Writing : Has anyone here ever plotted out their themes/motifs/symbols before writing?

I very loosely outline. I just recently started doing it. But I'll essentially break things down into acts (1-3) or whatever and sort of plot out events that I want to happen within that structure.

Separately, I'll brainstorm and write out the themes I want to work on.

By then, I'm usually ready to write and put the notebook away and start working away at it. I've noticed I no longer care about the outline after that, nor do I care if I hit on certain things, depending on the way the story is shaping up.

When I go back to revision, I do look at my list of themes. What's changed? What did I miss? What is my story really about and how does that affect the themes? 

That kind of shit.

I've found that it's extremely important to be flexible with an outline, themes, etc. I don't really know what the story is about until after the shitty first draft and I have a little time to think on it.

Just today I began brainstorming and working out my idea for my WAR story. I wrote out a few themes I wanted to hit on. I went out, wrote the opening paragraphs, took a break from it and picked it back up earlier tonight.

I finished the first draft and basically, aside from maybe four words, I don't even hit on what I thought would be one of my main themes. It's actually no longer a theme of the story, though I was sure it was when I started it and was walking to get a burrito and thinking about it (burritos make some of the best pre-story meals). 

But yeah, just an example of thinking you have one approach to it, sitting down and letting the story go where it will and realizing you were way off in the beginning when you thought you knew.

 I never outline. I like not knowing where the story is going and let my characters determine their own paths, goals and outcomes. This approach can be exhausting and frustrating, but for me, when they lead me to unexpected places, the excitement overrides that frustration.

I write within the noir/pulp genres so my themes usually explore the criminal or hero, how their mind works and the affect they can have on various individuals. But those themes normally don't arise until I have already written the story. I don't really worry about theme and focus on characters and plot. 

I second what Moon wrote.

I write out detailed character descriptions, and determine major plot points, and sometimes minor ones too, and within those details lie themes and motifs. Only once have I ever decided on a motif, and that's with the novel I'm writing. Structure, theme, motif come into play only after I've rewritten the story a few times, and have completed edits. Then they emerge organically, as some would say.

I write until I stop. I notice things. I miss things.

I tend not to outline. I have done it, but it did not help me at all.

Hi Courtney.   I haven't ever planned out any sort of a thematic landscape in advance, but for the most part it seems with me a thematic concern of some kind or another comes along with the original ideas I have for a protagonist and his or her sitch.  So that can be trouble for me, of the same sort you mentioned experiencing in your novella.  There's been many times that once I've set up a protagonist and the situation they're in, that concerns with abstract matters swamp the story, turn the potentially interesting boring, and I'm not so interested in going through that too many more times.  What chance it might have had to remain dynamic and interesting had I remained live, on the ground, goes dead, once my narration puts its focus too much on menaing and too little on interaction.  So then in scenes in which my narration ought to be more concerned with describing environments and objects and carrying interesting characters from-through-toward their situations at an effective pace, instead come these dead zones in which the narrator is clearly more concerned that every element remain tied to whatever grand metaphorical design.  So for me in the future its always got to be ground up to the elevation of meaning, because I do believe any good book depends on the integration. 

So, it doesn't always go as great as I'd like, but I try my best these days each time out to keep the authorial objectives hidden as deep as possible in the character objectives and there situations.  Or else, it's just so easy to get lost in my own damned soup.  At its worst will appear these tangents full of blocky paragraphs that may have a vague association to the story I started out trying to tell.  Then there's robotic dialog stumping for the genius/ass of a narrator where my real-seeming flesh and blood character should be speaking scene driven, active dialog along the movement.  Anyway, I'm more for laying out a blueprint than ever, and that goes for the metaphorical/symbolic content once you've recognized it, too.  If for no other reason that that I should stay away from any and all direct reference to such things and have my characters shut the hell up about it and get real.  Tanks for the question.      

I'm new to the site, so, late to post.

I've been on the fence about outlines for some time. I tossed my last novel idea because of conflicts with outlines and drafts, and sheer aggravation between the two.

This time around I'm trying a different approach, doing what I did as a kid when I was writing: let the story write itself. Or, as previously mentioned here, let it grow organically.

I started with a simple idea for a plot that was quite vague, then let it branch out. I'm not concerning myself with plot holes or inconsistencies, anything of that nature. I just write whatever comes to mind; whatever I think would make for a good chapter in the story regardless of placement.

Here's where it has taken me:

• I started off with subplots, but now I'm on the verge of dumping them altogether, but I enjoyed writing them and might use it for later stories.
• New characters have introduced themselves to the story. Meanwhile, I'm nixing characters I introduced to the story, if that makes sense.
• A murder occurred, and that was never an idea. It just sort of happened. And I'm keeping it.

Now, I feel like I've got a basic idea of where the story is going. It's like a bundle of random and seemingly chaotic ideas, but the parts that make sense start popping out and fitting together, making it easier to take out the trash. And so, NOW, I feel like I can formulate and outline. A simple one, divided into beginning, middle, and end.

For example, under "Beginning" I'll do a synopsis of the events that take place, leading up to the major climax of the story. The "Middle" will include the climax and the beginning to cool down.The "End" will be...the end.

I don't know if this would work every time, but so far, it's working wonders for me, keeping me entertained with my own writing, enjoying the process and craft, and allowing myself creative space over stuffy rules and/or guidelines.