November 6th, 2009 / 1:00 pm
Behind the Scenes & Craft Notes

Better Than Metaphor: Find Your Motifs!

ear art1A few months back, I talked to a painter and animator friend about craft, technique, and composition, with an ear toward what we could learn from each other’s genre. She had recently made a list of all the physical motifs that appear in her work, or in some cases her head and her life, and she read it to me. A motif, as I understand it, is different than a symbol, a metaphor, or a theme in that it simply refers to anything that recurs in a work. It doesn’t have to stand in for something else. It simply gains power and resonance through repetition, brings different parts of a composition into conversation, or provides a kind of unity to the whole.

Motifs can be physical or abstract, but I’m most interest in the tangible and sensory one–objects, landmarks, colors, sounds, and body parts. A writer or visual artist may or may not be conscious of and/or intentional in their use of motif. But my friend’s exercise, making a list of her own motifs, seems particularly exciting to me, in a way that making a list of one’s own metaphors or themes is decidedly not.

So I’ve been working on a kind of running list. Taking note of which objects I’m drawn to has in some cases led to deeper thought about those objects, which has led to something on the page. Here are some excerpts from my list:

hair / California / meat / ears / towers / horses / Yoko Ono / throat

Make your own list, as a fun Thanksgiving craft! Or not. Or tell me what you think about motif, as a writer or as a reader. Are there any motifs that you resist (I resist eyes; they seem too easy–but I love them!)? If anyone knows of some interesting critical work on motif, tell it to me.

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33 Comments

  1. mimi

      insect legs
      bacon
      donuts
      jaywalking

  2. mimi

      insect legs
      bacon
      donuts
      jaywalking

  3. jereme

      god damnit amy you just reminded me thanksgiving is somewhere soon.

      that really harshed my buzz.

  4. jereme

      god damnit amy you just reminded me thanksgiving is somewhere soon.

      that really harshed my buzz.

  5. Justin Taylor

      Barry Hannah loves small aircraft.

  6. Justin Taylor

      Barry Hannah loves small aircraft.

  7. Amy McDaniel

      apparently everyone loves domes right now.

  8. Amy McDaniel

      apparently everyone loves domes right now.

  9. Justin Taylor

      You’d be crazy not to. I like candles.

  10. Justin Taylor

      You’d be crazy not to. I like candles.

  11. man

      Dicks.

  12. man

      Dicks.

  13. davidpeak

      Read: Bag of

  14. drew kalbach

      hands and shoes

  15. davidpeak

      Read: Bag of

  16. drew kalbach

      hands and shoes

  17. Amy McDaniel

      nice. see i never think about hands or shoes, especially not shoes. i’m going to think about shoes.

  18. Amy McDaniel

      nice. see i never think about hands or shoes, especially not shoes. i’m going to think about shoes.

  19. jereme

      i like to write about sidewalks.

      people undervalue sidewalks i think.

  20. jereme

      i like to write about sidewalks.

      people undervalue sidewalks i think.

  21. Amber

      Dead frozen children. Things packed in ice. Snow. Weather, usually the cold kind.

      But I am from Minnesota, so there you go.

  22. Amber

      Dead frozen children. Things packed in ice. Snow. Weather, usually the cold kind.

      But I am from Minnesota, so there you go.

  23. audri

      i seem to have a firefly fetish. also water, yugoslavia, lungs, lonely encounters between historical figures.

      i want to read things about yoko ono. where can this be accomplished?

  24. audri

      i seem to have a firefly fetish. also water, yugoslavia, lungs, lonely encounters between historical figures.

      i want to read things about yoko ono. where can this be accomplished?

  25. lamp

      pet cemeteries, the number line, furniture…

      i think it is important to collect an inventory of items or images – hardly symbols at all – but tools which you use to give form to what you are wanting to say, these things that are repeated to the point at which any symbolic meaning is emptied and they become the stuff that, like you said, aids in the composition and the unity of the work

  26. lamp

      pet cemeteries, the number line, furniture…

      i think it is important to collect an inventory of items or images – hardly symbols at all – but tools which you use to give form to what you are wanting to say, these things that are repeated to the point at which any symbolic meaning is emptied and they become the stuff that, like you said, aids in the composition and the unity of the work

  27. drew kalbach

      a person’s taste in footwear says a lot about their personality.

      or it doesn’t, but it’s fun to be reductive sometimes.

  28. drew kalbach

      a person’s taste in footwear says a lot about their personality.

      or it doesn’t, but it’s fun to be reductive sometimes.

  29. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      haunches
      television

  30. Tim Jones-Yelvington

      haunches
      television

  31. louisa

      yellow venus pencil
      tartan plaid
      poodle
      cut silhouette
      crack in ice
      storm
      macaroni
      electric plug
      ant

  32. louisa

      yellow venus pencil
      tartan plaid
      poodle
      cut silhouette
      crack in ice
      storm
      macaroni
      electric plug
      ant

  33. How to Write a Novel: Unpractical Advice From People Who Have Done It « Vol. 1 Brooklyn

      […] “What to Write Next.” In upwardly practical advice, Amy McDaniel of HTMLGIANT urges motifs, not metaphors. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The love-hate relationship…Advice on writing […]