Story-Telling Devices

       The following special devices are chosen from some of our most practical authorities:

       Edward P. St. John says: "One of the most important of these literary devices is the use of direct rather than indirect discourse. Through its use a certain vivacity of style is gained, and it adds movement and life-likeness to the tale. There is no easier way to give the semblance of reality to an imaginary tale than by letting the characters speak for themselves. The personality of the narrator is less intrusive, and the effect upon the hearer is that of looking on at a scene in real life."

       Miss Bryant says: "Explanations and moralizing are mostly sheer clutter. Some few stories necessarily include a little explanation, and stories of the fable order may quaintly end with an obvious moral. But here again the rule is great discretion."

       Again St. John says: " 'Take your time.' This suggestion needs explaining, perhaps. It does not mean license to dawdle. Nothing is much more annoying in a speaker than too great deliberateness, or than hesitation of speech. But it means a quiet realization of the fact that the floor is yours, everybody wants to hear you, there is time enough for every point and shade of meaning, and no one will think the story too long. This mental attitude must underlie proper control of speed. Never hurry. A business-like leisure is the true attitude of the story-teller." 

       The most important device, no doubt, is repetition. Says Miss Bryant: "The charm of repetition to children is a complex matter; there are undoubtedly a good many elements entering into it, hard to trace in analysis. But one or two of the more obvious may be seized and brought to view. The first is the subtle flattery of an unexpected sense of mastery. When the child-mind, following with toilful alertness a new train of thought, comes suddenly on a familiar epithet or expression, I fancy it is with much the same sense of satisfaction that we older people feel when in the midst of a long program of new music the orchestra strikes into something we have heard before."

       And St. John adds: "A very helpful device is the rhythmic repetition of certain significant words or phrases from time to time through the progress of the tale. In the fairy- and folk-tales, this frequently appears, as in case of the 'hoppity-kick. hoppity-kick' of the little half-chick, the 'trip-trop, trip-trop' of the three goats crossing the bridge, and the various remarks of the big bear, the middle-sized bear, and the little wee bear. In such cases, the story gains an added quaintness of form which has value in itself. The little child, puzzled by much that is unfamiliar, remembers the rhythmic phrase and welcomes it as we greet an old friend in a strange city." 

• 5 Basic Literary Devices That Will Deepen Your Fiction
• Margaret Atwood on the Evolution of Storytelling and "Transmission Devices"