4.1: What is Theme?

Themes can be simple and absolute, or complex and variable. They can be optimistic or pessimistic. They can affirm the status quo or attempt to subvert it. They can be cliché or novel, obtuse or illuminating, pretentious or unassuming, cerebral or illogical. They can be familiar and comforting or bizarre and disconcerting. One of the most common themes in stories is that good ultimately triumphs over evil.

Hart²⁶⁰which just keep repeating themselves. This is a virtue, as good themes endure, they speak to universal human experience -- they're not meant to reinvent the wheel. Hart quoted Paula LaRoque's list of themes or archetypes:

Hart also adds:

Ultimately, all themes converge to seek cause, consequence, reason, and order.

4.2: The Thematic Conceit

The theme can be phrased as a question, which the story answers. What are the central questions you want to put to the reader and write in order to answer? e.g. —

1. Love: can it survive unimaginable trauma?
2. Time: is there any acceptable restitution if it's been lost?
3. Entertainment: Does it make people dumber?
4. Friendship: would you turn away from your friends to save yourself?
5. Death: is there anything worse?

The end of the story should provide something in the way of an answer to your thematic concern, e.g. 'In these circumstances, love could not survive unimaginable trauma, because as set out by the story, X, Y and Z reasons prevented it.'

Your themes should be questions that you as the author personally agonise over and you have not found other literature which adequately — if at all — address or answer the questions.

Many popular books utilize uncontroversial themes which pose false questions - e.g. 'Love: will it save in the end? - Yes, it will'. This is uninteresting and cliché. Rather than challenging the reader to question their beliefs and consider new perspectives, your work effects an echo chamber of the reader's pre-existing beliefs (and your own beliefs). It also lacks boldness and conviction; it raises the inference that you are terrified that someone will disagree with you or critically examine your work, that you want quick, popular approval (and remuneration) for your work.

You may brainstorm scenes before characters, or vice-versa. I prefer to start with scenes because it's easier to insert characters into established scenes - e.g. if you want a scene where a husband and wife are in an argument which turns into domestic violence, you can then set about writing those characters accordingly. Whereas it's difficult to create characters and then work out what they should do because characters can potentially do anything you want them to if you give them the right incentive.

4.3: The Inciting Question

For commercial writing, your premise and your thematic concern are the most vital commercial aspects of your story, because you draw upon them whenever you try to advertise your book. Consider a book is the primary advertisement for itself: ideally, your title, cover design, tagline, hook, and blurb will refer to your premise. All other advertisements will be based on these.

Another way of putting it is each of your title, cover design, tagline, hook and blurb should ask a question that makes the reader want to read your book, e.g. 'What if you were the last to know?'' or 'Would you do it?'' This is not the theme, but a thematic question, a question which converges back on your theme.

These also don't have to be literal questions, but should elicit a question, for instance: 'He looked at the closed casket as it disappeared into the ground, feeling the weight of being the only person who knew the body wasn't in there,'' (Theme: Honesty) or 'She allowed him to remove her white veil, and got a better look at his face. And - That's not Ivan. (Theme: Identity)

4.4: How to Create a Theme

There are different methods for developing a theme:

4.3.1 Synecdoche

Synecdoche is where a part of a thing represents the whole thing, or the whole represents a part.

Normally the former is used to convey theme, such as where the relationship of two characters will make a comment on love (the theme) at large. The characters themselves may each constitute a synecdoche; the male character may represent men, the female character represent women, etc.

4.4.2 Symbolism

Your theme can also be represented by dissimilar things.

For instance, if your theme related to the passage of time, you can't show time literally passing, second by second, in the story, so you may use visual imagery to suggest its passing.

4.5: Don't Preach

Under '1.1. The Main Elements of a Story,' Theme came last on the list. Plot comes first because your reader wants to be entertained above all else. If they wanted to learn something they would read non-fiction.

When you make THEME come first, you end up with a lecture - or worse, propaganda - not a story. Your plot bends to facilitate your opinion, rather than reflect the most interesting arrangement of events.

4.6: Variations on a Theme

This topic is an intersection of themes and character creation.

You might select a premise or theme for your story but be unsure how to create and populate your plot with scenes that flow from your central idea or premise rather than just being 'really cool things that happen' which you just thought up.

One technique you can apply is to think of stories as an exploration of an idea or premise, and have the freedom to explore all “variations on a theme”, or idea. Variations may be embodied in other characters whose own dramas vie with the protagonist for resolution. Additionally making these dramas a zero sum game can raise the stakes and also ensure the dramas are relevant to the protagonists'. Once you populate your plot with these variations major scenes and ideas may start to write themselves.

One way to explore this is, if a character advancing one position exists, there must exist a character who advances the equal and opposite position. The main example is if a character exists embodying good values - we call this the 'hero' - there must exist a character embodying bad values - we call this the 'villain'.

Take, for example, the Disney animated version of the Hercules myth, which goes further than the traditional good/bad polarization.

Take the premise: there exists a good demi-god. This actually contains two dimensions: a good person and someone with half divine presence and half lack of it. The latter is a more complicated position because it's defined by the presence of something and the lack of it at the same time. It's not a polarity, therefore it creates not one but two alternate positions.

Characters/protagonists who are 'half and half' or contain ambiguous shades of traits or status or identity are effective in stories where some underlying story message is not black and white, or that an issue is not resolved only taking one point of view. A story with a demi protagonist such as Hercules works to suggest Hercules' divine and mortal points of view are necessary to resolve some drama. The Disney movie may not have specifically intended this, and it's not that demi characters can only be in these such stories, but is worth knowing.

We can derive two available anti positions: (a) There exists a bad God, and (b) there exists a bad human. The movie supplies these alternate explorations and form character material. There is also another opposition along a different dimension: There exists a good man. A position derived from that is: (a) There exists a bad woman. The movie also supplies this position.

Polarities/oppositions don't just have to be positive/negative. Robert McKee²⁶² refers to the idea of negatives against negatives. Basically, the idea there is a state opposing negativity which is to negativity what negativity is to positivity. A state even more negative than negative, but also opposite. See: 14.4 The Negation of a Negation.

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