# Motif Audit - Draft 0

id: motif_audit | owner: codex | tier: book
date: 2026-07-05

## Declared Motifs And Counts

Source: reading guide / master spec. Counts are manuscript grep counts plus judgment classification; raw counts include headings where noted.

## MOTIF: Hands

cap: foreground at most once per chapter; Week 4 sanctioned showcase. Raw body/hand-family hits: 193. This count includes literal action, not only motif foregrounding.

distribution: OVER-CAP by density in late chapters; CLUSTERED in Ch21-Ch24.  
sharpness: sharp / acceptable / weak = 10 / many literal / 3 weak-density risks.

Weak or density-risk instances:
- Ch21: "She had painted his hands. Both of them..." is sharp and necessary, but same chapter also has "both hands empty" and multiple thumb/hand logistics.  
- Ch23: "Twice he took his hand back..." is sharp, but "kept his hands at his sides," "empty hands," "dried her hands" pile up near the final object work.  
- Ch24: "both hands free," "lifted it out of her hands," "got a hand on the stretcher," "his hands empty," "His hand had already started," and "his hands staying where they were" make a visible cluster.

arc: BUILDS / PAYS-OFF. First major pressure: Ch10 `"it's all maintenance"`; midpoint/fear: Ch16 blank ground his hands cannot reach; final: Ch24 `"I'm not carrying anything"` and "his hands staying where they were."

verdict: WEAK-INSTANCES / DISTRIBUTION-PROBLEM, not arc-flat.

Revision orders:
1. LINE-PASS Ch21-Ch24: reduce nonessential `hand/thumb/palm/finger` nouns by 20-30%, preserving the Ch10/Ch16/Ch21/Ch24 key beats.
2. In Ch24, preserve "his hands staying where they were" as the final hand payoff; cut or vary earlier incidental hand mentions where blocking remains clear without them.

## MOTIF: Light

cap: one deliberate light image per chapter max; never "golden hour." Raw light/lamp/lit hits are high because the studio/gallery setting requires literal lighting.

distribution: UNDER-CAP for deliberate images; literal lights spread across studio scenes.  
sharpness: sharp / acceptable / weak = first/median/final deliberate uses all functional.

Evidence:
- first: Ch01 `Winter Kitchen` light is "ten in the morning in an unheated room."
- median: Ch16 "the brightest light in the painting fell on the only thing in it he hadn't done."
- final: Ch23 "On his side the track-light bar stopped at the taped seam."

arc: SHIFTS from painting light, to work/studio light, to visible seam/choice.

verdict: HITS. No order.

## MOTIF: `Winter Kitchen`

cap: at most five total appearances/invocations; every use must add meaning. Raw grep count: 9 including the Ch01 title, 7-8 prose invocations depending on whether repeated opening labels are counted separately.

distribution: OVER-CAP; CLUSTERED in Ch01, then Ch14 and Ch24.  
sharpness: first cluster is mostly sharp but dense; Ch14 postcard invocation is acceptable; Ch24 final invocation is sharp.

Weak instances quoted:
- Ch01 repeats the title in quick succession: "Winter Kitchen hung on the north wall"; "*Winter Kitchen* is the one without the stove in it"; "stepped to the far side of *Winter Kitchen*"; "The painting was smaller..." then title again.

arc: BUILDS / PAYS-OFF. Ch01 painting draws June in; Ch14 postcard invocation confirms institutional/art-world status; Ch24 Odile reveals the label correction was the spark: "`Winter Kitchen` and the `Blue Stove`, hung backward..."

verdict: DISTRIBUTION-PROBLEM.

Revision order:
1. LINE-PASS Ch01: reduce `Winter Kitchen` literal title repetition by 2-3 instances after the title is established, replacing with "the painting," "the corrected label," or direct visual reference. Preserve the title line, the stove correction, and the Ch24 payoff.

## MOTIF: Unfinished / Underpainting

cap: metaphorical use max once per act; literal use free. Raw underpaint count: 7.

distribution: UNDER-CAP for metaphorical use; literal underpainting clustered properly around Ch16/19/22/23/24.  
sharpness: all quoted core instances do new work.

Evidence:
- Ch16: Luis says, "You left the underpainting."
- Ch22: June says, "Your side. The underpainting's good."
- Ch23/24: `After Class. Two underpaintings of one room, finished together.`

arc: ESCALATES / PAYS-OFF. Underpainting moves from fear instruction to the final artifact's ethical form.

verdict: HITS. No order.

## MOTIF: First Snow

cap: falls once, at the end. Raw snow count: 4, all in Ch24 title/ending.

distribution: UNDER-CAP / SPREAD only within final scene.  
sharpness: sharp / acceptable / weak = 2 / 2 / 0.

Evidence:
- first/final: "Snow. First of the year, just started..." and "Behind her, snow caught in her hair and on the lid of the jar..."

arc: PAYS-OFF. It arrives once, after the showcase, as literal weather and material cold.

verdict: HITS. No order.

## MOTIF: Coffee / Diner Booth

cap: scene-setting free; do not let ordering become a tic. Raw counts: coffee 55; Sonia/diner/booth 46.

distribution: HIGH but expected for recurring commons location; SPREAD.  
sharpness: mostly acceptable scene architecture; a few lines are functional rather than motif-driven.

Evidence:
- Ch04 first Sonia's table builds cohort grammar.
- Ch20 Ruth/Sam care arrives through catalog/blue-dish logistics rather than advice.
- Ch22 `Just coffee means I buy the coffee` makes ordering/payment a boundary, not a repeated cute beat.
- Ch24 urn coffee is public-room labor, not date business.

arc: SHIFTS from cover-story commons, to cohort care, to bounded private confession, to final showcase room.

verdict: HITS, with watch.

Revision order:
1. Later line pass should avoid adding any new coffee-order comedy. Existing high count is structural to Sonia's and the showcase urn.

## Tracker Reconciliation

The running `output/tics.md` correctly flags late hand/body density and `Winter Kitchen` as book-specific concerns, but it does not yet state the global `Winter Kitchen` over-cap finding. Add this audit's finding to the next revision-plan triage.

## Book Verdict

MOTIF-FINDINGS.

Failure types:
- DISTRIBUTION-PROBLEM: hands late density; `Winter Kitchen` title over-cap.
- WEAK-INSTANCES: incidental late hand nouns.

No motif arc is broken. Findings route to a later line/motif pass after macro structural decisions. Do not line-edit these until Phase 8 structural expansion/rebuild questions are resolved.
