Writer's Notebook (tips and guides)

Literary Elements List: 20 Powerful Devices to Engage Readers

As you write, it's helpful to have a literary elements list to maximize the power of your words.

Literary elements might sound like a scary technical term, but many people are surprised to learn how common these devices are found in everyday life.

If you've read a book or two, or even listened carefully to some song lyrics, it's highly likely that you've encountered several literary elements without realizing it.

Literary Elements List

Are you an aspiring author or writer? Then literary elements are your friend!

To improve your writing and make it more powerful, you'll need to become closely acquainted with the different literary devices no matter what genre you are writing, so you can feel comfortable using these techniques in your stories.

Related: Writing Prompts By Genre
In this tips, we'll discuss all you need to know about each device in our literary elements list.

Here are the main literary elements to use:
Allusion
Alliteration
Anaphora
Diction
Euphemism
Epistrophe
Flashbacks
Foreshadowing
Hyperbole
Imagery
Juxtaposition
Motif
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Paradox
Symbolism
Tone

What are literary elements?

Literary elements, also known as literary devices, are writing techniques used to create artistic special effects, that immerse the reader into a narrative, story, or text. Literary elements are specific ways that storytellers use words in specific patterns to tell their stories. They are considered the main tools in a writer's toolbox. Popular literary devices include allusion, diction, foreshadowing, imagery, metaphors, similes, and personification, which we'll cover more in our list of literary elements.

Think of literary devices as the spice to writing. To prevent your book or story from tasting dull and bland to the reader, make it pop with life by sprinkling in some effective literary elements throughout.

By the way, that sentence was an example of a literary device – a metaphor, to be exact!

• What are examples of literary devices?

Some common examples of literary devices that most people are familiar with are metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, and symbolism. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more literary elements to consider, with more advanced or less-known devices such as aphorism, archetype, red herring, mood, and more.
The more literary elements that writers have to use in their arsenal, the more powerful your writing will be.

This will also prevent you from overusing the same literary devices in your writing. While it's natural that as you practice and develop your writing skills, you'll likely stick to a handful of literary devices that become part of your style, variety is always beneficial, especially for strengthening your writing craft.

Why use literary elements?

It's important to use literary devices in your storytelling to improve your narrating technique. As you become a strong writer and work to continuously improve your writing development, the use of literary elements and other techniques will make you a prolific writer and storyteller.
Maybe you have a love-hate relationship with writing. Maybe you're of the mind that the more simplistic writing is, the better it is. Maybe you just don't want to overcomplicate things. We get it!

But if you take a look at most successful writers, both modern authors and classic authors, you'll find that remarkable writers use literary elements in their work.
Here are the main reasons to use literary devices in your writing: