What is Irony?

Irony is not one of the easiest techniques for a writer to use even though it's regularly used in writing and conversation. The reason why it's a hard technique to use is because using irony won't be effective unless your reader is able to recognize that what you have written is irony. Therefore, you have to write irony in a way that it can easily be recognized as such.

I see you scratching your head. Let me explain further. To use irony, you need to write an expression in a way that says exactly the opposite of the thought you have in mind. For example, you have irony when a fat guy is called Skinny or a tall girl is called Shorty. I'm sure you can instantly think of some other nicknames that are the opposite of the actual description of the person.
If someone says to you: "Oh, I've got lots of time. All I have to do is finish painting the garage, car pool six kids, shop for a month's worth of groceries then weed the garden, after which I can do darn well what I please"; that's irony - in more ways than one.

For instance, lets say one of your characters gets involved with a rich man who has extremely bad teeth. Later on in the story she talks about him to her friends saying, "Randy grinned that wonderful grin . . ." That's irony. Used correctly, irony can be more effective than a straight statement. However, you have to do so with care so that it won't be missed by your reader. Irony is worth some quality time and study.

I might point out that Irony is much like sarcasm. My writing teacher told me that sarcasm can be defined as a sneering, cutting remark, an act of making fun of someone to hurt his/her feelings. It has also been called harsh or bitter irony. To keep your irony from becoming sarcasm, make certain it isn't harsh or bitter, that it isn't sneering or cutting to the person you are directly speaking to. If you wan't to write sarcasm instead of irony then you would do one or all of the above mentioned. Feel free to add your comments for future discussions.

FWA Local Meetings. Oxford Writers will not meet in October due to the FWA writers conference, but Lady Lake Writers will still have a morning meeting on October 22nd, 10:00 a.m. at the Lady Lake Public Library. This will be a critique session only. If anyone is interested in carpooling to the conference please email me at cocowriter@yahoo.com We have one male from the LL writers group who would like to carpool with someone.

This week's writer quote: "A kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go". Ralph Waldo Emerson