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Hey,
I was hoping I could get some advice on differentiating the Theme, message and plot when writing. I’m so stuck with pinpointing my theme in my WIP first draft. Can I have multiple themes going on? Is the theme supposed to be as transparent as my protagonist’s goal or goals?
My WIP is rather complex in someways. It involves the Faith, while being a little like a suspense mystery book with a lot of answered questions. It deals with high society and one’s reputation, while my protagonist struggles to fit in. She doesn’t fit in well and is shunned by upper class people while she can’t make any sense out of her past. So, she’s left feeling lost. It’s ultimately a journey about finding one’s family and embracing yourself. A very internal journey for the protagonist while the external world and characters make it extremely difficult for her.
Now that you know a little bit about it, what would you say my theme is?
Also can I have more than one message or should I aim for having one very clear message at the end?
Feel free to ask more questions about my WIP.
Thanks for taking the time to read my rant. I just feel unmotivated to write lately because of this struggle.INFJ/ChristianFiction/ IceCreamAddict/ StarGazer/ https://lamplighterletters.wixsite.com/mysite-1
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Okay, so I can’t say I’m the best person to ask for advice on this, but I’ll certainly try to help. Just take whatever I say with a grain of salt since I’m not really super experienced in this part of writing.
I would guess that your thematic question would be that everyone is important and that they all have a purpose no matter how rich or poor. That’s just based on what you told me.
The problem with this theme, however, is that it’s kind of an easy theme. I learned from a recent webinar on StoryEmbers that true, good themes that resonate with people will have thematic questions that are harder to answer. In this case, I believe your thematic question would be, “Do I matter to the world?” Or something along those lines. That’s a yes-or-no question, meaning that it’s a lot easier to answer than a lot of questions are. To build a really good, strong theme, it’s helpful to have a thematic question that is harder to answer and that all readers might not necessarily know the answer to.
So, personally, I would change your thematic question. Make it more difficult to answer, and make sure it has multiple possible answers that are right. Use questions that begin with the words what or how, instead of words like do or are.
Moving on to your next question: Having multiple messages isn’t a bad thing. But you should probably still have one dominating theme, and the other messages should branch off of that. You want readers to see clearly your one theme.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have other messages along with it. Your other messages should probably just be more subtle, and they should probably relate to the main theme more.
Does that make sense? I typed this up pretty fast, so sorry if any of that was confusing!
In the words of Jinto Queb, "Hurry, reading is fun!"
Hi @annabelle,
Thank you for your advice! That was very useful. So theme is more about asking a question that the reading will explore by reading the book, not stating a theme. I guess I could ask, “How do we find our place in society? Or, “Who will we let define us?”
I once read that your thematic question can slightly change through the book. The protagonist might be asking one question in the beginning and be asking a different one by the middle. Is that true? I guess that’s what a character arc is…
INFJ/ChristianFiction/ IceCreamAddict/ StarGazer/ https://lamplighterletters.wixsite.com/mysite-1
You’re welcome! Yes, either of those questions I think would be good.
I think that’s true? I’ve never really thought about it until now, so I don’t know. Like I said earlier, I may not be the very best person to ask for advice on this. Still, that sounds right to me, and now that I think of it, I have read books that have changed thematic questions. Especially in series, the themes often change through different volumes in the series.
I’m not sure that a changing thematic question is necessarily a character arc, though. A character arc is typically the character developing and finding the answer to the thematic question, not necessarily changing it.
In the words of Jinto Queb, "Hurry, reading is fun!"
@maryg3 Hey, Mary!! From what I’ve gathered about the bit you shared, it seems your book’s overarching main focal theme is about finding your place in life. (Did I get it right? 😂) So for my personal opinion, I think it’s really great to have more than one message in a story!!! I mean, we as people are so complex and learn so many different lessons in life, we have more than just one singular Lie or Goal, so I think our characters should be just as developed. I do advise for storytelling’s sake to have like one main focus, and then you can branch into multiple mini-themes. Like for instance, the main theme of my current WIP is about finding strength inside rather than physical strength and love is the strongest force of all. But there are smaller themes like the power of family and perseverance and forgiveness and humility. We don’t spend as much page time on them but they’re definitely there in the background. I hope this helps, and your WIP sounds SO cool!!!! And I’m super sorry to hear you’ve been feeling unmotivated to write. Keep going, girl!! YOU’VE GOT THIS!!! *sends encouraging chocolate*
God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers.
TeenWritersNook.comIt seems like you already nailed down your theme with your description of what the book is about.
