. Henry often uses hyperbole in many of her books.
7. Allusion
A reference to another literary work, historical event, or pop culture. You can do this retroactively if you’re writing stuff like Historical fiction to make sure readers understand when it specifically takes place.
"The giant’s drink was in front of him. Ender smiled. He walked to the table, took a deep breath, and knocked the glass over." This is from Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.
This scene alludes to the biblical story of David and Goliath, where the underdog defeats a seemingly unbeatable opponent.
"We can be reckless in our youth like Achilles, or wise in our age like Odysseus." From Circe by Madeline Miller
This is a direct allusion to two famous figures in Greek mythology.
Other Literary Elements to Learn & Know by Use
How do you feel about rapid fire? Because we’re about to cover several literary elements grouped by what they impact in your writing.
Narrative Literary Elements
All of these literary elements are things you’ll use to tell a story. They’re the very basics, but you probably aren’t aware of just how much they can impact the overall perception of your story.
Even if you keep the same plot, setting, and character, altering the tone can completely change the story.
1. Plot
For the sake of totality, we’re covering this one, but you likely understand $ how to plot a story$ , so you know what a plot is. It’s the structured sequence of events in a story, usually including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Take any story you want and summarize it. That’s the split. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the plot follows their love story from meeting to their tragic deaths.
2. Characterization
The process of developing a $ character$ through their actions, thoughts, speech, and interactions. It’s what makes a character feel as if they could be real—or at least real enough that we can suspend our disbelief enough to enjoy the story.
An example is in Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling characterizes Hermione as intelligent through her constant studying and problem-solving.
3. Setting
The time, place, and environment in which a story takes place, like in The Great Gatsby, which is set in 1920s New York, emphasizing wealth and decadence.
4. Point of View (POV)
Naturally, it’s the perspective from which a story is told. Depending on which you choose, it can actually alter a lot in your story, from the choices within the narrative to certain elements you can use to foreshadow and more.
Here are the most common POVs used in writing:
- First-person: Narrator is a character in the story (To Kill a Mockingbird), use of “I” in the narrative.
- Third-person limited: Focuses on one character’s thoughts (Harry Potter), where “he / she / they” is used.
- Third-person omniscient: Knows thoughts of multiple characters (Pride and Prejudice) and bounces from one person’s mind to the next within the same chapter and even page.
5. Conflict
This is often the central struggle in a story, as well as what inhibits the character from successfully (and easily) solving their problems. There are various types of $ conflict in a story$ to choose from, including:
- Character vs. Self – Internal conflict (Hamlet’s indecision).
- Character vs. Character – External conflict (Harry vs. Voldemort).
- Character vs. Society – Against societal norms (The Hunger Games)
- Character vs. Nature – Survival (Life of Pi).
6. Theme
The central message or underlying idea of a literary work is the theme, and as an author, you’ll often create this intentionally.
An example is in Frankenstein and it explores themes of ambition and the dangers of unchecked scientific progress.
7. Tone
The author's attitude toward the subject or audience. Oftentimes, authors tend to fall into similar tonality across their works.
You can write the same book with very different tones and it would feel like a very different story because of the tone. Tone is shaped through the POV, imagery, characterization, and use of other elements. Imagine what Harry Potter might sound like if it was written by Neil Gaiman.
Another example is the sarcastic tone in Catch-22 that adds to its satirical impact.
8. Mood
The emotional atmosphere of a piece. Where tone is what the author thinks of certain elements, the mood is how the reader feels reading it.
Another way of looking at mood is the "vibe" you get from reading it.
Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven has a dark, eerie mood just as The Handmaid’s Tale has a mood of hopelessness throughout the first portion of it.
Structural & Poetic Elements
To further control how the reader perceives your work, these are literary elements to use like a fine tuner. They create nuance, specificity, and originality to your books—even if the premise itself isn’t all that unique.
1. Foreshadowing
These are hints about what will happen later in the story. Hopefully, the reader doesn’t quite pick up on them. But if they were to comb back through the book, they’d be able to connect the dots.
In Of Mice and Men, the shooting of Candy’s dog foreshadows Lennie’s fate. In Harry Potter, it’s a bit more obvious with his scar hurting whenever Professor Quirrel is around.
2. Irony
A contrast between expectation and reality is what irony is. This is one of the harder ones for writers to get and make sense of, often because there are various types, including:
- Verbal Irony: Saying the opposite of what is meant. Like saying, "Oh, great!" when something bad happens.
