Is there a point in your writing process where you start deliberately working on the themes and motifs in your books? It seems like something really good authors must do on purpose, but I don't see it talked about much in books on writing. But I can't imagine that this all just springs naturally into the story...
So, is it something you do at a certain point? And do you have any tips on how to do it well?
I wouldn't say that I ever sit down and say "What motifs am I going to employ in this work?". That's a set of options that normally starts to evolve, or reveal itself, while I'm outlining.
What I will doāusually before even the outlining startsāis ask myself, "What's this story about?": "about" meaning the thematic sense, not just the physical-action, who-goes-where-and-does-what-to-whom sense. Without that sense of the underlying meaning of the book, I'd find it hard to start writing at all. That meaningālet's say, for example, the fear of achieving a quest (and repeated failure to do so) due to being afraid of not knowing how to handle the potential aftermathāwill repeatedly push its way up through the topsoil represented by the plot and the characters' reactions to it. Or else that topsoil will be worn away here and there to reveal it, so that the characters are forced to get to grips with it... or to refuse to.
...To use a more organic metaphor: a book's theme is its skeleton. Everything about the bookāevents, characterization, less basic themesāmust be arranged on and secured to that skeleton. Otherwise you've just got a puddle of sloppy squishy tissue flopping around. And everything about the story should move when the skeleton moves... or breaks.
So it behooves the writer working in this mode to spend at least a little time answering the What's This Story About? question. Ideally there'll be more than one answer to the question. Sometimes the multiple answers will appear to be contradictory of one another. This is fine...since contradiction is one form of conflict, and conflict generates drama. One or two of the underlying themes may well be ones you've used before. This is okay too, as in each new work, even reused themes will rarely combine in anything like the same way. (Though you need to keep an eye on the various elements in situations like this, to make sure they're breaking new ground and not merely running in easy familiar circles.)
Anyway, once the answers have been identified to my satisfaction, I make a note of them and put them aside where I can get at them while the work's in progress, and refer to them if necessary. Normally I don't need to. Having spent the time to work out what they are, it seems the answers function as a kind of foundation for the work as it goes forward, so that hints and reminders of them surface naturally during the process.
My apologies if all this sounds a bit vague, as over time it's become so habitual a part of my writing process that I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about it. :) Anyway, hope this has been of help.
