The editing phase is an ideal place to consider the use of comparison, symbolism, metaphors, and imagery in your story, because the hindsight of having completed your book gives you plenty of material to use in retrospect.

However, it’s not uncommon to find that you’ve already used some quite good symbols subconsciously as you were writing – finding these unexpected gems is the exciting part of reading your finished product for the first time.

Here's this week's article from the Fiction Writing site:

Weaving symbolism and imagery into your story

Although you may be surprised by the quality of symbolism that your story seems to have drawn on subconsciously, usually you will add most of the metaphors and symbolism after you have begun your book, or even after several drafts.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art56191.asp

====================================================

Don't forget that our First Five Pages Editing Workshop is currently running in the forum. You are welcome to join in at any time.

Workshop details:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art55228.asp

Workshop thread in the forum:

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=387291

====================================================

Please visit fictionwriting.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Fiction Writing.

To participate in free, fun online discussions, this site has a community forum all about Fiction Writing located here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=363

I hope to hear from you sometime soon, either in the forum or in response to this email message. I thrive on your feedback!

Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Elle
Elsa Neal, Fiction Writing Editor
http://fictionwriting.bellaonline.com
http://www.hearwritenow.com/
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/daoine/