Special FXs in Creative Writing: Personification, Onomatopoeia, Alliteration

Most of our favourite films and videos have Special FX

eg Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Matrix.

Did you know that there are Special FX you can use in your writing??

1.  Visual Special FX

A special way of helping a reader to imagine an unfamiliar scene, or to see a familiar scene through your eyes, is to use comparisons

(a) A simile

a comparison of two things usually using "like" or "as".

eg He ate the chocolate like a pig eating scraps.

(b) Metaphor

a comparison of two things where one is said to be the other.

eg He made a pig of himself with the chocolate.

Another powerful visual special effect is:

(c) Personification 

the giving of human qualities to nonhuman things.

eg The sun was angry.

Revision exercises

Exercise 1

Complete these sentences with examples of personification to make them interesting for readers. 

1. The waves were calm 
2. Clouds are gray
3. The train is being personified
4. Fear is a nightmare
5. The bulldozer is a beast
6. Bells are ringing

2.  Sound Special FX

(a) Onomatopoeia 

words which sound like what they mean.

eg He slurped his tea from the saucer.

(b) Alliteration

the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of different words close together.

eg Bonzo builds bouncing babies.

Compare these two paragraphs:

Paragraph 1: The hunter fired, and the three deer bolted into the bush. He cursed, and ran after them.

Paragraph 2: Crack! The sound of the rifle echoed through the valley. At once the three deer bolted for the bush. "Blast," muttered the hunter, and crashed off through the trees after them.

• Both of these paragraphs are telling the same story. 
• The difference between the two is that the second one gets greater impact by using simple sound effects eg the use of such sound words (crack, muttered, crashed) is an easy way to add life and zip to your writing.

Revision exercises

Exercise 2

Come up with a sound affect word for each of these

eg a racquet hitting a tennis ball = pock

1 an arrow hitting a target = plonk

2 cold water hitting a hot piece of metal = sizzle

3 a startled noise made by a bird = chirp

4 the sound made by an unhappy puppy = whimpering

5 a piece of paper being screwed up = scrunch

6 a juicy, ripe tomato hitting the floor after being dropped = plop

7 big waves hitting rocks = swoosh

8 tyres on a wet road = screech

Exercise 3

Sports reports often use alliteration in their headlines for impact. 

Write four sports headlines for a newspaper. Use alliteration to give an impact.

Sport	Headline
Rugby	The Tired player Tackled and Tripped
Hockey	Intramural hockey is a Strenuous, Simulating, Satisfying sport.
Soccer	The Stupendous Skilled Soccer player scored a Spectacular goal.
Golf	The Golf Game was Going quite badly.