- Situational Irony: When the opposite of what is expected occurs, like a fire station burns down or a police station getting robbed.
- Dramatic Irony: The audience knows something characters don’t, like when Romeo believes Juliet is dead. This one is particularly useful with omniscient points of view.
3. Juxtaposition
When you place two contrasting ideas side by side (including scenes). Doing this actually emphasizes both. If you write a sad scene right after a happy or humorous scene, the sad one seems worse.
An example of this is in A Tale of Two Cities when it opens with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
4. Repetition
The use of words or phrases multiple times for emphasis. This can be certain phrasing, or an idea repeated, like in Night Circus by Erin Morgentern, when she wrote, "The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not."
The repetition of the circus being there is used to showcase its oddity. Had the author simply said "The circus arrives without warning." and continues to "The towering tents are striped in white and black…" then it wouldn’t seem interesting for the circus to be there. Since this is the first line of the book, it’s vital the reader knows of its oddity.
5. Allegory
A story with a deeper meaning, often moral or political. You’d think most stories have this, but it’s actually more specific to a direct comparison.
For example, Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution, and Narnia is a Christian allegory where Aslan represents Christ, his sacrifice mirrors Jesus’ crucifixion, and his resurrection symbolizes redemption.
6. Flashback
A scene set in an earlier time than the main story. Sometimes these can be a bit overdone, so be careful how you use them.
Some books have an entire part of their story told in flashbacks. Carley Fortune does this with her romances. The "main" story is told in present tense, the "now" and every couple chapters is a flashback to a different time until the past catches up to the present.
The Handmaid’s Tale has flashbacks within the present, actually told in present-tense to show how the main character escapes to these points in time (in the "now) instead of needing to live in the conditions she does.
7. Motif
This is recurring symbol, theme, or idea in a story, like how darkness and light are motifs in Romeo and Juliet.
This can also be a phrase, like in Slaughterhouse Five, when the author writes "so it goes" with each death, to represent its inevitability.
8. Diction
The author’s word choice that shapes tone and meaning. This can really help shape the overall tone and mood of the story. For example, Mark Twain’s use of Southern dialect in Huckleberry Finn.
In Pride and Prejudice Austen uses more formal diction to enhance the feel of being in higher society.
9. Paradox
A statement that contradicts itself but reveals a truth. Many authors use this when wanting to expose some themes or lessons in their works. They also tend to hold a lot of weight, making a reader pause and think about them.
Here are a few examples of paradox:
- Less is more.
- “I must be cruel, only to be kind.” - Hamlet
- “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. - Animal Farm
- “I can resist anything but temptation.” - The Picture of Dorion Gray
10. Oxymoron
A combination of contradictory terms. We use them ourselves all the time and they’re meant to convey dueling emotions.
Some common oxymorons you might use in writing:
- Bittersweet
- Living dead
- Alone together
- Seriously funny
- Act naturally
- Original copy
- Old news
- Deafening silence
Dialogue & Sound Devices
Not everything in reading is silence. Especially when it comes to people who can "hear" inside their head. I personally find these literary elements useful for making writing fun. For turning a phrase from just writing into something that’s entertaining to read and even say.
1. Dialogue
Of course, this is the spoken words between characters, what’s said aloud in the story. The $ dialogue in writing$ .
You can pick up any book and look at what’s in quotations for examples, but for the sake of this post, here’s one from Harry Potter.
"I’m not afraid," said Harry.
"You should be," replied Voldemort.
2. Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Alliteration can make your writing sound more lyrical, create more memorable phrases, and make your title sticky in the minds of readers.
Here are some examples from books:
- "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." – The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Title with alliteration:
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
3. Assonance
While it’s similar to alliteration, it’s more specific to the repetition of vowel sounds.
The title East of Eden by John Steinbeck is a good example.
Edgar Allan Poe also has some great assonance:
- "Hear the mellow wedding bells." – The Bells
- "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary." – The Raven
4. Consonance
More repetition, but for the consonant sounds within words. A simple example is "pitter-patter" as is "curiosity killed the cat."
5. Onomatopoeia
A word that imitates a sound. You can often just write "the door buzzed" but you can create a different experience for the reader by writing, "I heard a buzz."
More examples of words:
- Buzz
- Boom
- Plink
- Clank
- Bang
Do you need to use all of these perfectly in your writing? No. But understanding these literary elements can make a huge difference when it comes to bettering your writing.
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