August 13, 2018 • 42 mins
Theme is the foundation of a powerful story, yet many writers struggle to define and develop it effectively. If you’ve ever wondered how to integrate theme without being heavy-handed, this episode breaks it down in a practical way. We’ll explore how to uncover the deeper meaning behind your story and seamlessly weave it into your narrative.
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(00:00):
Welcome to the inside creative writing podcast.
The weekly discussion of craft and technique for
writers of fiction and creative nonfiction.
And now here's your host, writer and educator,
Brad Reed.
Episode 29.
Today, we're tackling one of the most misunderstood
but vital elements of writing fiction. Today is
(00:21):
all about theme.
What is it and how do we get
it working in our stories?
Welcome back to the inside creative writing podcast.
My name is Brad Reed, and I'm really
excited to be bringing today's topic to you.
It's one of those things that might give
you,
unpleasant flashbacks to that high school English class
(00:44):
where the concept of theme
was one of those elusive,
confusing
pieces of, literary techniques that never quite clicked
for you. So if that's the case, you're
not alone. As a high school English teacher
myself, I watch students
come into my class with the same
glassy eyed hesitation when I start talking about
(01:05):
theme that you may have had. But the
good news is that they leave my class
understanding what theme is
and why it's so important in a piece
of writing. And that's what we're going to
be doing today. So we're going to take
it a step further today and go beyond
just
finally understanding what we're talking about when we're
talking about theme
(01:25):
and begin to explore how we can use
theme
to make our writing more relevant,
more powerful, more compelling
for our readers.
But before we dive into theme today, I
want to mention that the real time revision
video that we uploaded on this last Thursday,
I think that's video 24 in that real
(01:46):
time revision series,
it's all about theme.
So if you find that after today's episode,
you'd like to see how I
identify and implement theme in my own writing,
check out that video.
It's part of our free to everyone
Patreon rewards and you can find it either
on the podcast website at bradreedwrites.com
(02:09):
or on our Patreon page at patreon.com/bradreedwrites.
And again, we've made all of our resources
over there free for everyone, whether or not
you're a Patreon team member. So, if you
find value in what you find there, we
simply ask that you consider throwing a few
bucks a month our way to help keep
the show up and running as part of
(02:29):
that Patreon team.
I also wanted to remind you this week
about the opportunity
you have to be a guest host
on the podcast.
I've talked to some of you guys about
this already and I'm finding something kind of
interesting that a lot of you
don't feel like you have the expertise
to submit a short
audio segment for use on the show. So
(02:50):
if that's you,
I want to dissuade you from that notion.
We are all on our own,
unique journeys
as writers. We all become experts in some
things
and can somehow still remain novices in other
things.
We all find those techniques that really click
for us
(03:11):
and, we dismiss others that just don't work
with our writing
style. So this opportunity to be a guest
host is really about,
just sharing what's worked for you as a
writer, regardless of what level
of writing you're at, as if there is
such a thing as levels of writing.
Basically, it works like this. Record yourself,
(03:31):
teaching an element or technique of writing
that you are especially passionate about for about
fifteen to twenty minutes. And teaching is maybe
even too heavy of a word there. You're
just sharing something
that works for you.
Now, this could be on your own. You
could do this solo like I usually do
the podcast or you could team up with
a partner and talk through this technique together.
(03:52):
I only ask that you try to use
a a decent external microphone
so the sound quality is good. That'll help
us, get your submission
on the show. So it's it's really just
you sharing something that works for you that
you think others might benefit from. So once
you've recorded that for about fifteen to twenty
minutes, send us that file as an m
p three file to bradreed@bradreedwrites.com
(04:16):
and, you just might hear that segment on
a future show.
You know, I'm thinking of this a little
bit like the way, talk shows used to
work on television, like back in the era
of Johnny Carson. So, when he went on
vacation or he had to miss a day
of taping for whatever reason,
they didn't just run a rerun like talk
shows do now. They had a guest host
(04:37):
come on,
for that show instead. So they were always
creating new content.
And that's kind of the model that I'm
looking for.
You don't have to worry about producing the
whole show. Right? You're not doing an intro
and an outro.
You're not coming up with wise words or
weekly challenges unless you want to add that
as part of your
(04:58):
segment.
We're gonna take care of all of that
stuff. It's really just a chance to play
host for a day and share what's working
for you with other writers.
You could think of it a little like
submitting a guest blog post,
for a blog. Only, this is a piece
of recorded audio.
Now, just like any submission,
(05:19):
there's no guarantee that we'll end up using
your audio on the show. Although we're going
to do our best to find a way
to get all of them out there. We
may even do smaller bonus episodes for some.
