What is a Noun?
A person, place, thing, or idea.
The Building Blocks of Writing: All About Nouns
Nouns are one of the most important parts of speech for creative writers, as they provide the building blocks for their stories and poems. A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea, and it can be both concrete and abstract. Concrete nouns are physical objects that you can touch, such as a book, a tree, or a person. Abstract nouns, on the other hand, are intangible concepts that you can’t touch, such as love, justice, or liberty. By using a variety of nouns in your writing, you can create vivid descriptions that bring your readers into your world.
Here are two examples of classic literature that use the power of nouns to create memorable passages and characters.
'I hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.'
In this iconic quote from The Great Gatsby, the noun 'fool' is used to describe an ideal personality trait for a woman, as she can remain ignorant to the harsh realities of the world around her.
'Call me Ishmael.'
The opening sentence of one of the most famous works of American literature, Moby-Dick, uses the noun 'Ishmael' as a name that will forever be associated with its doomed narrator.