Who can do this?
Owners and co-authors with rights create motifs, edit them, move them to the trash and restore them. They also maintain the occurrences. Guests do not see motifs.
Motifs and thematic curves
In the motif catalog you record recurring symbols; the thematic curve shows where your characters stand.
What is it for?
The “Thematics” area bundles two tools. The core theme sets the theme, poles and target arc of your project. The motif catalog collects recurring symbols and motifs, such as a crown that appears in several chapters, and records what they mean.
For each motif you enter occurrences: a chapter, a scene and, if you like, a meaning at that point. That way you see where a symbol appears in the book. Illumentis does not detect motifs in the text; you enter the occurrences yourself.
If you position characters on the scale between your poles in the scene metadata, the core theme draws a curve from it with one line per character. It is a reading aid. If a core theme is set, the Illuminatio Engine also reports scenes without a thematic purpose and large jumps.
How it works
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In the project overview, open “Analysis & Control” and choose “Thematics”, then “Motif catalog”.
What you see afterwards: The list of motifs appears. Without entries, it shows “No motifs yet - create your first one.”
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Choose “New motif” and enter the “Name” and the “Meaning”.
What you see afterwards: The motif is in the catalog.
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Open the motif, choose chapter and scene under “Occurrences” and, if you like, enter a meaning at that point.
What you see afterwards: The motif is linked to the scene.
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Choose “Add occurrence”.
What you see afterwards: The occurrence is in the list.
Your data
Motifs and their occurrences belong to the project and are backed up and exported with it. A motif in the trash is kept for 30 days.
Limits
By default, without a studio subscription of the project owner, at most 3 motifs per project are possible. The operators can change these values; Illumentis tells you the currently valid value in the app as soon as you reach the limit. The name has at most 255 characters, the meaning at most 10,000. The curve chart is a guide and judges nothing.
Frequently asked questions
Does Illumentis find motifs in the text automatically?
No. You enter occurrences yourself by choosing a chapter and a scene.
Why is the curve empty?
No thematic positions have been recorded yet. The curve only shows something once you position characters on the scale in the scene metadata. Then, instead of “No chapters with recorded thematic positions yet.”, you see one line per character.
What does the engine measure for the thematic divergence?
It only runs when a core theme is set. It reports written scenes without a thematic purpose and without a position, and a jump of 6 or more scale points between two consecutive positions of the same character.