And also, at least at this time, there's
no compensation
for audio segments. That's something I'd love to
have in the future.
But you can feel free to mention your
website,
(05:39):
your Twitter handle,
any books you currently have available, anything along
those lines.
As long as promotion isn't the focus of
your segment, as long as the the focus
is really sharing
a technique, an element of craft
that, really works for you. So if you
have any questions about that,
please don't hesitate to give me an email.
(06:00):
It's bradreed@bradreedwrites.com.
Now, last week we explored the concept of
writer's block on the podcast and I asked
for your feedback about the show,
about some of the claims that I made
and especially for you to share any techniques
that you might use
to push past those roadblocks that we hit
(06:20):
when we're writing.
So listener Jesse Holly, called our message line
and left us some thoughts about something that
works for him. So let's take a listen
to what Jesse had to say this week.
Hi there, Brad. This is Jesse from Sydney,
Australia.
Just giving you a call in response to
the recent episode on writer's block. I loved
it very much. I think,
the writer's block is nothing supernatural
(06:41):
or insurmountable,
and I thought I'd share a recent,
perhaps cure for it that I've observed. My
friends recently,
started up a book club
and their first recommendation was, Ready Player One.
I was reluctant to engage, but, I did.
And starting to read it, I, I found
myself arguing with the the author's writing style.
(07:03):
I found it
lazy and maybe simple. So my advice to
writers for overcoming writer's block is engage with
a piece of art that you find a
little bit simplistic
And, hopefully, you'll see yourself coming up with
all these different ideas of how you would
have done it better and, perhaps it's the,
sense of competition in my nature. But I
found it really drew out my creativity.
(07:23):
Bit of a negative bridge, but, it certainly
worked for me. Thanks very much. Bye.
Alright. Thanks so much for your call and
for your insight, Jesse.
You've hit on a technique here that I've
never really thought to try on my own.
And it makes sense,
since so much of what causes what we
like to call writer's block
(07:44):
actually boils down to a kind of lack
of confidence
in our own skills. So it makes sense
that looking at a piece of writing
that you might consider to be inferior in
some way,
yet it still found some level of success,
that process could help to give us more
confidence in our own writing. Now, I haven't
(08:04):
read ready player one. It's actually been on
my to read list for a while now,
but I just haven't gotten around to it.
So I can't really comment on, what I
think of the writing of the book.
But your your angle here makes me think
about something I heard a few weeks ago
and I apologize that I can't
place exactly where I heard it to give
credit.
(08:24):
But, they were basically saying that if you
have a good enough plot
and your structure is solid,
then readers can look past writing that is,
less than stellar.
But if your plotting and structure aren't good,
in other words, your story isn't working on
a basic story level, then no amount of
(08:45):
good writing, kind of that sentence level prose,
will save your book. Right? It's about the
story first and foremost.
And I think that goes hand in hand
here with what Jesse is talking about.
Whatever it takes for us to get out
of our
perfectionist
mindset
and simply into getting words on the page
(09:05):
is a good thing. So thanks for sharing
those thoughts, Jesse and,
for your support of the show. That means
so much to me. If you have comments
you'd like to get to us about today's
podcast, any other podcast, and especially comments that
we might be able to use on a
future episode,
you can give us a call like Jesse
did at our message line. That's (541)
(09:26):
952-2406.
Okay. So all enough of the introductory stuff
here today. I'm excited to get into today's
topic. So let's get to it. Theme.
What it is, what it isn't,
and how we can use it in our
writing.
(09:53):
Of all the things that English teachers teach,
I think theme
might be one of the hardest ones. And
I'm actually not sure
why that is.
I think part of it is that there
isn't a clear agreement, even across teachers of
English,
what exactly we mean by theme.
But, it also has to do with how
(10:14):
many other ways we use that word theme.
I mean, you could have a prom theme.
Right? Maybe your prom was under the sea
or night beneath the stars or a hundred
other kind of,
tacky prom themes. But we think of theme
that way. Right? You could also decorate your
house
with something like a country theme.
(10:35):
You could compose a theme song for a
TV show. Or you could go to a
theme park like Disneyland or
Universal Studios or SeaWorld or even something like
Dollywood.
And theme,
in that case, just means kind of the
concept or idea
that ties everything together.
(10:56):
So how do these relate to themes that
we either find or want to create
in the books that we read and the
books that we write.
So the first step and the most important
step
is to separate
what we mean by theme in books and
stories
from what we mean by theme in all
(11:17):
of these other circumstances.
