My Favourite Writing Methods, And Why You Should Try Them Out

Ever wondered how to enhance your writing further? Here are a few tips and methods that can help you entice your audiences and grow as an author.

Circular endings/Parallelisms

This method requires you to reference an earlier action or dialogue in a story.

For instance, in Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen, lovers Maven and Mare create a parallelism in their dialogue. In an earlier chapter, Maven tells Mare “You better hide that heart of yours.” And in a much later chapter (after [SPOILER] Maven unexpectedly betrays Mare), he tells her “I told you to hide your heart once. You should have listened.”

The above example creates an oh-my-goodness moment for the reader, and highlights Maven’s sinister deception — a great way to increase engagement!

Motifs

A motif is a recurring idea in a story. It can be presented in various ways throughout one narrative.

For example, in Jane Eyre, some hypocritical, proud men are described as pillars. Through different metaphors, this idea is repeated throughout the novel to emphasise oppressive masculinity.

Motifs add literary value to your work and underscore a message that you want to convey. In the example of Jane Eyre, the pillar motif is a means of highlighting the gender conventions of the Victorian era.

Jane Eyre is rich in motifs, and so other motifs in the novel include:

Fire
Ice
Mother figures
The colour red

As this method is rather difficult to understand if you’ve never heard of it before, here is an in-depth explanation with many detailed examples.

One-line paragraphs

This is self-explanatory and I love it so much because, when done right, it creates an impact that gives me goosebumps. Aveyard’s Red Queen series excels in utilising this method, and has genuinely transformed the way I write too.

Changing POV for each chapter

I first encountered this method while reading Aveyard’s Red Queen series (can you tell how much I love the book), and it allows readers to apprehend the different perspectives of the main characters in a book.

Sometimes, a conflict in a story can get very messy. This method serves as a way to tell readers why certain characters are entitled to their own opinions and actions, creating a human understanding of these personas.

Periodic sentence

“A periodic sentence is a sentence where the main message is not clear until the last word or phrase has been read.”

An example of this would be in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “…her eyes, wide with jealous terror, were fixed not on Tom, but on Jordan Baker, whom she took to be his wife.” This creates a suspense, leaving the most important information for last and thus, placing emphasis on it.

More examples can be found here.

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I have many more favourites, but these are just the main methods I love. Now that you’ve learned about them, go ahead and give them a try on your next piece for writing! You’ll realise how much they transform your writing for the better.

And if you want a place to publish your pieces, go on StoryForge and post them! You’ll meet great people who can give you feedback and encourage you to keep on going.