Day 20: Thematic Elements in Your Novel: Group and Character Symbolism

Hey there, Igniter! Monica Leonelle from theworldneedsyourbook.com. Today is day 20 of the challenge. We are over two-thirds of the way through this. Amazing! Thank you so much for sticking with this. Today we are talking about thematic elements for your groups and your characters. Today is day 20 and we're doing thematic elements specifically around group and character symbolism. So first, let's talk about what a thematic element is. Basically, it's a representation of an idea in a different format. So, you know, you have a lot of, a lot of stuff going on underneath the surface, a lot of subtext, and this is a representation of that subtext. So we've talked about this a lot in the character and plot arcs and how these match up to the theme. You know, that's how we started out this challenge. And then the thematic elements are really just going to be representations of some of those ideas in the story. So you can look at a number of different things. So your fatal flaw/character motivation, which we, you know, talked about through days 7 and day 9 of the challenge, and we've also talked about it in the days on the setup. Uh, these are typical places that there might be some character symbolism. Also your tentpole moments, which we talked about, you know, throughout, uh, I guess probably, um, just the last 8 days or so. So maybe day— I think day 12 through day 19, we talked about those and where those tentpole moments go within each section of the 4-part structure of, uh, of writing a novel storytelling structures. So what we're going to do here is, uh, we should already have some idea of what these are, but this is just a chance to lay that out in more detail. And the goal of this is really, um, it's actually very common in movies and in television to have these thematic elements. So if you're trying to— the reason you might want to put it in your novel, one, because readers just are very tickled by it. They like to see this stuff in all of their storytelling. But two is if you want to sell your book later on down the line, you actually want to place a lot of this stuff into your book to begin with because then people can really— they can start to see it on the screen because they're seeing it visually in their minds. And so the goal of the thematic elements is really to touch on all of the reader's senses and to really start to create a picture of, um, the underlying story. So the skeleton that we talked about in the first 10 days, which consists of the theme, the worldviews, the groups, the characters, the relationships between the characters, fatal flaws, character arcs, everything that we talked about in those first 10 days. This is, uh, this is really just leaving those hints for the reader. Go back. Okay, so group and character symbolism, um, it's really about creating sensory symbolism that creates emotional resonance for your readers. And so these are some things that you can do regarding symbolism. So we have moods. So you can just have like mood words in your text that create, create a mood. So you can, like, if you were gonna do a dark mood, you could have shadowy, you know, you could use words like shadow and gray and cloudy. You can already tell that that's creating a specific mood. Objects like jewelry, weapons, creatures, motifs, metaphors, quotes, symbols, anecdotes, phrases, iconography, new vocabulary, character quirks, metaphors, repeated patterns, using— so like painting a picture of something, so using emotional and mood words, names, locations, places, settings, and weather. And so that list is a little bit, probably still a little bit too idea-based right now. So the best thing I can tell you about how to come up with some of these is to start to watch television and movies and notice, like what you can do to dissect these shows is to look at like, well, what is the fatal flaw of this character? And then how does the show symbolize or represent that over and over and over again to really clue the reader into the idea that this is gonna, you know, this is gonna cause conflict or this is gonna cause tension. So I'll give you a couple examples. So in the Harry Potter series, group symbolism, You know, there are lots of different groups in the Harry Potter series, but right off the bat in book 1, there are 4 different houses. So you have Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. And the author gives, you know, a short description of each of these houses, and then the Sorting Hat, you know, puts students into each of these houses. Each house has its own symbolism. It has its own phrases. It has, you know, just interesting stuff about it that makes, you know, kind of goes in line with the group. So for example, Slytherin, their dormitories are in kind of like a basement or dungeon area. This is kind of the darker the darker house, I guess. And Gryffindor has this, um, the fat lady portrait, and their dormitories are really like bold and brave. And, um, their, you know, their symbol is— I think it's a Gryffindor. Um, or Slytherin, their symbol is a snake. So you can see how those, you know, Slytherin snake kind of goes together. And, you know, Ravenclaw is the raven, and then Hufflepuff is— I believe it's a badger. And you can see, like, how that really creates different archetypes almost of these different houses. And so then people within the houses really act somewhat in line to the houses. There is— there are shades of gray, of course, but they're, they're acting similar to how their house acts, basically. So that's for the groups. So there's 2 pages of that. And then, um, with character symbolism, it typically relates to the tentpole moments. So for Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, she has a Mockingjay pendant that she receives at the beginning of the series, and. It represents the overall theme of the series, which is around rebellion. Noah and Allie in the movie, "The Notebook," which is a romance, they have a romantic reunion on a pond full of swans. And so swans are, you know, this universal symbol of love or soulmates or twin flames. And so it's this really beautiful scene, very