Teaching the use of a motif in creative writing

If you’ve read my blog post on the motif of birds in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, or in fact read any of my recent tweets, you’ll know that I love a good motif. As I explained in this blog post: ‘The Oxford Dictionary definition of a motif is ‘a dominant or recurring idea in an artistic work’. I like to define it as a recurring image with symbolic significance.’

After teaching students to look for and analyse motifs in the literary works we were studying, such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’, I realised that the same method that had unlocked a plethora of insightful analysis and thoughtful interpretations in their study of literature might just be the thing to transform their creative writing too. And I have been so pleased to find it has worked. In fact, ‘worked’ is an understatement – it has transformed their writing.

At Key Stage 4, we teach a structure called ‘Drop, Shift, Zoom, Link’ that we ‘stole with pride’ from someone on Twitter a few years ago (unfortunately I can’t remember who!). I see many variations of this structure taught in different schools, such as ‘Drop, Shift, Zoom in, Zoom out’. The issue was that students were able to use this structure perfectly fine. And it definitely improved their writing by moving them away from a narrative crammed with mind-boggling amounts of action, or a description with pace so slow you struggled to get to the end without yawning. But, whilst their writing had more structure and direction, it was still lacking in…something. A hook, I suppose. Something to build engagement – something to make you want to keep reading. The majority of students were following the set structure well and even attempting to build a convincing character or narrator. But there was just nothing particularly engaging about their work. There was no intrigue, no mystery.

So, I introduced motifs in their creative writing. And I promise this is no exaggeration – it completely rescued their writing. Not only has it utterly stepped up their game in terms of building engagement for the reader, but it has also unlocked a new level of confidence that I didn’t think was possible.

Here’s what I did. I reminded students what a motif was and I explained that we were going to start using them in our own creative writing. The way I explained it was that we would include an important object or person and gradually reveal the significance over the course of our writing. I often refer to the motif as the ‘important something’. I then explained why: to build intrigue and mystery by providing an engaging ‘hook’ in our writing. Next, I explained how we would do this: we would introduce the motif in the ‘Drop’, keeping it vague and curious; then we would mention the motif again in the ‘Shift’, revealing a little bit more about its significance; we would mention it a third time in the ‘Zoom’ paragraph – but only in passing, leaving the reader wanting more; and finally, we would use it in our ‘Link’ to either retain the mystery (forever withholding from the reader the true significance of the motif) or the create an ‘ah-ha!’ or shock moment (eventually revealing its significance).

Of course, the next step was modelling by presenting and then thoroughly dissecting a model which demonstrated the effective use of a motif. All my models can be found in this folder here – ‘Old Man’, ‘Motorbike’, ‘Cobbled Street’ are the best examples. The first one I showed them was the ‘Motorbike’ model, which is a great example of using the to build up to a bit of a shock moment (as long as you’re not opposed to a slightly gruesome ending!) The use of high quality models was, as ever, imperative in this process. Not only was it important for students to understand how to use a motif in their writing, but it was essential to get them to understand why they should use it – because the motif got them hooked into my model answer, just like they wanted their reader to be hooked into their own writing.

Following the studying of the model answers, next came practice. And lots of it. We practiced planning the use of a motif in our writing. Then I would give them feedback and they would make tweaks. Then they would plan again. The next lesson, they would get a new task and practice the process all over again. One thing we learned, through trial and error, is that there is a careful balance to strike between too much and too little focus on the motif. Too much – and you get a piece of writing that appears to be solely about, for example, a battered, old teddy bear and the reader has no idea why. Too little – and the reader doesn’t pick up on the significance, so it just seems like a random detail.

The great thing about students using motifs in their writing is that the motif can stay the same no matter what the task is. This, I have found, has given my students a newfound confidence. In an exam situation, they cannot prepare an answer and then regurgitate it in the exam – we know the dangers of this from the 2022 AQA Language Paper 1 ‘Priest’ debacle – but they can certainly go into the exam with an idea for a motif that they can weave into any task or storyline. For example, one of my students always includes the character’s grandfather’s precious pocket watch, another usually uses a wedding ring. So, no matter what task they are given, they have something they know they can include. They have a starting point, so this has taken away the dreaded feeling of ‘where do I even start?’ that was preventing many students from feeling successful in their creative writing.

Another benefit of teaching motifs in creative writing is that they work no matter what the student’s current writing ability is. From my weakest to my strongest writers, all my students have benefited from including a motif. They can be as creative and experimental as they like. In a recent mock exam, one of my students took inspiration from my ‘Snow Dogs’ model and made their motif a phrase, rather than a ‘thing’, and wove the sentence ‘Some things in life never change’ into each section of her writing. It worked beautifully.

So, if you’re looking for a way to get your students to add a bit of extra something to their writing – to build intrigue and engagement and get them really thinking about the significance of subtle details – try teaching them to use a motif. I hope you find it as transformative as I have!