Smiley Face Tricks

To improve your writing and develop

your VOICE

MAGIC THREE 3 parallel groups of words, usually

separated by commas, that create poetic rhythm or add support.“In the woods, I would spend hours listening to

the wind rustle the leaves, watching the birds soar, and smelling the sweet fragrance of the forest.”

FIGURATIVE & DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE

Similes, metaphors, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification, symbolism, irony, alliteration,

assonance, sensory details, imagery… “In the moonlightYour face it glows

Like a thousand diamonds…”

~Broken by Secondhand Serenade

REPETITION FOR EFFECT Repeat a symbol, sentence starter,

important word to stress its importance.

“And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.”

~Robert Frost, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

HYPHENATED MODIFIERS

Groups of words that are hyphenated because the string of words functions as one adjective.“She gave me that get-out-of-my-way-or-there's-gonna-be-trouble kind of glare that had me running in the other direction."

FULL-CIRCLE ENDING

Repeat a phrase (from the first paragraph) at the very end to create a full-circle ending.

“Math class — it’s like a foreign language, a mystery, a puzzle. First day—my luck—we do fractions. Invert and multiply, I’ve got it memorized, but when do I do it? The teacher talks in numbers, not words, and when she uses words, there’s always a catch—something about trains or planes leaving cities at the same time and how fast were they going. She calls them “story” problems. What kind of story is that—the boring kind? Math class— it’s like a foreign language.”