Every writer has a tool box of tricks, tips, and fixes to make prose or poetry read well and engage the audience. To become a better writer, learning about figurative language can add a whole new level to writing fiction, nonfiction, and poems. There are so many literary devices to choose from, that one good way to learn them is by mastering groups of concepts that are similar in their uses. The four poetic devices, alliteration, sibilance, assonance, and consonance, are all based on consonant and vowel sounds.
Alliteration and Sibilance
Alliteration is the repetition of sounds in words, usually the first letter or two letters. Alliteration sounds pleasing when read aloud, hence the reason it's found often in poetry. It's also used quite heavily in children's books, especially those for early readers learning to identify the sounds of letters. “Ray rode a rocket” is an alliterative phrase.
Sibilance is a special form of alliteration using the softer consonants that create hissing sounds, or sibilant sounds. These consonants and digraphs include s, sh, th, ch, z, f, x, and soft c. Sing a Song of Sixpence is a song title that is a good example of sibilance.
Alliteration Examples
Alliteration is found in poetry, songs, novels, and advertising copy. It gives a punchy rhythm to phrases that make them easy to remember.
- Pitter patter. (This uses alliteration and consonance.)
- Tick tock.
- Don't do drugs.
- Don't drink and drive.
- Wendy was wild and wonderful.
Assonance and Consonance
Assonance is similar to alliteration in that it consists of repeating sounds. However, whereas alliteration is the repeating sound of at the beginning of words, assonance is the repeating sound of vowels, usually within the words. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, by Bernard Waber uses rhyming and assonance in poem throughout the story. The title is an example of assonance using the long i vowel sound. Since it is only the repetition of the vowel sound, assonance doesn't have to rhyme.
Consonance is also repetition of sounds, this time of consonants in the middle of a word. Barbara Parks uses consonance with the k sound in the title of her book, Junie B. Jones and the Yucky, Blucky Fruitcake. The title character's name, Junie B. Jones, is an example of alliteration.
Assonance Examples
- Read 'em and weep.
- Light my fire.
- Bake me a cake.
- No, Joe, don't go.
- Sit still until winter sets in.
- Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom. (This example uses consonance with ck, assonance with oo and i, sibilance with ch, and alliteration with b.)
How to Use Figurative Language in Fiction Writing
Figurative language isn't just for poets. It can be used to increase tension and readability in any writing, whether it's a novel, a short story, advertising campaign, or creative nonfiction.
In fiction writing, using these literary devices can make a character stand out with a personal slogan. An emergency doctor in CJ Lyons' Warning Signs says, “Treat 'em and street 'em.” It can make a description memorable, such as a dark and deadly dungeon. It can create a mood. The owl wooed the moon with it's lonely hooting. This assonant phrase gives a somber mood to a setting.
Quick tips to remember these four poetic devices:
- Alliteration is repeating sounds at the beginnings of words.
- Sibilance is alliteration with a soft consonant that creates a hissing (sibilant) sound, such as s, sh, z, th, f, and soft c.
- Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant sound in the middle of a word.
- Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds.
One way to improve fiction writing is to do the following exercise. Open one scene in a work in progress. Try to find at least two places to use a literary device from this article, or some of the ones from other articles, such as metaphor and simile, anaphora and anadiplosis, or in humorous writing, hyperbole. Once these literary devices are mastered, they will begin to come naturally when doing any type of writing.
Suzanne Pitner - Suzanne Pitner is a teacher and published writer. A member of RWA and YARWA, she writes fiction as Suzanne Lilly.
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