Writing: Motifs

Live Write Thrive makes the argument for motifs in Using Motifs in a Powerful Way in Your Fiction

What is meant by motifs:

Motifs differ from theme. However, the best way to bring a motif into your story is to tie it intrinsically into your theme. In The Hunger Games we see that not only does author Collins use an actual object or thing—the mockingjay itself, and the metal pin Katniss wears—the “song” of the mockingjay is used symbolically. The characters adopt the bird as a symbol for their revolution, and so the object and the theme are bound together.

I always think of music when I think of motifs. I did this in my Dead and Dying stories with the smokestack. I wanted the changes in the smokestack to mark out the changes of the city where I set the stories.

I have put off revising those stories until I get the laptop on Monday. At least that is my defence to any feelings of procrastination. I will keep this blog article in mind as I revise these stories. Maybe I will have more luck with these stories.

sch 8/19/22