7 Best Literary Devices for Songwriting : And How to Use Them.

We use literary devices when we need a short cut or tool to create greater meaning and transfer more information faster. Any time we need to engage at a deeper level, we can use a device to stimulate the audiences' attention. And Any time we need emphasis and impact, we can use a literary device like one of these.

1. 1. Repetition.
2. 2. Metaphor.
3. 3. Rhyme and Alliteration.
4. 4. Simile.
5. 5. Imagery.
6. 6. Word painting.
7. 7. Personification.

Literary devices are simply tools which stimulate our audiences attention. They do this by connecting with our expectations such as a chorus repeating the same words. Or by making some kind of pretend world where reality is temporarily suspended. This way, ideas can be better understood or manipulated.

Literary devices propel all writing to richer, more interesting levels because they add a depth which would be too laborious to explain without them. Some are easy to grasp and others are subtle but all are powerful. Use those you can understand - come back for the others when you're ready.

1. How to Use Repetition.

Any phrase which needs to pushed harder at your audience can be repeated. It usually happens in a chorus. But you can use it anywhere, beginning of phrases, verses or lines. It can be especially useful when you're songwriting and you get stuck. Sometimes repetitions stay stuck and become legendary hooks.

To experience the power of repetition, play a simple chord sequence whilst singing the word 'love'. You'll find the emphasis changes and so to the meaning as different examples of love appear and disappear from your mind. You'll find there are dozens of different ways to say the same thing and yet it is a repetition.

So then you'll naturally think, it's not an exact repetition. And you'd be right, it is not a copy, that would become boring pretty quick, don't you think ?

Don't be afraid to repeat, it is the bedrock of all music, it's the easiest to use and mirrors the repetitive nature of life.

2. How to Use Metaphor.

"Metaphor is a monster" in the realm of literary devices. I think that illustrates it's use perfectly.

Because metaphor is obviously not a monster. But in explaining it that way, it makes you assume it is big, possibly dangerous or at least should be respected and all those assumptions are true.

Do you see how describing it as monster has explained it in half the words and far more powerfully than otherwise ? You already know what a monster is and the fact that you've used your own mind to decipher 'metaphor' gives you a deeper, long lasting understanding of it.

Metaphor is a statement of fact which is clearly not true. It is only true for the purposes of your story, here's more examples.

Dianne is a pillar in the community.
Chuck is a rock.
The UK is nation of shopkeepers.
Love is a hunter.
Money is power.
Music is the food of love.
That tree was a beacon of hope.

Metaphor should be one of the first devices you learn to use because it especially useful for explaining the meaning of a song in very few words. In song, time and words are always too mush and too many. So anything which cuts words and engages the audiences' grey matter is priceless.

For example...

Love is a hunter
Love is a thief
Love is a monster
with hideous teeth

There's another literary device in there too - Rhyme.

3. How to use Rhyme and Alliteration.

All rhymes and alliteration should be viewed as hooking tools. They are the sparkle and fluff which titivate the listeners' senses without necessarily adding anything to the message.

Both are expected in certain genres and sometimes essential.

And there's the rub - they are very genre dependant and not rhyming in a genre like rap, where it is expected could push your material into another sphere.

Conversely, if you're writing something serious and heavy, you don't want trash it with silly rhymes which serve themselves rather than the message.

With the advent of rhyming dictionaries, it's just too easy to cobble together a bunch of incoherent rhymes which amount to pile of nonsense and call it a song. And lots of people do and make fortunes on the back of it.

If that's your forte, go for it and good luck to you. You don't need me.

If you want to send a message and connect with a listener at a deeper, artistic level, you need to go very carefully with rhyme and be subtle and sparing with it. The reason being because people are wise to rhymes and can easily guess what's coming. That makes your song boring and predictable.

So use rhyme according to your audience - it has to be your choice and fit their expectation.

4. How to Use Simile.

Simile, or 'similar' is similar to metaphor. But instead of stating that 'I am putty in your hands' we'd say, 'I am LIKE putty in your hands' OR '...AS putty in your hands.

The difference is that we have not fully transferred our state of being to that of putty, we have only compared it. In short - I am still human - NOT putty.

It's a sort of half way metaphor where we need to retain our identity and not get caught up in the full illusion or become something we are not.

Simile is not as powerful but easier to understand. If we use metaphor all the time our lyrics would fast become heavy and unmanageable. For example....

The rain was stair rods
The earth was a lake
now nature is a prisoner.

