I've been blogging about how to write in a more meaningful, literary way. In life, an object is just an object. Most don't have unnecessary baggage. As s popular quotation goes, sometimes a soup label is just a soup label. However, some objects have much more significance. Think through the things in your bedroom. The bed is likely just a bed. A side table is just a side table. They're just objects. But there's something there, probably several somethings, that mean more. Your trash can may mean nothing unless it's full of tissues you cried into from your last breakup. If your television or lamp were gifts from your late grandma, they may mean more than just the thing. Good writing is usually about making the reader feel. Emotional symbols can make that happen. A scene in a book can be so much more powerful and loaded when it contains one or more emotionally-laden symbols of something deeper going on.
Shakespeare was a master of emotional symbols. Think of Hamlet's soliloquy to a dead man's skull, forever the symbol of the whole play. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!" Because he knew the dead man and cared for him, the skull is not just a skull. It's a symbol of death, which can come to anyone, no matter who they are and how we feel about them.
Meanwhile, Macbeth has a vision of a bloody dagger, which represents the murderous pathway on which he's about to embark in usurping the kingdom. A simple item doesn't have to stay just a deadweight on the page. It can become something more, something that represents the emotional baggage of the story and the characters. It can foreshadow things to come and bring up critical things of the past that have bearing on the scenes going on right now.
So how do you use emotional symbols in your story? Look through your scenes and find significant items. Is there a pen for signing a marriage or betrothal decree or possibly a law if you're writing about a king? The pen could stay just a deadweight, just a thing. Or it could become something monumental and terrifying, something that reminds the protagonist of a threat of the past. Percy Jackson's pen becomes a sword, a symbol of power and might and a tie to the Olympian gods. The various wands that pass through Harry Potter's hands rarely remain just pieces of wood. They're tied to power of different kinds, dark or light. The sorting hat symbolizes his choice between light and darkness. His friend, Ron's, broken wand becomes a symbol for his broken life and his struggles with everything.
Look at how your favorite authors use symbols. How do objects work beyond just the surface level? Does a weapon stay just a weapon, or does it become something more? Does it remind the character of the trauma or loss of the past or obligations of the future? Both? What deeper meaning can you bring into simple objects in your story to make the scene mean more?
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