theme

I know, I promised plotting soon. And we’re getting there, trust me.

But it’s about this time that I always begin to reconsider my theme.

If you’ve done your work on your characters, some themes will probably be playing around in the back of your mind right now, and I want you to take an hour or so and really develop them.

what is theme?

As I think of it, while plot may be what happens in your book, theme is what the book is about. It’s not the subject of your book, that’s the subject of your book, but it’s the general thing that keeps popping up throughout the pages.

Take, for instance, Bernadette & the Stranger, my short story I’ve been using over the past week to explore characters with you. The major theme in Bernadette is isolation, and I explore this in a few different ways throughout the story.

do you need a theme?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: You will end up with a theme whether you plan to or not.

what does theme do?

A theme expands the plot you’ve already planned and develops the characters and their world much deeper than anything else could do for your book.

Theme speaks on the broader sense of human nature. In books like Pride & Prejudice, it speaks about marriage and different approaches to it, different levels of happiness within marriage, and hints at the reasons why these characters are or are not satisfied with their marriages, and whether they would or would not ever be satisfied with their own marriages, but also to society’s opinion of marriage as a whole.

And note that this is done subtly, without a lot of fanfare and announcements that Austen is discussing marriage for the sake of this. Instead, it’s about exploring marriage and seeking or avoiding marriage, or facing the marriage one finds oneself in.

Theme is discussed subtly in a book’s pages, not overtly.

examples of themes

To Kill A Mockingbird innocence prejudice hypocrisy

Count of Monte Cristo revenge forgiveness loss

The Hunger Games (series) survival human nature freedom

Harry Potter (series) good versus evil family/friends secrets

Pride & Prejudice marriage family/friends judgments



developing your book’s theme

So now that we know what theme is, we’ve got to figure out what we want the theme of our book to be.

Hopefully the above discussion has prompted some stirrings of imagination in you.

If not, and you’re still searching, take some of your favorite books and reconsider what their themes might be.

Then sit down and take a good look at the notes you already have.

For example, my ideas for Bernadette provided me with isolation and loss as themes quite early on. She needed a reason to leave everything behind, and a grave loss made that a reasonable motivator. But the ways in which I could talk about loss and isolation are what the plot focuses on and hopefully brings up in the reader’s mind a greater question of whether running from one’s fears is ever the right choice, or if this act serves only to isolate.

If you want to discuss prejudices, you’ll have to put your character into situations where prejudices can come up. Note that they can come up anywhere–it isn’t just racial prejudices or stereotypes that bring them out. Take Pride & Prejudice, there are plenty of judgments made in this book, snap ones from Lizzy, Darcy, and many others. Finding a truly open and accepting mind is uncommon. Austen brings that up as a theme by showing Lizzy and Darcy both reacting to each other, but also by demonstrating Mrs. Bennet’s reactions and the Lucas’s reactions to the new families in town as well. While many of these reactions are memorable, drawing attention to the varying reactions, it’s also done in a bit of a comical way, thus engaging the reader, and also subtly drawing the attention to one of the larger themes: marriage. She does this through having these reactions filtered through the marriage lens.

Is Mr. Darcy rich enough to be handsome?

At first glance, yes. But as the plot advances, things happen to make him appear less desirable, then things are revealed which make him desirable indeed. This is a great example of expanding on a money theme. Darcy is rich, so he’s automatically considered handsome and worth the catch–until he slights Lizzy, then all of a sudden, he’s not that rich, and not that desirable at all. Lizzy’s better off without him, right?

Is Lizzy pretty enough for her status to be overlooked?

At first, not for Mr. Darcy. But after a little while, he begins to see her strengths, while still rejecting her. Eventually, his feelings can’t be ignored, and when he runs across her again, his feelings increase and he starts to give into them. Eventually, he defends her looks to her harshest critics–completely reversing his earlier opinion of her–publicly! This truly is masterfully done. But note also that it is a direct demonstration of Mr. Darcy’s character arc–he goes from a judgmental man with preconceived notions about birth and class, to a man accepting of other statuses, connections, and even poorly behaved family members.

This is theme at its strongest–when it not only is discussing an important matter like a character’s preconceived notions, but also promotes the plot and character development at the same time.

brainstorm

I hate to keep harping on it, but get out that sheet of paper again, or pull up MindNode or Scapple on your computer, and get ready to vomit your brain all over your tools of choice. (That was a pretty metaphor, wasn’t it?)

So one approach to this might be to write down a general theme subject, like love or friendship, and start throwing out ideas for how to discuss or tease out that idea for your readers.

Returning to good ol’ P&P, throw out the theme of marriage. For this we might write down “arranged,” “loveless,” “true love,” “unhappy,” etc. Note that unhappy and loveless could overlap, as could true love could overlap with arranged, unhappy, and even loveless, depending on the arc of the book. But then write down things that come off those thoughts.

For loveless, I’d write down Charlotte Lucas, and even the Bennets (there’s no great love between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, after all). True love would have examples like the Gardiners, and eventually Lizzy and Darcy, as well as Bingley and Jane. You could also write down ways that these examples are discussed. E.g. Darcy goes out of his way to protect Lizzy’s family by forcing Wickham to marry Lydia. (Their marriage might fall into a “mistake” category…)

Clearly, you can work on this however your mind works. But it’s well worth the time to consider theme now before you write one word of your novel.

Developing your theme before you write is much like writing a logline: it gives you a path for the story ahead.

resources

tomorrow

We’re done with week one, which has focused on developing our character.

Now, finally–it’s time to start plotting! So come back tomorrow, and we’ll examine a few methods of plotting and hopefully find one that’s a good fit for you.

yesterday

In case you missed them, here are the prior posts in this NaNoPrep series.