70 ESSENTIAL Literary Devices to Aid Your Screenwriting

Are you trying to write your first screenplay but don’t know how to give your screenplay flair? Or perhaps, you’re a budding screenwriter looking for some new techniques to elevate your work. In this article, we’re going to break down techniques that help stitch together but also elevate your screenplay: literary devices.

What is a Literary Device?

Literary devices are the techniques that writers use to add meaning and depth to their work. Without them, stories would be far less coherent, compelling and engaging.

Take this iconic line from Forrest Gump …

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” 

Here the film’s writer, Eric Roth, has deployed a simile. A simile uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ to compare two things that are not similar. Roth uses this literary device to compare the fact that life is full of surprises to opening a box of chocolates and not knowing which flavour you’ll get. 

If we removed the simile from this line it would likely read …

“Life is unpredictable”. 

Had Forrest Gump said this instead, do you think it would have become so iconic? The short answer is no. 

But literary devices are about much more than making your work ‘memeable’. Writers also use literary devices to give their work a level of opacity, or a scope for interpretation. Broadly speaking, literary devices establish connections.

The ambiguity of these connections also allows viewers to engage with a screenplay in their own way. Arguably, no one human being sees the world exactly the same; we all have our own specific take on it. Thus, for large audiences to connect individually with your work you must provide them with the space to find their own meaning.

Literary devices are therefore essential for allowing your work to have an emotive impact on as many people as possible. They’re a common language.