So I want you to divorce the word
theme
from all the other connotations when we're using
it to talk about writing. It means
something different.
And getting it all thrown in with the
other uses of theme will only complicate what
we're trying to do here today. So, at
least for now,
(11:37):
forget that you've ever heard the word theme
before. You're starting with a blank slate and
we're ready to give this word we've never
heard before a unique
meaning.
And to do that, we actually have to
start with another word. But this one you
already know and you know it in the
context that we're gonna use it. And that
word is topic.
(11:58):
So topic is
simply a concept or whatever thing is under
discussion. Now, a topic
is almost always one word or maybe it's
a short phrase
that sums up a single idea.
Now, books usually have a huge number of
topics,
(12:19):
which are basically just things
that the book is talking about. So, for
example, the book I'm writing right now is
talking about things or topics like earthquakes,
survival,
family,
love, loss,
religion,
faith,
trust, danger,
hope,
hopelessness,
(12:39):
fear, and a bunch of other things.
So these are all topics. They're not themes.
In fact, let's, you know, let's use Harry
Potter as an example again since we're we
all kind of share that,
story in common, I hope. So what are
the topics of Harry Potter? Well, you have
things like magic
or friendship,
education,
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good and evil,
family,
love, adventure,
loneliness, and on and on. You could generate
a huge list of topics
that Harry Potter is dealing with, but none
of those things
are what we're talking about when we're talking
about theme.
Even though you might have been taught that
they are. So forget
(13:22):
all that nonsense. It's not helpful. So we
already have a word for those things and
that word is topics,
not themes.
But what we are going to do is
to use topics
to find or to discover
theme.
And remember at this point you still have
no idea what we mean by theme. So
keep an open mind here, a blank slate.
(13:43):
So let's start by choosing one of the
major
topics
of a book. So So we'll continue with
our Harry Potter example since so many of
us are familiar with it. And I think
it's hard to miss the topic of friendship
as a major topic
of those books. I mean, the whole
adventure revolves around Harry
(14:04):
and Hermione and Ron and how they work
together and occasionally
work against each other to get what they
want in the story. So, friendship is a
huge topic in the book. But it's not
a theme of the book. We wouldn't say
that a theme of Harry Potter is friendship.
We'd say a topic of Harry Potter is
friendship.
(14:24):
So let's choose that one. Now that we
have our chosen topic,
let's discover how to turn that topic
into what we're gonna call theme. And it's
as simple as completing a sentence. It goes
like this.
The creator of Harry Potter of the Harry
Potter stories believes that friendship is
what? Right? Blank. Complete that sentence.
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Now, knowing the story,
how would you fill in the rest of
that sentence? I might say something like this.
The creator of the Harry Potter stories believes
that we need the help of our friends
to overcome great challenges.
Now you might come up with something different,
but I think it's clear
that we could all come up with something.
(15:06):
Right? The the author,
JK Rowling is definitely saying something about the
importance of friendship.
And the books and the films too have
a lot to say about it. So we
are almost there with theme now. All we
have to do now is chop off
the first part of that sentence. So the
first part was the creator of the Harry
Potter series believes that. And we're literally just
(15:29):
gonna chop that off of our sentence. In
fact, when you're working with your own book,
I encourage you to write this sentence out.
There's something about that process that helps you
more clearly identify your theme. So we're crossing
out now. Imagine we've got that written on
a piece of paper and we're gonna cross
out the first part that says the creator
of the Harry Potter stories believe that. So
we've crossed that out. And what we're left
(15:50):
with is this.
We need the help of our friends to
overcome great challenges.
Now that's a theme.
We need the help of our friends
to overcome great challenges.
Notice that it's not a single word or
a single concept. Right? It's a statement
of belief.
Now some people are tempted to call this
(16:11):
a moral,
but I like to stay away from that
word because it's just a bit too loaded
and, it gets kind of into this good
and evil, right and wrong thing, which doesn't
have to be a part of theme.
Morals,
when we look at theme that way, it
starts to sound like it's something that's preachy.
And I'd rather think of it simply as
a statement about one way
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to see the world.
Now, before we decide that that's our theme,
there are a couple of quick checks that
we can do to make sure that we've
identified
that theme well, that we've got a strong
one. And the first check is to ask
a simple question of your theme. Could someone
argue against it?
So let's try it. Is it possible for
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someone to believe that we do not need
the help of our friends to overcome great
challenges?
Sure it is, right? Absolutely.
There are a lot of great stories, both
true and fictional,
about,
how important it is to go it on
your own. Right? To not rely on anyone
else for the things you want.
