Rhetorical devices: Playing with words to be more convincing

Something amazing and surprising happened this summer. My nephew became interested in reading and wanted to read my Gator McBumpypants picture books with me. He then planned out the next ten years of my life with new characters I need to make and write about. I still have the pictures I took in New Orleans and an idea for the story about what “home” really means, but I didn’t make it a priority because I’ve had trouble selling my books.

This last weekend, I was invited to have lunch with my father’s high school reunion group get together. And somehow, in answering questions about myself and talking about my photography and writing, my lunch turned into a Gator McBumpypants book signing, and I sold twelve books!!

It felt so good. I don’t know why this is the summer of Gator McBumpypants after trying for so long, but now that I have some momentum, I want it to continue.

I bring this up because this morning I watched a very interesting TED talk called “The four-letter code to selling anything” with Derek Thompson and I found what he had to say very interesting for all creatives and innovators. What people really want isn’t something completely new; they want something familiar. In other words there’s a fine line of acceptance between the new and the familiar, and the trick is to take the new idea and make it familiar enough.

I’ve always been interested in creating things that are completely new. I hate when people tell me (especially as a singer/songwriter) that it has all been done before. But now I think I get it (sort of). People need the new to be comfortable enough, in the familiar, to relate to it.

dVerse Poets Pub

Björn’s prompt for Meet The Bar (MTB) inspired this post. He’s studying rhetorical devices and challenges us to use rhetorical devices to convince in a poem. I decided to combine what I learned this morning with some rhetorical devices to change doubt to certainty about buying my books.

The Brand New Book Like the Ones You Remember

Come take a look, a little look at these books
for your little ones they’re so much fun
You may wonder, even doubt
and say, what is this about?
Because the pictures in these picture books
are photographs, and it’s a fact
that you’re used to seeing illustrations
when it comes to reading children’s fiction
and photographs were just for facts

But watch your grand-kid’s eyes light up
like sparkles on the pretty waves
and the smiles that grow into happy laughs
as they read and read then turn the page

Wasn’t Winnie the Pooh about stuffed animals too?
And these days there’s so much more that photography can do
Don’t you remember those pictures of Teddy bears?
It’s the same but an alligator, and like the bear he doesn’t scare

He is happy, makes friends, and goes on adventures
Adventures of stuffed animals at play
At play the same way that children play
made more real by the photographs
of stuffed secret lives on display