If you’re watching a movie about the Titanic and a character leaning on the balcony right before the ship hits the iceberg says, “It’s so beautiful I could just die,” that’s an example of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that the characters don’t.

1. Create a conflict crucial to your characters.
2. Create engaging characters with opposing goals.
3. Keep raising the stakes.
4. Allow tension to ebb and flow.
5. Keep making the reader ask questions.
6. Create internal and external conflict.
7. Create secondary sources of tension.
8. Make the story unfold in a shorter space of time.

Dramatic irony, a literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.

For example, two friends coming to a party in the same dress is a coincidence. But two friends coming to the party in the same dress after promising not to wear that dress would be situational irony — you’d expect them to come in other clothes, but they did the opposite.

Verbal irony occurs when a speaker’s intention is the opposite of what he or she is saying. For example, a character stepping out into a hurricane and saying, “What nice weather we’re having!” Situational irony occurs when the actual result of a situation is totally different from what you’d expect the result to be.

Verbal irony occurs when the literal meaning of what someone says is different from—and often opposite to—what they actually mean. When there’s a hurricane raging outside and someone remarks “what lovely weather we’re having,” this is an example of verbal irony.

In delicious irony, there appears to be no word that expresses the exact opposite meaning for a word that means “a condition, event or language to signify the opposite of what is expressed”. The opposite reading of irony is ynori.

Furthermore, situational irony occurs when there is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. Authors use this device to create a more relatable situation or character within literature. It can also be used to change the tone or mood of a written work.

Sarcasm is a literary device that uses irony to mock someone or something or convey contempt. Sarcasm can also be defined as the use of words that mean the opposite of what the speaker or writer intends, especially to insult or show irritation with someone, or to amuse others.

See if the statement made by the character conflicts with the setting intentionally or unintentionally.

1. If the character is using a mocking tone, this is verbal irony and indicates sarcasm.
2. If the character states this seriously without an ironic or sarcastic intent, then this is situational irony.

Most people are familiar with a “plot twist” in a story; this is typically when the author employs situational irony. This type of irony differs from dramatic irony in that both the audience and the characters are not aware of the truth that is revealed in the plot.

Irony ‘“ refers to real or literary situations or conversations where the evident meaning of a statement or action is incongruous with its intended meaning. Paradox ‘“ refers to a statement that defies intuition as it leads to seemingly irreconcilable contradictions.