FSN - Day 3 - Tell Us What You Really Think!

[ladyseishou]

You can't tell any kind of a story without having some kind of a theme, something to say between the lines.

- Robert Wise



Theme, the bane of many a middle school student writing a paper on "The Old Man and the Sea." Okay, time to make theme work for us, Nano Writer! How's that? you ask? Come this way...

Theme is just another way of looking at what a story is really all about. Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice may seem on the surface like just another more modern spin on what Bram Stoker began with Dracula but what makes it stand out from a crowd of other well-told tales is its classic theme, as the author writes:

The whole theme of Interview with the Vampire was Louis's quest for meaning in a godless world. He searched to find the oldest existing immortal simply to ask, What is the meaning of what we are?

It's this theme that resonates with the reader long after finishing the last page. It's a theme that fascinated the author, compelled her to tell the story that she did.

So, Nano Writer, what is it that you want to say?

I know, not an easy question to answer but worth some time thinking about now, during the early pre-planning days of your novel. Knowing what you want to write about, knowing what is important to you as a person, will help you choose among all the questions that you generated yesterday, will help you decide which are the important questions to answer, which answers will become your novel.

Look through your list of questions from yesterday. Do you notice any patterns? Do you ask the same kind of questions? Do the questions seem to point to a common answer or subject?

Love. War. Friendship. Duty. Purpose. Betrayal. Lust. Loneliness. Hope.

From my example yesterday, I notice that I asked two questions about what kind of employment my character might pursue in a world of magic. To me, this suggests a possible theme involving "purpose."

Try it with your list of questions. Can you find a common thread? Don't worry about making more of what you find today. We'll spin that gossamer thread into sturdy yarn...

Questions? Comments? Tell us all about it!


Tomorrow, we'll look at how to spin today's theme into our story's premise. Until then Nano Writer, keep writing!

Comments

I don't worry about theme.

[serpentrose]

Either it will find it's way into the story or it won't. I write mostly for myself, so the theme generally turns out to be something on my mind. Even if it's not on my conscious mind.

Re: I don't worry about theme.

[ladyseishou]

That's great that you have a method that works for you! Sometimes it's a lot easier to work with/incorporate your theme after the rough draft's finished and you can read through the whole work, hopefully picking up on the theme - as you say the theme can be something we subconsciously write into our story.

Re: I don't worry about theme.

[serpentrose]

A big part of succeeding is often figuring out what works for you. The other big part is determination and hard work :D

Interestingly Stephen King's writing method is much the same as mine. Except he's a lot better at doing the editing to turn the spew draft into something good.

[casspeach]

I tend not to find my theme until I'm a way through writing something big like a NaNo.

And then I have to go back in the first edit tidying what bits of my id have escaped and shaping them up!

This year though I'm sensing some themes already in my outline...which I'm choosing to believe means I'm more likely to win. Duty, mainly, which isn't much of a surprise to me!

[ladyseishou]

Anything that helps bring your story out, makes it real, is fantastic! And as long as you don't overwork it, playing with a theme, I find can be a fun and interesting challenge: from selecting names for characters to dropping in significant props - it can be a creative boost!

Good luck with your story!

[dragonjournal]

Theme is something that sneaks up on me. I mean, really, it does. It sneaks up on me and then whaps me in the head and says hi.

I just generally roll with it.

[way2dawn]

I agree that theme tends to sneak up on you, but since I've finished a couple drafts of my outline (already, I know. I'm excited :P), I think there's a couple that might prove to be interesting.

Some ones that seem stronger are second chances, hope, and perseverance as a form of love/friendship.