{"id":17083,"date":"2020-10-25T09:21:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T13:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=17083"},"modified":"2020-11-08T14:25:31","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T18:25:31","slug":"stephen-king-symbols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/stephen-king-symbols\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen King: Symbols and How to Use Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For Stephen King, symbols are an important part of every story. But how does he incorporate symbols into his writing, and how can you work on this skill in your own writing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephen King&#8217;s symbols are intentional and add another layer of depth to the stories. As you work on your own craft, you should also consider including symbols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Stephen King, symbols, and how to use them in writing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stephen King: Symbols and More<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond the three basic elements of narration, characters, and dialogue, the writing toolbox contains many more tools, ones you remember from English courses\u2014themes, symbolism, alliteration, stream of consciousness, repetition, back story, and so on.\u00a0Stephen King&#8217;s use of symbols is clear in every story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>King\u2019s advice on these tools is to <strong>make use of any tool that will enhance your story<\/strong>. Yet don\u2019t go too far\u2014remember that the point of the story is to tell a story, not to show how many words you can alliterate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Often, you\u2019ll see opportunities to add literary flourishes after completing your first draft. Patterns that you weren\u2019t previously conscious of may now appear. Your revision is a chance to polish these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>King focuses on two devices in particular: symbols and themes. While you might have unsavory memories of expounding on both in your English essays, they\u2019re both natural parts of storytelling and can be quite simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Symbols<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Symbolism is the use of an object or word to represent an idea other than its literal meaning. (Shortform note: For instance, the white color of the whale in <em>Moby Dick<\/em> is typically a symbol of beauty and virtue (as in Italian marble and weddings), but in nature the color white often belies a terrifying destructiveness (as in polar bears and great white sharks).)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like other literary devices, Stephen King says symbols enrich the story. They also become a focusing device through the story, providing yet another opportunity for telepathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, adornments merely adorn; they are not the reason the story exists. <strong>Don\u2019t premeditate your symbols before you write the story\u2014it\u2019ll feel artificial. Instead, discover the symbol as you unearth your story.<\/strong> As you write or revise, if you notice the symbol, then bring it out further and polish it, as though you were excavating a gem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Commentary From Stephen King: Symbols in Two Books<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>While writing <em>The Green Mile<\/em>, King quickly realized the story was about an innocent man being executed for a crime he didn\u2019t commit. He changed the character\u2019s name to J.C., a symbol of the \u201cmost famous innocent man of all time\u201d (Jesus Christ). (Some criticized this as simplistic symbolism; King responds that he\u2019s never trying to be an intellectual.)<\/li><li>In <em>Carrie<\/em>, King noticed only after writing that blood perfused the story: at the beginning (when Carrie has her period), at the climax (a prank dousing Carrie with pig\u2019s blood), and the ending (where a survivor of Carrie\u2019s wrath has her own period). King wasn\u2019t conscious of this pattern while writing, but found it meaningful when revising. He tried to connect blood to its many connotations\u2014sacrifice, women\u2019s coming of age, heredity.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For Stephen King, symbols are a necessarily part of writing a book. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Stephen King, symbols are an important part of every story. But how does he incorporate symbols into his writing, and how can you work on this skill in your own writing? Stephen King&#8217;s symbols are intentional and add another layer of depth to the stories. As you work on your own craft, you should also consider including symbols. Read more about Stephen King, symbols, and how to use them in writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,15],"tags":[145],"class_list":["post-17083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-education","tag-on-writing-a-memoir-of-the-craft","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stephen King: Symbols and How to Use Them - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For Stephen King, symbols are an important part of writing. But how can you incorporate symbols into your work? 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