So this is an important aspect of theme.
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It has to be arguable.
In other words, we're kind of getting at
the an opinion
on a topic.
This is one of the reasons a topic
can't work as a theme.
Could you argue against the single word friendship
or,
war
or love?
Well, not really. Right? And sometimes my students
(17:35):
will say, yeah, you can. You could definitely
argue about war. I'm not saying argue about
war. I'm just saying put that word out
there, war. Is that an argument? Is that
an opinion?
No, it's not. Right? It's just simply a
topic that you would have to
bring opinions into to turn that into
some kind of topic or statement of belief.
So difference between topic and theme,
(17:57):
huge here.
But, that so that's the number one check.
Right? Do I have a good theme? Is
it arguable?
Could someone
reasonably
disagree
with the theme that you've identified?
Now, on to check number two.
Can you back,
up your theme with evidence from the story?
So, in other words, does the book or
(18:17):
story really say that? Can you point to
specific things, specific scenes
that suggest that that theme is true or
that at least the author, the creator of
that text is putting forth
that that theme is true. So let's take
Harry Potter again for example.
The books are, filled with specific moments where
(18:38):
without the help of Ron and Hermione,
Harry wouldn't have been successful. Right? He probably
wouldn't even have survived for that matter.
So yes, our theme that we've come up
with stands up for Harry Potter.
So one, it's arguable. It's a statement of
opinion. And two,
you can back it up with evidence.
(18:58):
And here's the thing, a book can have
a huge
number of themes.
Virtually any topic you've identified
could be,
extrapolated
out
into an effective theme as long as it's
arguable
and as long as it can be backed
up by evidence.
Now some of you guys, I can feel
it right now where you're having flashbacks,
(19:20):
to your high school English class. I mean,
what does proving a theme with evidence
have to do with writing our own books?
Right? That feels like something we had to
do in a,
writing assignment in high school. Well, it actually
has everything to do with writing.
Because our goal
as writers
is to show our readers another view of
(19:43):
the world. A compelling,
interesting, authentic view of the world.
We want to give them a new way
to process
what's going on around them. So in other
words, our books, whether we intend them to
or not,
are expressing themes.
Now, they may be doing doing that very
badly. Right? If we're not being intentional about
(20:04):
it, but they are doing it. They are
expressing themes.
So let's figure out how to work with
theme intentionally.
So that when a reader finishes our story,
they aren't left either feeling like they've been
preached at,
about how they should see the world or
that they're left act asking themselves,
yeah, good story, but so what? Right? What
(20:26):
does it mean?
Now some of you already know, how you're
wanting your reader to see their world differently
after reading your story. So you have essentially
already kind of got your theme worked out,
whether you already knew this concept of how
to use theme or maybe you just stumbled
into it, which is very possible. Right?
(20:47):
Like I said, theme is there whether you
intended it to be or not.
So the the next step is to identify
it.
Make sure that your theme is saying
what you want it to say. And then,
once you have identified it, that main theme,
you wanna intentionally
weave that
into your story,
so it doesn't stick out like an example
(21:08):
in an English textbook. Right? We don't want
this to be obvious. We want this to
be under the surface so that your reader
is
discovering the theme for themselves
as they're reading your story.
So, for the sake of, this, kind of
lesson today, we're gonna pretend that you don't
have your theme figured out yet. So you've
got a great story idea, you've either written
(21:30):
it or you're planning to write it, but
you haven't really given any thought to theme.
So I want you to start by doing
the same analysis that we just did with
Harry Potter. Right? Make a list. What are
all the topics of your story? Think of
that list that I gave you a little
bit early earlier of all the topics in
the story that I'm working on. So you
wanna list everything you can think of. If
(21:51):
there's love if there if you got a
love story in your story, write down love.
If there's a war happening in your story,
write down war.
If one character undermines
another, you might write trust.
So make as big a list as you
can.
Then start pairing that list down to what
really
(22:12):
matters.
So sure, your story has a love interest,
but it's kind of a subplot
and it's not all that important, so you
may cross out love in your list. And,
yeah, there's one character that's always kind of
gaming the other, so trust is definitely a
topic,
but it's not something that you're all that
passionate about exploring in your story, so you
may strike through,
(22:33):
that topic as well. Strike through trust. So
what you wanna do is go through that
process until you whittle it down to
one or two or maybe three
main topics.
And this is the real,
meat
of what you're dealing with in this in
your story. The real topics that you're dealing
with. It's the heart
(22:54):
of your story. Now for me, as I'm
working through my work in progress, I came
down to the three topics of authenticity,
of faith,
and of family. Now your list will almost
certainly
be different, but you wanna get to that
heart of your story. These are the one,
two, or maybe stretch it to three things
(23:15):
that are the heart of your story.
