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Writer's Toolbox 1719 Views
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Description:
Did you know that you, as a writer, get your own toolbox? That's right! It doesn’t even matter how badly you fouled up that sliding bookshelf you tried to make last year in wood shop!
Transcript
- 00:07
Writer's Toolbox, a la Shmoop.
- 00:11
It is said that once there was a young man with writer's block...
- 00:16
...who would lose his home unless he could come up with a book of strange and wonderful stories.
- 00:23
So the writer headed out in search of tools to make his tales more interesting.
- 00:31
He met a storyteller who knew all the tricks of the trade,
Full Transcript
- 00:36
and she promised to fill his cart with tools called literary devices...
- 00:42
Hi, I'm Scheherazade! I know how to make stories interesting, because
- 00:47
I write tales to get all the town's landlords off people's backs!
- 00:52
Sheesh, have these guys never heard of cold, hard cash?
- 00:56
A symbol is a small thing used to represent a big thing, or a concrete thing used to represent
- 01:02
an abstract thing. Symbols are loaded with meaning. Hide 'em in your writing like you're
- 01:09
setting up an Easter egg hunt.
- 01:11
A window can be more than a window. It can symbolize inside versus outside,
- 01:17
freedom versus enclosure, and public versus private.
- 01:24
Speaking of inside and outside...
- 01:26
Stories need to take place somewhere, right?
- 01:28
There's a device for that... called setting.
- 01:31
We use stuff like era, geography, seasons, and living spaces to set the mood and add
- 01:38
context to stories. Then, we get to decide what our characters do in the spaces we provide
- 01:43
for them. Since we're the creators of these elaborate
- 01:47
worlds, another thing we get to do is give shout-outs to other works of literature if
- 01:51
we feel like it.
- 01:53
We can use allusion to refer to someone else's creation—and not just other works of literature.
- 01:59
Writers can also allude to stuff like TV shows, songs, and famous paintings by including ideas
- 02:06
from them, their names, or even specific lines from these other works in their own writing.
- 02:14
Of course, at some point, we have to be able to describe all the stuff we're trying to say.
- 02:19
A simile is a figure of speech that compares one thing to another using "like" or "as."
- 02:27
Ever heard the phrase tough as nails?
- 02:29
Simile alert.
- 02:32
Metaphors are like similes, but without the "like" or "as."
- 02:36
Metaphors are magical because they turn one thing into another thing.
- 02:40
Take the phrase "the golden hammer."
- 02:44
The golden hammer isn't really made of gold; it just means "the right tool for the job."
- 02:49
Similes and metaphors surprise readers...especially when they come right up behind them...
- 02:54
and offer new ways of thinking about everyday things.
- 02:58
Another way to add magic to descriptions is through sound devices.
- 03:03
The first sound device I'll show you is what fancy poets like to call perfect rhyme.
- 03:08
Paint and faint.
- 03:10
Similar-sounding words and all that. But let's take a look at a couple other
- 03:14
ways to split verse... Scheherazade Sells Several Screwdrivers.
- 03:19
That's alliteration, which is when all the words in a
- 03:23
phrase start with the same consonant sound.
- 03:26
Okay, now how do we put it all together?
- 03:29
Well, to start, we can choose our words carefully.
- 03:32
Thanks to a device called diction, the toilet can be the can... or the throne.
- 03:39
Diction is just word choice and the effect it has. It's a great device for tweaking tone
- 03:44
and saying it like ya mean it. Syntax is the way words and phrases relate
- 03:49
to one another. We use syntax to organize our sentences.
- 03:53
Syntax is like an enormous set of fridge poetry...
- 03:56
... It lets us run wild with meaning and creativity...
- 03:58
Well, within the limits of proper grammar anyway.
- 04:01
Ready for the final purchase? Irony.
- 04:04
Irony is when the actual meaning contradicts the figurative meaning.
- 04:08
Writers can use a nifty device called situational irony, which is a way of showing rather than
- 04:14
telling what happens when life seems to contradict itself.
- 04:18
Wouldn't it have been ironic...
- 04:21
if our writer had been trained to use all these devices only to find out it was too late?
- 04:29
The writer, unblocked and pleased with his purchases,
- 04:32
toiled the night away with his new tools.
- 04:35
When the morning came, the landlord was pleased with the writer's creations.
- 04:39
So, he treated him to one thousand and one more days on his lease.
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