romantic, of course, as well. Like they go out, the two of them, on a very small rowboat, and they're literally just— the pond is just covered, or the lake, I guess, I guess you would call it, is just covered in swans. And it's just this really beautiful scene. And then at the end of that scene— well, so then it starts to rain, and then at the end of that scene, they have this kissing moment in the rain. So there's, there's a lot of symbolism there to just represent their romance, basically. So group symbolism, um, you can do this. I have 2 pages of this. And then you can also do, um, the symbolism for each major character. So this is your protagonist, your antagonist, or any point of view characters. And so some of the things you might want to do symbolism around: their fatal flaw. That's a big one. So for Harry Potter, for example, his fatal flaw is symbolized by his scar. Um, the fatal— you know, Harry Potter's fatal flaw is really that he doesn't really believe in himself. He doesn't think he's special. He actually feels like he fades into the background. He would like to fade into the background, but he has this massive scar on his forehead that does not allow him to fade into the background. It has marked him. And so he— it's like everybody he meets, they have these assumptions about him. He's like the small celebrity, or well, I guess a large celebrity in the magical world because of what he did, which he didn't actually do. He was a baby at the time. So, you know, people attribute a lot to him that he doesn't feel he can receive credit for. And there's no way to like cover up the scar. It's, you know, it's just like right there in front in front of people, like right on his face. So that's kind of a symbol of his fatal flaw. You could also say— this isn't a symbol of his fatal flaw, but in some ways it is. So they always say like he has— he looks like James Potter, but he has Lily's eyes. That's his mother and his father. And so Lily's eyes, you know, everybody remembers his parents basically, like Harry Potter has two larger-than-life parents who, um, you know, are just both known for their incredible bravery, and they were both like very gifted wizards— or wizard and witch. Um, and so there's a lot to live up to for Harry Potter, and all of this stuff is, um, things that people can see just from looking at him. So just constantly You know, his fatal flaw, I think, is that he doesn't have the confidence to beat Voldemort. But all of those things are like right there on his face. And so he's— he doesn't get to like blend in. He doesn't get to be normal. He's always going to have this mark. He's always going to have Voldemort after him. And he doesn't— he doesn't really get to sit this one out, which he would love to do if he could. So the, you know, some of the other temple moments, the two bad options and one ultimate decision. So this is at that 25% mark. You can have, you know, sometimes this is symbolized with people, with relationships. I'm trying to, I guess I'm trying to think of an example. You know, to some extent in The Hunger Games, we have Peeta and Gale. I mean, these are, you know, they're kind of— and the two love interests for Katniss Everdeen, they end up becoming, you know, is she the person she is in the games or is she the person that she was, you know, in District 12? And so she kind of is choosing between those two characters, but it's actually choosing between two versions of herself. The Wanderer to Warrior moment. So that's the 50% mark. Also, I've called it the reversal. It's also called the midpoint in many stories. So the Wanderer to Warrior, you know, I talked about that example with Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games where she receives a bow and arrow. So she literally receives her weapon at the 50% mark. So if you, you know, that could work for you. If that's your character. Another thing I've talked about is in a romance, that is typically a point where there's like a kiss or like a declaration of love where one of the characters really just finally admits that they, they want to pursue a relationship with the other one. Two other moments. One is going into the the final battle. So I talked about The Hunger Games with Katniss having the poisonous berries and how those are symbolic. The victory and the transformation that is really at the end. So being able to show at the end, and typically that is something that you can— it could be the same object, object you went into the story with. So that victory and transformation could be a similar object to the fatal flaw, or it could be like they got that object, it represented the fatal flaw, and then by the end of the story they lose that object or they lose that symbol. You actually see this in the Harry Potter series where he had the scar from the beginning of the series and it represented his fatal flaw, and by the end of the series the scar is gone. So And, and that's the transformation, is that this— not only is the scar gone, but he also is able to lead a normal life. And, um, mostly, like, he's not completely able to blend in, but he is able to blend in to some extent, um, as just like a normal guy in the wizarding world. So he kind of gets to live his life in peace, and he has defeated Voldemort. He's also defeated that part of him that didn't believe he could defeat Voldemort. So he loses that scar, and so you can see that that's his transformation, or symbolic of his transformation over the course of the series. And so then I left another little bubble for you to fill in if you have anything else. You can put anything in there. So you can do this for 5 characters. Thank you so much for watching and listening. If you have any questions, make sure you leave them in the comment section. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about this particular day. Additionally, if you haven't joined the challenge yet, definitely check that out. There are links in the description, and it's truly never too late to join. You can join at any time. You can take, take it at your own pace. Everything is totally fine. Thank you so much for watching. I hope this has been helpful to you. Have a wonderful day.