Themes

I tend to write without much planning on the first draft then when I go through it again, I spot the signs of a pattern here and there and expand on whatever theme I appear to have suggested, even subconsciously.

I like to write with an idea or theme in mind, and then see where it takes me. My current wip I based off the idea of wanting to write a fantasy novel that incorperated ecological principles into the story.

I usually start without a theme in mind. The only thing I plan out ahead of time is plot, because--for me at least--themes and characters will naturally emerge as I'm writing, and my voice is already built in, but if I don't have an idea of where I want the book to go, plotwise, it ends up sprawling all over the place and getting booorrrrriiiinnnngg.

Don't forget that there will emerge themes you didn't even notice until the re-read - or perhaps ones you yourself will never spot. I just read a few old chaps of my WIP and discovered a very strong "anti-honour" theme without even knowing it when I was writing.

cypher_lee said:

When you are writing your novels and begin to approach the mid bok section, do you have definate, clear thoughts as to the theme of the novel or do you just sit and write and see what ideas come through?

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Sometimes, yes, sometimes no. Sometimes I'm sure I'm writing a fluffly little ghost/enchanted sword story, and I blink and discover all this weird stuff about family has snuck in, and about different definitions of love.


Theme is one of those fuzzy words. It doesn't mean the moral of the story (Eg "It is better to appreciate what you have than to gripe over what you don't have." or "It turns out shooting people is worse than being a lesbian" -- yes, I've seen a story where that was the moral), or even moral stance (Eg. pro-abortion or anti-war). Usually theme involves looking at the thing at hand from multiple angles, even if the final result implies a specific moral stance. it can't usually be summed up in a sentence; it seems to be either reduced to a word (Alienation), or described in several sentences (or several paragraphs, or an essay...). I'm mostly noting this because I have seen it used a synonym for both moral and moral stance in other writing dicsussions.

I think it's important to recognize your themes and develop them the same as you would your plot, or your characters. With theme's it's even more important, because that's about the only thing that literary scholars ever look at.

Themes may be important to literary scholars, but they're harder to force through than plot or characterization. You have to be subtle with themes, or else you risk sounding heavy-handed. Even if the theme emerges from your subconscious while you write it can make itself overt. In my current WIP a theme of the mind having mastery of the body has emerged and I can see the need already to tone it down in the rewrite.

Unless you're writing in the literary genre, theme isn't going to be as important to your readers. Most modern readers care about plot and character first, and if they do care about theme they'll miraculously pick one out of your book that you never intended to write into it in the first place. I've seen plenty of people extrapolate non-existant themes out of novels, I've never seen anyone extrapolate non-existant characters or plot.

alaskamatt17 said:

Themes may be important to literary scholars, but they're harder to force through than plot or characterization. You have to be subtle with themes, or else you risk sounding heavy-handed. Even if the theme emerges from your subconscious while you write it can make itself overt. In my current WIP a theme of the mind having mastery of the body has emerged and I can see the need already to tone it down in the rewrite.

Unless you're writing in the literary genre, theme isn't going to be as important to your readers. Most modern readers care about plot and character first, and if they do care about theme they'll miraculously pick one out of your book that you never intended to write into it in the first place. I've seen plenty of people extrapolate non-existant themes out of novels, I've never seen anyone extrapolate non-existant characters or plot.

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I'm just saying, it's important to be aware of your themes, however they arise. You are reigning yours in, and that's good, but it's important to get a reign on them. Even if casual readers don't overtly recognize themes, they will always respond to them. Plot and character are secondary to theme. If they're naming a favorite character and a favorite plot point, odds are, they like them because of how they illustrate the theme.

You can't truly separate plot, character, and theme. They all work together. The reason scholars seize up on theme is because it's the best perch from which to discuss issues of plot and character.

I don't think of a theme in advance. The theme emerges as I write.

Yup. Themes are an emergent property of fiction. You should be able to spot yours by the time the first draft is finished. Trying to write into a preset theme doesn't work as well.

Granted, Max Perkins is supposed to have told Thomas Wolfe to keep certain themes in mind as he was writing; but Wolfe had exceptionally odd writing methods, and he and Perkins had an exceptionally odd author/editor relationship. In their case, you can translate "try to keep these themes in mind" as "please try not to wander out of the ballpark altogether."