Creative writing - Mike Sanders 2014
Giving life with personification
Energetic figures of speech
Speech, voice, and point of view
Be careful what you say around here. The walls have ears.
Personification is the act of assigning human qualities to something that isn’t human or, in some cases, to something that isn’t even alive. Personification can be used as a method of describing something so others can understand or to emphasize a point. In fact, it’s such a commonly favored literary tool, you might find yourself using it without even realizing it.
DEFINITION
Personification is a figure of speech in which human characteristics are attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object.
Personification shares much with metonymy and synecdoche insofar as it provides another way you can make a comparison and give deeper meaning to a concept. It’s an effective writing tool because readers intuitively understand human traits and qualities and, therefore, can easily grasp the concept you’re conveying. Because it relies on universal meanings and understanding, you can find personification in jingles, advertising, and cartoons, as well as in poetry and prose.
Here are some lively examples of personification to get your own creative juices flowing and perhaps elicit a chuckle or two:
The clock seemed to laugh at me.
My razor bit me today while I was shaving.
The peaceful and fun-loving village on the coast was swallowed by an angry tsunami.
The bed groaned in pain and protest beneath the immense weight of my extravagantly obese houseguest.
Writing is a jealous mistress.
My life came screeching to a halt.
When I saw those cowboy boots in the store they screamed, “Buy us!”
Assigning human qualities to nonhuman objects changes the way readers think and feel about them and provides them with emotions, personalities, and occasionally a certain measure of charm.
As with the other figures of speech, excessive use blunts the effect of personification. Yet sprinkled throughout your narrative, it gives your writing energy.