How much symbolism is there in your story?

[whitewoman]

Symbolism? i guess one so far. References? everywhere.

 

[dummycake]

Symbolism? i guess one so far. References? everywhere.

People tend to make up names when there's billions of media with names ready for you to use!!!

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Sometimes I get a little too obsessed with symbolism and references, putting them in names, places, colors, numbers... Basically everywhere I can.
Do you ever do that? I think it's fun to do and to see if anyone got it, even more if they're hinting at something big in the story.

I love to do symbolism! Like with the … uhm? I was trying to think of a positive example for once, but, errr, nothing came to mind. Wait! Never mind! I’ve got plenty of symbolism for the Fae and the traits that the MC receives. A lot of descriptors are laid in chapters and mean something beyond a peculiar and fun comparison

In my story, symbolism is the very basis of how the world works. That should serve as an answer by itself, but I'll say more.

Symbols are an amazing way to say things without making them obvious. Most people use some form of that without even knowing, but done properly it can say a lot more than any detailed description. From something like using a skull for a pirate's flag (even that is a symbol, I believe) all the way to basing powers and personalities of characters on certain symbols, like Chainsaw Man does.

It has a lot to do with human psychology, but I haven't learnt much about it so I can only speak in general terms here. Point is, when a human sees color red, they automatically make certain connections depending on their memories and experiences. The same thing's with names, for example how the human emperor in The Reincarnation of Alysara is named Alexander. Everyone who's heard that name a couple of times knows what that name is associated with, and it was used well (perhaps unintentionally, I don't know) to make readers look at a character in a certain way.

Personally, I found out symbols are great when you want to say something that can't be conveyed in a few words. That's why, when writing my story, I did not try to come with a mess of skills and other useless stuff to give my main character the powers I want her to have, but I gave her a skill called Amaranth. You can guess what it does, and I bet you'll be at least partially right - that's the point.

Well said!

 

[dummycake]

I love to do symbolism! Like with the … uhm? I was trying to think of a positive example for once, but, errr, nothing came to mind. Wait! Never mind! I’ve got plenty of symbolism for the Fae and the traits that the MC receives. A lot of descriptors are laid in chapters and mean something beyond a peculiar and fun comparison

Well said!

You know what I like?
Biblical symbolism/references
There's a lot of things that could be connected to the bible, especially numbers.
At one point all of the titles from my novel were common christian sayings or quotes from prominent christian figures.
I love the Bible!

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And the thing is, novels are different from more visual media. I can't put a blue curtain without mentioning it, so it could be hard to do it without being on your face, because there's no pausing and looking at ten pixels that could mean something, you know?

 

[Deleted member 54065]

Just the right amount if needed.

Too much symbolism in harem and isekai genre would be pretentious, and ill-fitted.

 

[SRB]

Most of the time when I write my stories, my brain flies into the fourth dimension and controls my hands from there. So I have no idea how much symbolism is in my stories until I read them again a couple of hours after I finished.

 

[georgelee5786]

Some

 

[LunaSoltaer]

i have symbolism that i intend to be loud

symbolism that i intend to be subtle

and symbolism i didn't even know I put in but it blows my mind that it's in there.

my book has several easter eggs in it. Most of them are yummy. Some will stab you.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I'd say sometimes I do? But I don't really know what you mean, there's different types of symbolism. If it's about a specific name or a haircolor chosen to hint at something, I don't know, I probably do that sometimes, so I chose the sometimes option. Sometimes, a lot of things end up being symbolic, depending on how you see it.
Like the best friend of the protagonist in my current project being referred to as "The Heartless", while being the most heartfelt, as one will find out at some point in the story, while another, called "Mercy", in reality, is called the "Angel of Belligerence". There's meaning to that title as well, as it stands above her angelic appearance that was the model for a goddess statue that was mistaken for a goddess of victory for a long time, though she really stood for a new beginning; for hope. Which also symbolized the protagonist who transmigrated and started her life anew. I's call that symbolism.
Symbolism in the form of themes - right now very "prominent" in a lot of movies would be the political ones - aren't my thing, except for the simple ones, like love, friends or family, those are kind of cute.