Now what I want you to do is
start to write some theme statements like we
did to identify theme earlier. So you'll write
the sentence out, the creator of this story,
which is you of course, but I actually
find it helps to disassociate
myself
from my story at the step. So when
I'm doing this, I actually write out the
(23:35):
creator of the story,
believes
what about each topic. Right? Based on the
evidence that you see in the story.
So what you wanna do is write a
few of these at least,
maybe a whole bunch more. You wanna keep
at it
until you discover what it is
that you
really actually want to say about the topic
(23:58):
and about
how it affects the world or how you
want, your readers to see the world differently
through this topic.
So
that's the progress the process that's going to
lead you to your overarching
theme. So this is the answer to the
yeah, so what question that readers sometimes ask
(24:18):
after they've finished even a good story
that might lack a clear theme.
So this is hard,
but it's actually really fun work.
And I encourage you to give it as
much time and thought as you need. It's
so key to your story that you really
wanna have this solidly figured out. So your
story, if written well,
(24:39):
will change the way people see the world.
It will change the way they understand and
relate
to the topic or topics that you're exploring.
So it's worth your time
to make sure that it's working the way
you intend it to.
So we're essentially skipping
a big chunk of work here. Right? We're
assuming that you've,
(25:00):
now done the work of,
creating lists of topics, of identifying your overarching
theme,
that one topic that is most essential to
your story and how you want your reader
to come away from your story,
understanding it in a new way. So, let's
move on to how to get that theme
working in your story in a way that
(25:21):
is subtle enough
to not call attention to itself, but it's
still
obvious enough
that it lands with your reader. And by
the time they're done reading, they get it.
So this is where some writers and educators
disagree.
So the best I can do is give
you my own technique.
And I tend to think that theme is
(25:42):
best expressed
through characters who believe differently from each other
about the theme.
So in other words, I very intentionally give
each of my main characters
and sometimes the secondary characters,
an opposing view
of the theme
so that my readers get to watch as
(26:02):
each of these characters
approaches the world with their own particular world
view and either succeeds, shows it to be
valid,
or fails. Right? Shows that belief to be
invalid.
So let's start with a really simple example
of that just to flesh this idea out
a little bit. And we're gonna pretend that
we're writing a war story.
(26:23):
So war is our topic. Right? Not our
theme, single word so it can't be a
theme.
War is our topic.
And let's say that our story is going
to follow a group of soldiers who are
tasked with an extremely
dangerous mission behind enemy lines. And we're going
to set it in some
future world where military service is no longer
(26:44):
optional,
just because that's gonna help us get a
bunch of different perspectives involved as possible. Right?
We may have,
soldiers that don't even believe in war because
they've essentially been drafted.
So after really thinking about what we wanna
say about war
somatically,
we come up with this.
War is an effective way for boys to
(27:06):
mature into men. So that let's pretend that's
the theme
that we're going to be showing. War is
an effective way for boys to mature into
men. Now, I'm not even saying that I
agree with this theme.
It's just the one that I kinda came
up with to work with this story idea
and illustrate what we're talking about.
So what I'm going to do with the
story is make sure
(27:28):
that I've stocked it with characters who have
different takes
on that theme.
So I'm gonna have one or more of
the characters who are going to agree
with that theme. Right? They are going to
see war as an effective way for boys
to mature into men.
They're in the military to improve themselves. Right?
They've joined to become men.
(27:50):
And then I might even have an old
kind of grizzled military captain who also shares
that worldview, kind of that mentor, right, who's
pushing that worldview onto these young soldiers. He's
not just there to win a war. He
sees it as an opportunity to change these
boys into men.
But then, I want some characters who don't
(28:11):
operate with this worldview.
Right? I want a character who absolutely opposes
war,
even though he's forced to be fighting in
it. He absolutely sees
nothing
redeeming about it at all, and he views
it as the worst expressions of humanity.
It's turning boys not into men, but into
heartless killing machines.
(28:33):
And then let's have another character who sees
war entirely different from those two. Maybe he
sees war as an opportunity for wealth.
So he's consumed with,
pilfering things, right? Stealing things from,
captives in the war and and, basically looting
the places that they have attacked. And he's
(28:53):
always looking for that angle to either make
a buck
or make a connection that will help him
get rich after the war.
And then let's throw another character in. Right?
Now we have the peace loving activist
who sees,
it as his mission to redeem his comrades.
