forum symbolisms!!

Started November 18, 2020 by @darling-velocipede group

tune

hey! any of y'all put symbolism in your work? i'd love to hear how you do it + maybe steal some structural inspiration for my own ongoing project. :))

I work a lot with mythology and study some art history, so I use a ton of symbolism in my stuff, both writing and art.

• colors all carry different emotions/symbols and pairing specifics together can greatly impact the work (like purple+gold being regal)
• animals and such have symbols, like crows, ravens, and black feathers meaning bad omes or darkness while white birds and feathers mean hope or holy symbols
• actual symbols, like alchemy, astrology, general shapes, etc. can be subtly used to influence
• placement of certain colors or objects can have meaning (Venician Renaissance art had glassware on and off the edge of tables to symbolize life being fragile and close to death, other works used lizards and snakes hiding throughout art to symbolize satan)

There's a lot of stuff in symbolism, if you have anything specific in mind I could say more ^_^

oh i Love that last one about the fragility

I have been sumMONED
I love writing symbolism into my stuffs, but it's usually either super vague or wouldn't be picked up on at first. I'm a BIG fan of color associations and using specific parts of nature + a color to represent certain character or plot point, as well as to hint at where that character/plot point is going to end up. I also CANNOT tell you how much I love writing obscure myths and different legends into my works, but they're pretty unnoticeable unless you happen to be incredibly well-studied in that particular culture's mythology.

Another thing I do is I tend to draw inspiration from concepts as characters. In my current story, several of the characters are inspired by the 7 different Greek Words for love (Agape, Eros, Philia, Ludus, Storge, etc.) I've done something similar in the past with the 7 Deadly Sins, but it's never outright said in the story or even referenced too strongly.
Another thing I love doing (I'm almost done I swear) is having one character symbolize a larger group of people (The working class citizen, a minority group, etc.) It makes for great stealth-social critiquing.

ooh i love all of those! particularly the obscure myths one. do you have any examples of how you did it? i'm working on writing paralells to othello in my main project atm

Nice!
I usually write fantasy stories, but my countries and different cultures usually take inspiration from existing ones (the way most stories do, I guess XD) So I'll research some myths and legends surrounding that culture- like 'The Boy who Drew Cats' for one of my countries that takes inspiration from Ancient Japan, or 'Hildur, Queen of the Elves' for my more Nordic country. I don't exactly reference the myths themselves, but parts of the plot line and maybe even an unnamed character who resembles the protagonist of the myth may be mentioned or even reflected in the character from that country.
I also sometimes just take elements of myths and incorporate them into the story. In one of them, I have a character who runs into an unnamed traveler who happens to exactly resemble that character's best friend. It's very brief, and the story never mentions the unnamed traveler again, but the best friend dies later on- both characters are form a German-esque culture, and in those myths, seeing your 'Doppelganger' is a sign of the person's death. So I can use it as foreshadowing and also round out my story a little more if I want too.
I don't really think that made any sense XD Just imagine how often King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table (and also Robin Hood) pop up or are referenced in some way in English Literature. I more or less try to do that a little more subtly in some of my stories.

ohh that thing with the doppelganger is such an incredible concept! foreshadowing and allusion to a mythology! i love that

Thanks!

Well most of my symbolism is based on flower motifs with the theme of love, lust, despair, hope and obsession

how do you use flowers?

Flowers are fun! I have a few throughout my comic that symbolise different characters, ships, or themes. ofc, I do use some made-up ones but real flowers have a ton of cool meanings and symbols behind them! Wikipedia has a pretty extensive list here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_symbolism) that checks out as far as my double-checking goes.

Flowers are fun! I have a few throughout my comic that symbolise different characters, ships, or themes. ofc, I do use some made-up ones but real flowers have a ton of cool meanings and symbols behind them! Wikipedia has a pretty extensive list here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_symbolism) that checks out as far as my double-checking goes.

Ima use this for my writings- Chip, chip cheerio!

Flowers are fun! I have a few throughout my comic that symbolise different characters, ships, or themes. ofc, I do use some made-up ones but real flowers have a ton of cool meanings and symbols behind them! Wikipedia has a pretty extensive list here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_symbolism) that checks out as far as my double-checking goes.

Ima use this for my writings- Chip, chip cheerio!

s a m e

Skulls are used as symbolism for death, among other things

how do you use flowers?

I may use it to symbolism characters and their theme

Hanaki Akogare's flower are marigolds that represent beauty and freshness, as well as grief and jealousy
Hanaki usually enjoy new and pretty things with also connects to his envy theme and the grief part ties into his motive having to do with his ex-lover dying

My symbolism I realise tends to point towards heavier themes

Magic parallels with addiction and addictive activities or substances
Corruption (this is an in world thing I can't be bothered explaining here) and people's attitudes towards it refers to the general underlying attitudes towards disabilities, mental health, and other problems that people would rather you keep to yourself - people with various kinds of corruption are openly persecuted and it's often law to kill them on sight (in-world)
War and vengeance is a big one - nihilism and the futility of one's existence in the face of the big picture
Time and the mind - reflecting on trauma and suffering from the past
A person's sense of self, oppression, ideologies of some in-world cultures that are wildly different from this world's but tackle similar issues

Without going too far into it of course, that's the gist of what I've been doing

oh woah that is so cool with the magic parallels. expand more on those perhap?

You guys all have such cool ideas for symbolisms. I just kinda write stuff and then look back at it and go "Huh, that's actually a good metaphor for something." Basically a lot of my symbolism is unintentional.

In one of my stories though, I have a side character who doesn't appear very much but every time he appears its always mentioned that he's wearing gloves. Gloves are often used in movies to represent secrets or hiding one's true intentions/ identity. The only time so far where this character isn't wearing gloves is when there's a big reveal where he finally confesses to hiding a really big secret from one of the MCs.

mm neat! i hadn't considered using clothing as a vehicle for metaphor

So I see I found the cool kids club. Nice, Kefi.

I considered having dreams of meaning. But since my main is named snake (Serído) I feel like snake imagery is a little basic.

So I see I found the cool kids club. Nice, Kefi.

Thanks fam! Also, GO FOR the snake motif-ery. The more the merrier, right?