A great literary technique to add to your work to make it more appealing is to use something that is familiar. It may be familiar to the child or the adult purchasing the book. Either way, it is a great choice because familiarity adds nostalgia and this appeals to everyone. It can also be a teaching device for a child to learn something from the past. When I was young, my piano teacher used to always refer to Looney Tunes cartoons to help me recognize classical music such as Mozart or Beethoven. These cartoons used this music to not only introduce children to it but to also conjure the familiar because this is something people enjoy. Another benefit to using something familiar is to add emotion to your writing. If you reference a love story that people know, such as King Arthur and Guinevere, then that creates an emotion that people connect to instantly. I referenced King Arthur and Guinevere in my new novel, The Last Elf Daughter, not only to add emotion to the scene, but to also create nostalgia, in the hopes of hooking readers early in the book. Here is an excerpt from this novel, the speaker at first being Rose, the main character’s mother: “Of course, there were some elves that would fall in love with humans, but it was forbidden. That is, until the marriage of King Arthur to Guinevere, an elf.” “What!?” Evie interjected. “King Arthur is a real story? And Guinevere was an elf?” “”Yes and yes,” her mother replied. “King Arthur was a real king and Guinevere was an elf. Merlin was an elf too. He was the most magical elf that ever lived. That is how King Arthur met Merlin. The elves introduced them. But that is another story, back to King Arthur and Guinevere. They randomly met one day and there was an instant attraction between them. It did not take too long and they fell in love.” So, in that little excerpt, we can see that the familiar story is used to add nostalgia and emotion. I also used the familiar to put a new spin on the idea of being an elf, which on its own, an elf is also something familiar to readers, as characters in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. My hope is that the familiarity of King Arthur, Guinevere, and elves will draw in new readers for me. This leads to my next point. By referencing the familiar, you can also gain new readers if you’re a new author or if readers just aren’t familiar with you but are familiar with and fans of the subject you refer to. You can do this by using a specific familiar character, such as Cinderella, and putting a new twist on her story, like many books and movies have done. Or it can be a familiar story or message, like anything by Shakespeare. I also like using familiarity because it helps someone understand what you are trying to explain faster. Like in this blog post, I have referenced examples I thought you all would be familiar with to expedite your understanding of what I was trying to explain. So, use it to help explain a subject too. Familiarity is an excellent way to connect with readers, especially if you are a new author and you need to gain fans without them knowing you, but they know the character or subject and are already fans of it.