Right? He is there almost like a missionary
for peace trying to bring others around to
(29:16):
his world view. And I think you see
where I'm going here.
Right? Each character I'm bringing into the story
has a different take on the topic.
And by doing that,
we've created
well rounded characters that feel real
to your reader. Now, this can,
(29:36):
quickly become kind of dangerously preachy. Right? What
I'm not suggesting is that we have a
bunch of scenes where all these characters are
sitting around a campfire
arguing,
their own points of this theme. Right? What
we do see is that in their reaction
to
conflict, in their reaction to tension,
in the way that they phrase their sentences,
(29:57):
we begin to understand, oh, this person's coming
up from it coming at this from this
point of view. So your reader is discovering
this along the way, rather than have you
come right out and tell them. Because if
you come right out and have your characters
just speak these beliefs into the world,
that's where it starts to feel preachy. Right?
We want to see authentic characters
(30:18):
who aren't just spouting what they believe, they're
living
what they believe. And that's where we get
to begin to solve that puzzle
that you're,
creating
for it. So your reader really gets to
watch
all of these competing views on the topic
play out in that story world.
So from this point, you can make basically
(30:38):
one of two choices in how your theme
plays out.
You can either validate your theme and invalidate
the opposing ones,
or you can use your story as an
open ended exploration
of the theme. So in other words, you
could write your story that so that the
people who hold views opposing your intended theme
(30:59):
fail in ways,
that show their beliefs to be wrong.
Or you could show the complexity
of the theme,
illustrating positives and negatives
of all the various views. And I I
feel like I didn't say that very well.
Let me try to restate that one more
time. So essentially,
once you've decided you on your theme, you're
either going to tell your story as though
(31:22):
your theme is right
and the way you've set up your entire
story keeps proving that over and over again.
So at the end of the story, it's
very clear what worldview is correct. Or you
could make the choice
to use your story as an exploration
of the theme.
So not only are you giving opposing views
and different takes on it, but you're also
(31:44):
sometimes validating those views and invalidating
the theme views so that it becomes kind
of an exploration.
So this is getting into some pretty deep
water here that might be beyond
what you're ready to think about, especially if
this whole concept of theme is is a
little bit new. But in case you're feeling
good about the work we've done so far
(32:04):
with theme, I want to get into it
just a little bit
more here. So I'm I'm hoping that I
don't lose, too many of you here.
So my own opinion on this question is
that it's always better to leave some ambiguity
about where you stand as the author about
your theme.
(32:24):
This is yet another opportunity for your reader
to invest in your story
and let them come away with the experience
that they find most value
or most valuable.
In some ways, I think the way we
choose to go about exploring our theme
is actually one of the main differences between
what we might think of as genre fiction
(32:46):
and literary fiction. So genre fiction for the
most part, and yes, I'm making sweeping generalizations
here, but genre fiction has
clearly defined themes that leave little room for
alternative views. Like, take superhero movies for example.
Good
is always good. Evil is always evil, and
good triumphs over evil. Right? And, again, generalization,
(33:09):
but
overall, that's true. We kind of know
who is who. We know who's right and
who's wrong.
But in literary fiction,
we're often left
with an unclear take on the theme.
In other words, this book has not shown
us what's right or wrong, but it's shown
us how complex
(33:29):
a worldview is and how each tape take
on the topic
has nuances of both good
and bad. And as audience members, we're left
trying to sort through those thematic elements of
the story,
long after we've seen it or read it,
and we replay it over
and over again in our minds to try
to sort it out. So, that's the kind
(33:51):
of story that stays with the reader as
they wrestle with it after the fact.
What appears very complex from the audience perspective
is actually
pretty simple from the writer's perspective.
If you want a clear theme in your
story where the audience leaves seeing the world,
the way that you want them to,
have your theme clearly be the correct
(34:14):
take on your topic throughout your story.
So have characters who disbelieve your theme
suffer the consequences
of it. But if the point of your
story is to leave your audience
kind of chewing on the nuances of your
theme,
instead show them the complexity of it. Show
them how your theme can be both redeeming
and valid
(34:35):
but also at the same time
a bit problematic
and maybe even hurtful.
So before we leave this topic for today,
I fear we got a little into the
weeds with it. So I want to end
with a simple,
actionable technique.
It's a technique I usually save for revision
since my first drafts are really,
about just discovering
(34:57):
who I'm telling a story about and what
that story is. It's in revision that I'm
putting in these nuances of theme and such.
So here's our nuts and bolts technique. First,
discover your main theme. Right? That's what we've
been talking about and you have those tools
now. So the main theme, the one you
really want to focus on.
