Apply+Greek+Speak

Apply these Greek structures to your writing:


 * Chiasmus (ki AZ mus)** is sentence inversion. For example: //The runaway colt galloped across the field into the woods//. INVERTED: //Across the field into the woods galloped the runaway colt.// If you think of it like a scene in a movie, the inversion causes you to focus the camera on the last image in the sentence, giving it more importance.


 * Zeugma (ZOOG muh)** blend contrasting images in a parallel structure to achieve this effect (not always, but often at the end of a sentence). Take a look at an example from Jean Shepard's novel //Christmas Story//:

I imagined innumerable situations calling for the instant and irrevocable need for a BB gun, great fantasies where I fended off creeping marauders burring through the snow toward the kitchen, where only I and I alone stood between **our tiny huddle family and insensate Evil.** (2003)

Another example of using contrasting ideas, the antithesis structure uses identical sentence structure, almost like a mirror: "If you **loved** the book, you'll **hate** the movie."
 * Antithesis (an TITH e sis)**

End the sentence with the same word or phrase that starts it. It creates an "hourglass" feel. "**Next time** there won't be a **next time**." (from //The Sopranos)//
 * Epanalepsis (e pa na LEP sis)**

Can add a bit of humor by exaggerating an image to emphasize a point. Example: "If you can block a coke machine, you can block Kelcher." (John Madden)
 * Hyperbole (hi PER bowl ee)**