When I started to learn about novel writing through classes, podcasts, and videos – occasionally I would hear a term used where I was unsure of its meaning. Most of the time the speakers used it so casually, so matter of factly, that I thought I might be the only person in the world who was confused about its proper meaning.

So I started to make a list and look up these words and their definitions. Each word had a meaning which was simply stated in one or two sentences. But then, I found whole essays written about what a word meant in the literary world. It appears that some of these words are not as simple in use, as their definitions might imply.

I’ve always thought that anyone could use a complex word to succinctly represent something. But it took a highly intelligent person to describe that word, that term, in simple English. So below, I will share a few of the words that I came across which were strangers to me not all that long ago, which now are slowly becoming favourites of mine. Many of these may be old hat to you, yet nevertheless you’ll have to admit that they are good terms for writers to keep in mind as we transfer thoughts and ideas into our written stories.

TROPE:
A significant or recurrent theme familiar to the reader. A ‘foreign’ taxi driver or a ‘criminal’ wearing a leather jacket, with tattoos, and smoking a cigarette, are both tropes. Clichés are old, unwanted, and overused tropes (It’s raining cats and dogs outside). Tropes are necessary for stories to be efficient, to move along and make sense quickly.

APOSTROPHE:
Is a character talking to an absent person or thing. ‘Mom, I wish you were still here,’ he said aloud to his dead mother.

FORESHAWDOW:
When an author hints or gives a clue as to what might happen later in a story.

TONE:
The presence of the author’s attitude in their own work. Could be formal, serious, pompous, sarcastic, etc.

MOOD:
The feeling that the story itself evokes in the reader.

FREE INDIRECT SPEECH:
Where a third person narrator writes, John says (or thinks) to himself, ‘Man, I’m in a heap of trouble now.’

ALLUSION:
A reference to someone or something commonly known from literature, history, or other areas of culture.

DRAMATIC IRONY:
When the readers know what the characters do not know.

PLOT DRIVEN STORY:
Focussed on external conflict in complex stories. The plot drives the character’s actions. The reader’s interest is focussed on how the plot will end.

CHARACTER DRIVEN STORY:
Focussed on internal conflict and character development within a main character. The reader’s interest is aimed at what will happen to the characters.

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR:
Is a narrator who does not tell the truth. They are almost always first person narrators. Sometimes this unreliability is made apparent immediately, sometimes we are given clues later on in the story, and occasionally the story ends with a twist revealing the narrator’s unreliability.

NARRATIVE DISTANCE:
Physical and psychological distance between the narrator and the characters. Describing a character from afar, or as if you are in the same room with them. Talking about a character like a news reporter versus a mother who cares for them deeply.

IMAGERY:
The use of language appealing to one or more of the five senses. Helps to bring a scene into the readers imagination.

SIMILE:
A direct comparison between two things using the words, like or as. The man was like a lion.

METAPHOR:
A comparison identifying one thing as another thing. The man is a lion.