Now there will be other smaller themes that
(35:17):
sneak in, but you wanna have a main
one in mind for this step especially.
And once you've discovered your main theme,
make a list of every opposing view
that you can think of for that theme.
So, if our theme from Harry Potter was
that we need friends to overcome great challenges,
we might list things like,
(35:39):
one, we must be able to go it
alone if we want to be truly successful
in life. Right? That stands in opposition to
our theme.
So number two,
fate drives our every action. So it's irrelevant
that we have friends along with us. Whatever
is fated to happen
is going to happen. So there's a a
another take on it. Or, maybe friends are
(36:01):
a liability
when you're trying to overcome great challenges because
their needs and desires
compete with yours. Right? So we're just brainstorming
this list as many ideas that we can
think of, as many world views as we
can think of that contradict
our theme.
And then just like we did before, narrow
it down to just the most powerful ones.
(36:21):
The ones that you actually see
in the world around you. The one that
actually your readers
might hold if they don't agree with your
theme.
So now what you have is your theme
and
hopefully four or five
really compelling,
valid arguments against it.
And then the next step is to make
(36:41):
a list of every single character in your
story.
I encourage you to list even the small
parts
where maybe they just show up for one
scene and then they disappear forever. Right? They're
gone. And once you have all these characters
listed,
start brainstorming
which view of the topic
each character would hold
from that list. Right? So you have a
(37:02):
whole list of all these characters
on one side. On the other, you have
your three, four, five different takes on this
theme, and you're matching them up. Right?
Once you do that,
you're gonna find that this is actually a
great source of conflict
for your story and between your characters.
And it's a great way to round out
(37:23):
your characters
so that they begin to feel real. Right?
You're going to start discovering ways
to,
imbue your dialogue and your actions with subtext,
because now you know
what's kind of boiling underneath
underneath the surface of these characters.
So I can honestly say that this exploration
(37:43):
of theme has been one of the most
powerful techniques I've used
in crafting a story.
You may have the greatest plot of all
time, but
if there's nothing happening
under the surface, if there are not
great truths being argued about and
illustrated, brought to life in your readers' minds,
(38:05):
they're going to be left asking,
so what at the end.
Theme, as we now understand it,
is the
almost magical element
that makes your book matter,
that makes it actually say something important
and true
and compelling.
(38:30):
Today's wise word is a short little quote
from the author of The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret
Atwood.
Margaret says, the answers you get from literature
depend on the questions you pose.
Again, that's Margaret Atwood.
And this is essentially
what we've been talking about today with our
discussion of theme. Theme is essentially the answer
(38:53):
to a question that you as a writer
are asking through your work. In fact, another
great addition to identifying the theme you're incorporating
into your story
is coming up with an essential question
that your theme is going to be the
answer to.
So what is the big question
that you're exploring
(39:13):
with your story?
What's truly great about books and films and
all kinds of storytelling
is that our audiences
show up with their own questions as well.
Theme
provides us the opportunity to meet on the
common ground of our story world and explore
those answers together.
(39:37):
Our challenge this week is not about writing
your own story.
Great writers must be great
readers.
And not just that, we must know how
to read
like writers read. We we have to read
with an eye
toward craft and technique.
We have to be taking apart
what the writer has done as we're reading,
(40:00):
why they've done it, and asking ourselves how
effective
was that technique that they used. Think of
it a little like a musician
listening to a piece of music. So, yes,
of course, they enjoy it. They may even
be in awe of it,
But they're also curious about how it works,
how it was put together, how it was
arranged.
That's the kind of reading
(40:21):
we need to do as writers. So this
week's challenge is, one, make sure that you're
reading something.
And two,
while you're reading,
be thinking about this concept of
topics leading to theme.
Ask yourself as you read,
what topics is this book dealing with? You
(40:42):
might even wanna make a list as you
discover them when while you're reading.
Then take a little while and see if
you can turn one or two of those
topics into a theme of that book.
What is the writer trying to get you
to believe about
the topic?
Ask yourself if they're successful at it.
And are they offering you an opportunity to
(41:04):
explore that theme's complexity?
Or are they arguing for a more straightforward,
this is right, this is wrong approach?
Paying attention to how other writers use themes
in their work is perhaps the greatest teacher
of how you can implement theme in your
own work.
Now I'd love to hear how your exploration
(41:24):
of theme in someone else's work goes this
week. You can let us know in a
bunch of different ways by going to bradreedwrites.com
and clicking that talk to us link that
you'll find there. So that's gonna wrap it
up for us this week.
