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Theme (Patreon)

Published:
2018-12-13 14:41:22
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

I have been thinking a lot about how to tackle the wider theme of my story. It is very difficult to tell as the writer if what I am doing will come across way to blunt, or if I am just over thinking it. 

There is also the consideration of how much should theme drive the story? Should the theme dictate the direction entirely, or should it take a back seat to me telling the story I want to tell? All of this is contributing to some wicked writers block, but I figured I am blocked, I should at least keep you all posted on why. :P 

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend! 

Daniel 

Comments

Øyvind Sju Myhren

I think I understand your struggle. I'm working on my own project which started as an idea for a world. I'm glad I'm not a full-time writer because I'm not quite sure what the end result will be. For now it's just a series of cool smaller tales in my world and I currently like it that way. Which got me thinking about your problem. What if you write shorter stories set in your world? Worst case scenario you get more writing experience and if not, you might have stories in your world which helps the worldbuilding. Maybe it's obvious, but it seems to me people get hung up on the big epic tale:P Keep up the good work and read the Powder Mage Trilogy :P kidding. Cheers

Ryan Ratchford

I find theme interesting. I personally don’t try and have it be an active thing in what I write. In the stuff I’m working on atm I just have all my characters & antagonists holding various beliefs & personalities and explore how the events of the story challenges those. Sometimes a plot directly conflicts with their beliefs & values and they’ll have to re-evaluate & Change. But I guess I’m thinking of theme more as a character central thing: what part of the character has to change in order to resolve the plot & depending on the change, that will be a theme. I sometimes hear it described as “what does the character WANT in the beginning, & how does the plot get them to realise & achieve what they NEED (usually to make them a better person) I don’t tend to particularly enjoy Theme through Plot eg. Jurassic Park- Don’t play God/ Technology can be dangerous (I think). I enjoy stories as an immersive experience of other worlds & people (that’s why I love epic fantasy with history, culture & diverse exciting characters) whereas personally, I find when a story expresses Theme through its Plot (mostly in classic literature) it feels like an essay rather than a living world, plot & characters. In the Jurassic Park movie they also have another “theme” that I feel is character rather than plot driven. They have Dr Alan go through an arc from disliking children to caring for them. I don’t know if what I’m talking about should actually be considered theme- But I think it usually is (what do you think?) and I find it more engaging, realistic & immersive when it’s a lesson the audience learns through the characters rather than a lesson the audience learns through the Plot. This isn’t to say I can’t enjoy plot theme, I guess Game of Thrones’ plot theme is how brutal the real world is? But in these cases I think it’s best done passively, an emergent property that comes as a result of the characters interacting with the world & conflict. It probably should be in your mind but only considered (in my opinion) as consequence of how the characters end the story & what that might imply as a theme. Sorry for the length, but I’d be interested to hear others thoughts (I’m not that sold on this point of view but atm this is probably my personal prefrence)

Mario Stöffler

How do you want to read your book? No matter how you write it, if you find it interesting then there will be others thinking the same.

Squidman1881

I think themes come about naturally through the dynamics between characters and events. I’ve never successfully set out to “write a theme” into anything at this point; instead, what I write already has preexisting themes that I subsequently choose to investigate further (either through rewrites, renovating the plot, or creating future plot points). For example, one of my characters suffers from chronic depression due to serious domestic issues she was exposed to in her formative years. When I first created the character, I had no intention of exploring that particular theme. However, as I expanded upon her character and backstory, I realized there was room to address mental illness in my story. So then I reworked what I had for her, incorporating some new plot and character points to really express this unique aspect I wanted to explore. Eventually those reworks ended up introducing a few philosophical themes into my story, which I currently plan to incorporate even further into my world. That’s kind of a ramble of an answer but hopefully it makes sense.

Stubble McShave

I think that story is the most important thing. The theme often comes naturally if you have that in the back of your head. If the theme comes first it may come across as preachy (depending of the theme of course).

Nolan green (NoIIan on discord)

I agree with stubble, i'm writing a book right now as well (2 actually) and the "story" (or really an idea as in "wouldn't that be neat!") turned into a plot that spawned characters that (like ingredients in a cake) changed flavor over time and very much changed my perspective on rewrite

KJ Reading

I get very overwhelmed sometimes too with this. In the end, like Nolan said, it all comes to the rewrites, then after a few corrections things fall in place by themselves.