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nightbird at 03:48pm on 22/09/2009 under fundamentals: issues and texts
nightbird at 03:48pm on 22/09/2009 under fundamentals: issues and textsGreat post from Genreality about theme:
Theme is a tough subject. It is perhaps one of the most common reasons writers go awry in the midst of their writing. Theme is, at its most basic, the reason you are writing the story. It is part of our voice; your unique perspective and expression. It is what your book is about.As always: simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
Read that again – It is what your book is about.
Theme is not character. It is not plot. It is not about the goal of the main character or about why the villain is in opposition to that goal. Theme is what your readers will get out of the story. Maybe it is a lesson. Maybe it is a new way of looking at things. Maybe it is just something to think about.
(no subject)
Plot -- takes work. Characters -- are easy to fuck up. Language -- okay, I can usually do that.
But theme I almost always know, first.
This is possibly back-asswards.
(no subject)
(I have to be glad that I don't really have a Zen-themed icon right now.)
I seem to remember that theme was always one of the things in high school English that gave me lots of trouble when we had to identify it. And it's only been very recently -- within the last year, probably -- that I think I've been able to sit down with a theme in mind and write a short story, never mind a longer one. It really does make some things easier, though, to know your guiding principle from the start rather than suddenly realizing you have one at all about three-quarters of the way through.