Happy Friday!
I hope you have time to stop by the Rhyming Party tonight at 8:00 CST in our Facebook group! We will be there having fun with trivia about this week’s blog posts
while typing ONLY in rhyme!
I had the good fortune of meeting today’s guest blogger at the LA SCBWI Conference last summer. It is such a thrill to meet our Facebook author friends because we have so much in common and it feels like we’ve known each other for years. He has been a busy guy because he has 3 picture books coming out this year!
Today he will share examples of 5 poetic techniques that will spice up your writing. And…he wrote these in rhyme! We have such talented guest bloggers!
These tips will improve your rhyme and prose!
I’m pleased to introduce
Author Henry Herz
Author Henry Herz
Spice Up Your Rhyme With Poetic Techniques!
By Henry Herz
It’s a labor of love to write a compelling story in rhyme. But authors seeking even greater challenge can leverage poetic techniques to spice up their writing and demonstrate mastery of their craft. Let’s take a look at five such devices to up your rhyming game. My meter isn’t perfect, but you’ll get the idea. Letters that demonstrate the technique are capitalized.
Assonance is technique number one.
ThOse who use it have bOatlOads of fun.
REpEating vowels (or dipthongs) Is how It Is done.
RObert FrOst’s Snowy Evening used this a ton.
“He gIves hIs harnEss bElls a shake
To ask If there Is some mistake.
The onlY other sound’s the swEEp
Of easY wind and downY flake.
The woods are lovelY, dar and dEEp.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to gO befOre I sleep.”
Consonance offers technique number two,
A helpful approach you shouldn’t eschew.
By using Consonants in Close suCcession,
Shel’s The Acrobats makes a strong impression.
I’LL swing by my ankles.
She’LL cling to your knees.
As you Hang by your nose,
From a High-up traPeZe.
But just one THing, Please,
As we float THrough the breeZe,
Don’t sneeZe.
Alliteration is technique number three.
You’ll use it without trouble, I can foresee.
It’s consonance on syllable number one.
Mother Goose below shows how rhymes can be spun.
“Betty Botter Bought some Butter.
But, she said, the Butter’s Bitter.
If I put it in my Batter it will make my Batter Bitter,
But a Bit of Better Butter will make my Batter Better.”
Repetition is technique number four.
Write words twice; more if you’re hardcore.
It’s very straightforward; you simply repeat,
This adds some emphasis in one easy feat.
“Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush,
So early in the morning.”
Onomatopoeia is technique five.
It’s the buzz of bees surrounding their hive.
It is words that seem to spell out a sound,
Like a cow’s moo, or the bark of a hound.
“It went zip when it moved and bop when it stopped,
And whirr when it stood still.
I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never will.”
Now, get your assonance in gear, and write some spicy rhyme!
Bio:
Henry Herz writes fantasy and science fiction for children. He has five picture books published or under contract: Monster Goose Nursery Rhymes (Pelican, 2015), When You Give an Imp a Penny (Pelican, 2016), Little Red Cuttlefish (Pelican, 2016), Mabel and the Queen of Dreams (Schiffer, 2016), and Dinosaur Pirates (Sterling, 2017).
Henry and his sons have also indie-published four children’s books, including Nimpentoad (early chapter book), which reached #1 in Kindle Best Sellers large print sci-fi & fantasy, and was featured in Young Entrepreneur, Wired GeekDad, and CNN; and Beyond the Pale (young adult anthology), with short stories by award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Saladin Ahmed, Peter S. Beagle, Heather Brewer, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Kami Garcia, Nancy Holder & Jane Yolen.
Henry is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), and the Society of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. He writes articles about children’s literature for TheWriteLife.com, and maintains a popular blog on KidLit, fantasy, and science fiction at www.henryherz.com. At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, he moderated a speculative fiction author panel of Brandon Sanderson, Maggie Stiefvater, Kami Garcia, Heather (Zac) Brewer, and Jonathan Maberry. At the 2016 WonderCon, he moderated a KidLit author panel of Dan Santat, Jon Klassen, Laura Numeroff, Bruce Hale and Antoinette Portis. Henry created KidLit Creature Week (www.birchtreepub.com/kcw), an annual online gallery of monsters, creatures, and other imaginary beasts from children’s books. Henry reviews children’s books for the San Francisco Book Review and San Diego Book Review.
MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES
WHEN YOU GIVE AN IMP A PENNY
Twitter: @Nimpentoad
Thank You Henry!
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