“And stepping softly with her air of blooded ruin about the glade in a frail agony of grace she trailed her rags through dust and ashes, circling the dead fire, the charred billets and chalk bones, the little calcined ribcage.”  (Cormac McCarthy, Outer Dark)

There is nothing that I find more riveting in writing than the exquisite use of literary sound devices.   Just reading lines that utilize such devices sucks me into the author’s world, and I cannot help but to be entranced by their spell.  Yet, there is a stigma on these sound devices.  They seemed to be reserved for poetry.

I don’t like that.

I want to break out of that box.

Why can we not incorporate alliteration, assonance, and the myriad of other literary sound devices into different forms of writing, like short stories or novels?  I am not saying go overkill on the use of these devices, but to sporadically sprinkle them within the confines of your story.  Make them a rare gem that makes the audience shiver when they read it.

I find the use of literary sound devices to be a hook, something that makes words memorable.  The use of such devices embeds in our reader’s brain, and it is hard for them to tear out your words.  Your story will be that song that keeps playing over and over in a reader’s head, and they just cannot shake free from it.

Let us start a revolution!

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