CREATING SYMBOLS— WRITING EXERCISE 6
Copy the text below into a post, then write your own answers to each topic that relates to your story. To clarify your answers, you may delete the un-bolded explanation, and substitute your response after the topic in bold. Use Category “Symbol”, use title “Symbol-Yourfirstname”
- Story Symbol Is there a single symbol that expresses the premise, key story twists, central theme, or overall structure of your story? Look again at your premise, your theme, and your one-line description of the story world. Then write a one-line description of the main symbols in your story.
- Symbolic Characters Determine the symbols for your hero and other characters. Work through the following steps:
- Look at the entire character web before creating a symbol for a single character.
- Begin with the opposition between hero and main opponent.
- Come up with a single aspect of the character or a single emotion you want the character to evoke in the audience.
- Consider applying a symbol opposition within the character.
- Repeat the symbol, in association with the character, many times over the course of the story.
- Each time you repeat the symbol, vary the detail in some way.
- Character Type Consider connecting one or more of your characters to a character type, especially to gods, animals, and machines.
- Symbolic Character Change Is there a symbol you can connect to the character change of your hero? If so, look at the scenes where you express the hero’s weakness and need at the beginning of the story and his self-revelation at the end.
- Symbolic Theme Look for a symbol that can encapsulate the main theme of your story. For a symbol to express the theme, it must stand for a series of actions with moral effects. A more advanced thematic symbol is one that stands for two series of moral actions that are in conflict.
- Symbolic World Determine what symbols you wish to attach to the various elements of the story world, including the natural settings, man-made spaces, technology, and time.
- Symbolic Actions Are there one or more specific actions that merit symbolic treatment? Figure out a symbol you can attach to each such action to make it stand out.
- Symbolic Objects Create a web of symbolic objects by first reviewing the designing principle of your story. Make sure that each symbolic object you create fits with this designing principle. Then choose the objects you want to give extra meaning.
- Symbol Development Chart how each symbol you use changes over the course of the story.
Truby, John (2008-10-14). The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (p. 252). Faber & Faber. Kindle Edition.