Hey everyone! Welcome back for another weekly post. We’re finally getting near the end of September, and we only have a few more months left in 2021. Can you believe it?! I’m excited to talk a bit more about theme with todays post so without further ado,
Theme: How to write Theme
This post is the one I was looking forward to the most out of all these beginning posts on theme. Some of the posts after this one are also interesting and fun to write. As is usual with all of my posts this will not give you all of the answers to all of your writing problem. The goal of this blog is to give advice through ideas and my opinion. If you don’t agree with things that I say, then we can have a good civil discussion on the differences so we can each get a chance to better understand each other’s opinions. And as always, there are lots of different ways to write things. Generally, I just try to share the basics and simple advice for writing and there are always different and more interesting ways to write.
So as far as how to write theme the short answer is easy. The short answer is a three-step process. First, identify your theme. Second, develop your theme. Third, forget about your theme. Now some of those steps sound a little crazy and I’ll give credit where credit is due, it does seem a little weird to forget about your theme. As far as identifying theme goes, I’m going to talk more about that in a later post. This post is more about the developing of theme.
Forgetting your theme is one of the easier steps when writing. If you are writing a book to prove a point or make a statement, then the whole book will center around a theme. If you write a book because you enjoy it and you simply enjoy the story, then you are writing while forgetting your theme. Now I can probably guess what you’re thinking, “But J.M., if I’m not thinking about my theme then how do I know if my story has a theme?” That is a good question. Here’s the simple answer: If your story is interesting, has a solid plot line, developed character, and good conflict and motivation then your story (by default) has theme. So don’t worry about it. Focusing too much on theme turns your story into a message rather than a story. Those who need the message will find it and those who read for fun won’t need to look for it.
Now we get down to developing a theme. In my last post I wrote about the three kinds of themes that I notice the most in books. How to develop theme is easier when you understand what kinds of themes there are. There are lots of different ways to develop themes such as foreshadowing, repetition, and others. The two things that I want to talk about today are basic theme developing tool and those are using Motifs and Symbols.
For those of you who aren’t sure what the difference is here are the definition. A motif is a recurring structure, symbol, or literary device. A symbol, on the other hand, is an image, character, object, or other representative item. It’s kind of that square and rectangle rhyme you learn growing up but for writing. A symbol can be a motif, but a motif is not a symbol. The main difference between the two is that a motif is repetitive by definition whereas a symbol can simply appear once in the story to hint at the theme. A motif is that thing English teachers were always asking you to look for saying things like, “The blue curtains in her room that appear throughout her story is a symbolic motif of the depressive view she has of the outside world.”
For example, say we wanted to use motif to develop our theme throughout the story. Let’s say that the theme of our story is that love can heal all wounds. What is a motif that would be helpful to convey this theme to the reader in an unobtrusive way? For a recurring structure we could have a constant underlying subplot that every time the character hurts or gets hurt they happen to find someone they love to help them fix themselves. I personally love symbols the most so let’s say our character is missing their left leg from the knee down. Throughout the story they use either some sort of wheelchair, crutches, cane, and/or prosthetics. These are our motif. They are always there, they are always mentioned throughout the story and described in detail every time something happens to the character. However, perhaps whenever a loved one is around those objects are never described. It’s never mentioned that they have a limp or are wheeling themselves down the hall. This is a very subtle way to use a motif to express a theme.
What if we wanted to use a single symbol rather than a motif? First you would need to decide what your symbol was. Let’s throw in a symbolic person. Let’s take our story from before and write a small scene when the character is not having a very good day. Maybe they’re stressed. Maybe they’re tired. Whatever it is let’s pretend they are sitting in their wheelchair at a park watching others having fun and having a pity party for themselves thinking they’ll never have a good day again because they can’t get up and play. A ball bounces towards our character and when they look up, they see someone who has overcome a similar disability. It could be a kid with a prosthetic limb, or it could be a kid doing sports in a wheelchair. Our character gives the ball back and that child scores points in whatever game they are playing. They turn and smile at their parents who smile back, clapping, waving, and cheering them on. This is a symbol. These characters represent the over arching theme of the story which is love heals all wounds.
Both motifs and symbols are effective ways to convey theme in simple and easy ways. It also makes the themes mostly unobtrusive and leaves space for those who just want to read your story and enjoy a good book. I once read on a writing blog somewhere, “Themes are usually intentionally unintentional.” I feel like this is a good explanation of how to write theme. Themes are simple and easy concepts that resonate with a large majority of people and are written into a story for the reader to discover.
I hope that you enjoyed this week’s post. I really enjoyed writing this post this week. Coming up with the examples for interesting concept such as these is so much fun. I hope that it was helpful. If you have any more questions about how to write theme send me a message and let me know. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on the social media links at the bottom of the page. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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