Funniest are those were readers would interpret things as symbolic, but it just happened accidentally. Like Eminem telling another rapper once that when someone asks them if a line they wrote was actually put in with a second meaning in mind, they should just say "yes". He said that, as he himself denied a very smart one in one of his own lyrics. Which is rare to be accidental here, because he is (at least to me) still one of the greatest lyricists alive and unalive, and most of his lines have either a grand rhyme scheme or a double meaning, if not both.
Anyway, people love overinterpreting things, so I believe a lot of things seem symbolic if you press it.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Everything in my story is symbolism but very little of was intentional.

 

[dummycake]

Everything in my story is symbolism but very little of was intentional.

You see what you want then?

 

[Representing_Tromba]

You see what you want then?

Yeah... No. Maybe.

 

[ParticleOfSand]

Instead of trying to figure out symbolism, I prefer to add subtle implications that can tell more about the situation if the reader wants to dig into it.

 

[HelloHound]

any symbolism comes from either the names or my subconscious, I'm already wrestling with my brain to get words on a page I would straight up deflate if I had to use symbolism on purpose

 

[SsemouyOnan]

You put symbolism everywhere because you think it's cool for things like "foreshadowing" and "depth"
I put symbolism all over the place because I am incapable of being original, and the only way I can pretend I am is to throw obscure references into a grinder until the end result is an amalgamation screaming in metaphorical pain of how badly the original sources were butchered.
We are not the same

 

[dummycake]

You put symbolism everywhere because you think it's cool for things like "foreshadowing" and "depth"
I put symbolism all over the place because I am incapable of being original, and the only way I can pretend I am is to throw obscure references into a grinder until the end result is an amalgamation screaming in metaphorical pain of how badly the original sources were butchered.
We are not the same

I know it's a joke but I don't really care about the depth I just care if it's cool or not

 

[Lloyd]

Everything is symbolism if you look hard enough.

 

[ReadLight]

I've always had this issue with symbolism. It is subjective, cultural-dependent, and if the readers' knowledge or value do not align, they become confusing.

Personal experience: I once had to read [Hills Like White Elephants], a short story by Ernest Hemingway, and was confused the heck out of. Before reading, I never knew that "White Elephant" referred to the historical event where a king would gift a white elephant to a person, and that person would then has to keep it alive by law, no matter how financially crippling it is to do so, and therefore, "White Elephant" has since became the symbol for "Unwanted Gift".

My first thought after learning that, literally years after I lost a chunk of my GPA on that short story: Wow that was stupid, just say what you meant.

I'm not saying do not express your culture because other people won't get it, in fact, do it, if expressing your culture is what you want.

But do be aware that if the symbolism is there as an important aspect of our writing, for example, literally what the above short story was about, the confusion and knowledge difference can lower the reading experience of readers who simply has never heard of those symbols before.

Another example of such difference: In western culture (that I know of), you wear white during weddings; in Chinese culture, you wear white during funerals. Now imagine the reader only knows one of those two cultures.

So, I personally would just not use symbolism. They are hard for me to use, and once used, may not yield good result. That, or I'll only apply them on very minor parts of what I write, and for sure not something that I'd not want to risk confusing readers by.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

To expand on my use of symbolism in my stories, I'll focus on my use of it in Villainess, Retry! Symbolism in stories is the use of concrete images to represent an abstract ideas. For instance, in the 1st volume of VR!, I include fountains in important story-changing scenes, a few serving as background settings to important events/conflicts and one fountain before the climax of the 1st volume where it plays a major role in expanding the MC's power set from one affinity to two affinities. In that chapter, "(V5) Red Pill 23: Titles, Signings," after Janet spends two previous chapters binge-drinking her darkness affinity pool to subsume it into her astral body, she faints and wakes up in a garden-like clearing where she spots a gigantic 2-tiered fountain that represents her affinity power. Basically, after her binge-drinking, she has the darkness affinity and the aeither affinity within her, so she's got some cool powers. She can pass through walls and people like a ghost, teleport through shadows, and even store lots of things in her shadow. Anyway, back to the fountain: she gets pushed into her fountain, which kind of acts like a baptism, and she comes out of it with her Black Saintess battle outfit.

Anyway, that's one instance of symbolism. There might be some other examples, but this is one that readily comes to mind.

 

[bulmabriefs144]

Half of what I write is symbolism. The other half is worldbuilding/political ranting (sometimes both in the same sentence).

Alot of religion heavy metaphors. My inspiration in anime was X, which had freaking people crossing pools of blood while petals fell.