Rules

• Even though it's a challenging endeavor, creating a contradiction only requires a few basic guidelines. 
• The first need is that the statement seems to contradict itself. Consider the opposites. 
• Second, after some thought, the reader must arrive at some form of conclusion or fact.
• Your claim is not a literary paradox if it contradicts itself yet ultimately makes no sense.
•  Either a flaw in logic or a contradiction exist.

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Example

Sweet sadness- it is a paradox with two contradictory words.

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Similar terms to paradox

There are many great literary devices that rely on opposition to create an effect on the reader. Some closely related terms are:

Antithesis: Using two things that are opposites but do not contradict one another.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” —Neil Armstrong

This is an antithetical statement—and a very poetic one at that. Armstrong uses juxtaposition (small step / giant leap and man / mankind) but does not use any apparent contradictions.

Irony: Irony is a situation or statement that turns a reader’s expectation on its head. It is, in other words, exactly what you don’t predict will happen. Of course, in real life, humans are full of contradictory and unpredictable behavior. So a scene that involves irony is both unpredictable and closer to real life, which would make it predictable. Is that a paradox?

Oxymoron: Oxymorons are similar to paradoxes because they also play with contradictions. However, the contradictions in paradoxes vs. those in oxymorons happen on different scales. An oxymoron is a contradiction between two words, while a paradox is a contradiction between sentences, phrases, or even entire books. In other words, think of an oxymoron as a contradiction of terms and a paradox as a contradiction of ideas.

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