Three Allegory Writing Tips

Sophie Novak reports:

"[Allegory] is a literary genre concerned about principals and ideas represented abstractly. So how do you go about it?...An allegory is a symbol of your idea. What this means in practice is that your story is just a cover-up for the theme you’re representing[,] a surface story for the primary one. This gives you huge freedom in how you decide to represent your topic. It can be fantastical or very down-to-earth, eccentric or with everyday characters – completely your choice. You can set your story in New York, implying the life in any metropolitan city around the world...Each character in an allegory serves to represent an underlying element to your theme[,] an archetype if you will. This means that you need to have a reason for introducing a character or a figure, since the reader is expected to interpret the whole story and find what it means. The same holds for the whole action that happens in the story. It should indicate something, not just push the story forward...[Y]ou’ll be expected to leave clues in your story for easier grasping. Some use irony; others metaphors and various references. They can be subtle clues; no need to explain yourself, just make sure they’re there to be found. The distinctive characteristic about allegories is that they have a universal application; a collective human issue represented through a unique story. Very literary, indeed."