It’s ultimately a journey about finding one’s family and embracing yourself.
Found family and embracing yourself seems like the main two themes of your story.
And about your question on multiple themes, pretty much every story has multiple themes. Like The Lord of the Rings’ main theme is good vs evil, however, there are also themes of friendship, sacrifice, and courage.
So you can play with multiple themes in your story, however, it’s usually recommended that among those themes to have one main theme that your story is mostly focused on.
The main theme is usually the theme that is most closely connected to the MC’s internal struggle and the story’s overarching narrative.
So if your MC’s main internal struggle is understanding who she is and embracing it, then that would probably be your main theme.
If your MC’s main internal struggle is finding belonging in a family, then that would be your story’s main theme.
Of course, you can have both themes play a big part in the story, but one will probably end up being more in the forefront of your story thus being the “main theme”.
I hope that makes sense! I hope that writing motivation will return to you soon!
Themes are so neat! I love finding little hidden lessons in the books I read.
Now, adding them isn’t always quite so easy, and I know I have a long way to go before my stories properly portray their themes. (I have to write them first, for one… 😉 )
But I agree with the others: multiple themes are fantastic and best when they all work together.
To take @kathleenramm ‘s illustration, for example. In LotR, the main theme may be Good vs. evil, but that’s just the broad way of saying it. It could also be phrased as “what does it look like when good stands against evil”, and from there we get the further questions of “What do Good and evil look like in the first place?” And “how do we fight evil?”. From illustrating what good looks like, we get Courage, Friendship, Loyalty, Mercy, and Forgiveness, and once those are shown we ask: “Are those things worthwhile?”
But all these minor themes play into the major one, and we even find the book asking “Is it worth fighting evil?”. Then when the characters say “Yes!” or even “No!”, it becomes our own turn to answer. All this leads into the main general theme of “Good vs. Evil.”
And I don’t know if that makes sense, or if it’s completely correct, but that’s my thoughts on the matter.
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
Yes! You illustrated my point perfectly. Delving into the core of the theme (such as Good Vs Evil) through questions demonstrated throughout the book, opens up many different but related themes that expands on the original theme’s message.
Themes are really cool in that way. I really like how you explained it in your post!
Yay! Thank you. They sure are fascinating things, these themes.
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
@issawriter7
Hi Issabelle!
Thank you for your advice! Yes, That’s pretty much the theme. Finding where you truly belong and building a new identity is more what I’m aiming for.So with what you said, then I think finding family is one of her goals that branches out from the main theme. One of the few messages would be “Family doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be related to you.”
Yesss, we as human are very complex and I can help but want to make my novels as complex as possible. I just don’t want my readers to feel lost and scattered. But like you said the main theme can have a bunch of sub themes, so I feel a bit better about that.
Would you say that the messages in a story are the answers to the thematic question(s)??Thank you for sharing you WIP as an example, that helped. And that sounds like something I would DEFINITELY love to read:)
Oh, and thanks for the chocolates;)
btw I love your signature quote!! That really hits home for me!
INFJ/ChristianFiction/ IceCreamAddict/ StarGazer/ https://lamplighterletters.wixsite.com/mysite-1
@kathleenramm
Hi Kathleen,Wow! Thank you that was all so helpful!!
Okay, so I guess the ‘main theme’ would be struggling to build a new identity for herself. She has to choose who she wants to define her, whether that be living the life in high society or embracing the anew life in Christ with fellow Catholics. So family, belonging, happiness, purpose and learning to embrace her past are all sub themes that help her embrace herself and find her true family and place in society.
phew, okay now that I was able to talk it through it seems a lot more clear in my mind!! Now I know which theme to focus on more as I continue my second draft! I felt I was being pulled in a hundred directions…
Thank you, Thank you!!! I appreciate you help!
INFJ/ChristianFiction/ IceCreamAddict/ StarGazer/ https://lamplighterletters.wixsite.com/mysite-1
@elishavet-pidyon
Hi Elishavet,All that was soooo helpful!! Especially the LOTR example! I like how you asked different questions and how it becomes the readers turn to ask or respond to those questions. I’m definitely going to contemplate that more! I think I’m getting the hang of the whole theme thing now!
I appreciate your help!!!!!!INFJ/ChristianFiction/ IceCreamAddict/ StarGazer/ https://lamplighterletters.wixsite.com/mysite-1
Good!I’m really glad it helped. Sometimes my illustrations do worse than nothing. XD
You have listened to fears, child. Come, let me breathe on you... Are you brave again? -Aslan
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