Now that's Okay for certain audiences and genres, but if we use simile instead of metaphor, It's more accessible and it gives us more options because it is not as definitive.

The rain was like stair rods
The earth shivered as a lake
and nature like a prisoner - life suspended for an undetermined sentence

5. How to Use Imagery.

Imagery is basically using the five senses to draw people into our stories. This works because nearly everyone understands the five senses and can bring their own experience to them.

It was the greyest grey day I've ever known
I could hear the greyness lying in bed
My pillow stank of it
I could even taste it on my tongue
as it crept all over my skin - I shivered

We can also show emotions and attitude to paint pictures in the listeners mind.

I loathed how the greyness made me tired
how it sucked the very life out of me
made me weak - with it's pervading colourlessness
it's smug meaninglessness grip of death and malignant despondency
I never painted again, after that grey day.

OR what about jasmine

Hint of jasmine on your skin
makes me feel yellow inside
like a fresh bright sunny day
like a friendly feeling that won't go away.

Imagery, is super powerful and super easy. With a little practice, you'll find it very easy to get caught up in painting worlds with words which make great verses and situational scenarios.

6. How to Use Word Painting.

Word painting is a musician thing.

We use the music to illustrate sonically what's happening in the words. It's effect can be both good and bad and anywhere in between. You'll do it automatically at times by changing key, altering loudness or speed for some passages of you song.

But there are many ways to use music and instruments to signpost listeners in a particular direction. The most obvious examples are the use of major or minor keys, a ripple of suspense in a movie, or a tinkling piano which is supposed to create the illusion of a waterfall.

The latter example often appears in classical music, in the classical period, composers were forever trying to recreate the sounds of nature. Sometimes their efforts sound cheesy and unprofessional to our ears. But there were no synths and sound effects then, so you have to cut em a little slack.

The upshot of this though, is that nowadays, films are littered with directional cues and clues in the music which instantly tells you if someone is good or evil and if something bad is about to happen. Personally, I find it completely ruins the film because it tells me what to think and disengages my brain.

In your songs, at the song writing stage, your word painting might be limited as you'll most likely only have one instrument. But that doesn't stop you using music as it's meant to be used - that is to re-enforce what's stated in the lyrics.

And by that, I specifically mean attitude.

If you state 'I love you' in a needy kind of way, you will probably want a minor chord under it and it will be played soft as opposed to loud, and your melody might fall away flat-wards, as if you will wither away yourself without some response. Also, the rhythm will be predictable and the tempo may slow. You may include a few grace notes in the accompaniment which echo the melody.

On the other hand if state 'I love you' in a more assertive, or aggressive way. Then you will go for major chords. Your phrase might move sharp-wards to a heightened place. It might be abrupt, with gaps. You would play and sing loudly with a sharp attack, as if you damn well mean it. And your whole passage might be unpredictable so as to emphasise the splendour and sudden arrival of this love.

Word painting is a bit of an art in itself, for example. How do make a sound like the sky or a flower or indeed a sound to represent love ? It makes you think outside your instrument and use it in more creative way. It is one of the most fascinating, vague and at the same time powerful aspects of music. It can mean - literally anything or nothing.

As you become a better musician, you will find yourself painting the emotions of your song with such clarity - in some passages, the words will become secondary. If you are English and listen to Edward Elgar, you'll understand what I mean. He captured so well the essence of English countryside without a single word.

7. Personification.

Anything which isn't person in a song risks becoming a dull dead duck with very little going for it. People don't naturally warm to bricks, leaves and bodkins unless you use personification.

This means simply giving your subject a personality. And this is done by pretending it has emotions , problems hopes and dreams and you guessed - attitude.

A ball with mind of it's own came bouncing into my life
A brick with a dream of building a home
He was a leaf unlike all the other huslters - he wanted more than just to rustle.
Bob the bodkin was not as sharp as the other bodkins in the box

The sky cried tears of joy
Derek was a dog who dreamt of digging morning noon and night
My car hates early mornings
The forest is full of frightful frogs which eat little girls and boys for breakfast

Personification sucks listeners into your stories like nothing else. It links them emotionally with objects and characters and makes them care about what happens. If they care, then they're hooked.

A Brief Summary

Literary deivices save time because they connect with pre-existing knowledge in the mind of the audience.

The audience connection also becomes more robust because they become emotionally invested.

Literary devices are essential tools for hooking your audiences' attention.