Fiction Fundamentals

Since I’m on vacation, I’ve pre-posted a “rerun” of a blog series I wrote on my personal blog last year. I hope you enjoy it. I’ll be back Monday, Lord willing!

Welcome to the “Perk Up Your Prose” blog workshop (posted last year on Lines from Linda). I’d love for everyone to share their comments and/or examples for the featured tool of each post.

I met with a group of inspirational writers a few days ago, and we shared with each other a few pages from our current Works in Progress. In the few pages I read (Genre: Chick Lit), my lead character had a close encounter with an annoying cat. Her internalization during the incident read, “I resisted the urge to boot the beast.” One of the listeners later asked if I was aware that I had used several alliterations throughout the piece, and she used that phrase as an example. Yes, actually, I was aware of the usage of a few alliterations, but I was pleased that someone else had noted my efforts to perk up my prose.

What exactly is an alliteration? An alliteration is the repetition of consonants in neighboring words. And, like all prose-perking tools, alliterations are like a good seasoning–a little will spice up your writing. Too much, and your writing will become too spicy to tolerate. (Think: Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.” Some literary techniques are more mild in nature, however alliterations are powerful, like cayenne pepper, so use sparingly unless you are purposefully producing a comic effect.

Popular usages of alliterations are Character Names (Mickey Mouse); Advertising–Product Names and Promotional Buzz Words & Phrases (Coca-Cola, Baby Boom, Final Four); and Literature and Poetry (if you’ve ever read Beowulf…).

Here’s an exercise:

Write an ad slogan for a new product and use alliteration(s) for your product’s name, the tagline, or somewhere in the slogan. Share your examples through the comments section if you wish. Everyone who posts an example to the exercises during the Perk Up Your Prose workshop (most likely through the end of November) will have their name entered in a weekly drawing to receive one of my excess books on the craft of writing. Hubby says I have to give away, sell, or *gasp* burn (I’m sure he was kidding on that one) some of the books from my overstuffed shelves!