Just a reminder that our most recent real
time revision video
is an opportunity to watch as I work
with the concept of theme in my own
(41:46):
work in progress. So it's a great companion
piece,
to this week's topic and I hope you'll
check that out over on our Patreon page.
So until next week, remember the best way
to improve your craft
is by writing.
That's what I'm going to have to go
do and I hope you're off to do
the same. Let's get some words on paper
(42:06):
this week and we'll meet up again next
week for another episode of
the Inside Creative Writing Podcast.
Thanks for listening to the Inside Creative Writing
Podcast with your host, writer and educator,
Brad Reed. We'll be back next week.
Welcome to the inside creative writing podcast.
The weekly discussion of craft and technique for
writers of fiction and creative nonfiction.
And now here's your host, writer and educator,
Brad Reed.
Episode 29.
Today, we're tackling one of the most misunderstood
but vital elements of writing fiction. Today is
(00:21):
all about theme.
What is it and how do we get
it working in our stories?
Welcome back to the inside creative writing podcast.
My name is Brad Reed, and I'm really
excited to be bringing today's topic to you.
It's one of those things that might give
you,
unpleasant flashbacks to that high school English class
(00:44):
where the concept of theme
was one of those elusive,
confusing
pieces of, literary techniques that never quite clicked
for you. So if that's the case, you're
not alone. As a high school English teacher
myself, I watch students
come into my class with the same
glassy eyed hesitation when I start talking about
(01:05):
theme that you may have had. But the
good news is that they leave my class
understanding what theme is
and why it's so important in a piece
of writing. And that's what we're going to
be doing today. So we're going to take
it a step further today and go beyond
just
finally understanding what we're talking about when we're
talking about theme
(01:25):
and begin to explore how we can use
theme
to make our writing more relevant,
more powerful, more compelling
for our readers.
But before we dive into theme today, I
want to mention that the real time revision
video that we uploaded on this last Thursday,
I think that's video 24 in that real
(01:46):
time revision series,
it's all about theme.
So if you find that after today's episode,
you'd like to see how I
identify and implement theme in my own writing,
check out that video.
It's part of our free to everyone
Patreon rewards and you can find it either
on the podcast website at bradreedwrites.com
(02:09):
or on our Patreon page at patreon.com/bradreedwrites.
And again, we've made all of our resources
over there free for everyone, whether or not
you're a Patreon team member. So, if you
find value in what you find there, we
simply ask that you consider throwing a few
bucks a month our way to help keep
the show up and running as part of
(02:29):
that Patreon team.
I also wanted to remind you this week
about the opportunity
you have to be a guest host
on the podcast.
I've talked to some of you guys about
this already and I'm finding something kind of
interesting that a lot of you
don't feel like you have the expertise
to submit a short
audio segment for use on the show. So
(02:50):
if that's you,
I want to dissuade you from that notion.
We are all on our own,
unique journeys
as writers. We all become experts in some
things
and can somehow still remain novices in other
things.
We all find those techniques that really click
for us
(03:11):
and, we dismiss others that just don't work
with our writing
style. So this opportunity to be a guest
host is really about,
just sharing what's worked for you as a
writer, regardless of what level
of writing you're at, as if there is
such a thing as levels of writing.
Basically, it works like this. Record yourself,
(03:31):
teaching an element or technique of writing
that you are especially passionate about for about
fifteen to twenty minutes. And teaching is maybe
even too heavy of a word there. You're
just sharing something
that works for you.
Now, this could be on your own. You
could do this solo like I usually do
the podcast or you could team up with
a partner and talk through this technique together.
(03:52):
I only ask that you try to use
a a decent external microphone
so the sound quality is good. That'll help
us, get your submission
on the show. So it's it's really just
you sharing something that works for you that
you think others might benefit from. So once
you've recorded that for about fifteen to twenty
minutes, send us that file as an m
p three file to bradreed@bradreedwrites.com
(04:16):
and, you just might hear that segment on
a future show.
You know, I'm thinking of this a little
bit like the way, talk shows used to
work on television, like back in the era
of Johnny Carson. So, when he went on
vacation or he had to miss a day
of taping for whatever reason,
they didn't just run a rerun like talk
shows do now. They had a guest host
(04:37):
come on,
for that show instead. So they were always
creating new content.
And that's kind of the model that I'm
looking for.
You don't have to worry about producing the
whole show. Right? You're not doing an intro
and an outro.
You're not coming up with wise words or
weekly challenges unless you want to add that
as part of your
(04:58):
segment.
We're gonna take care of all of that
stuff. It's really just a chance to play
host for a day and share what's working
for you with other writers.
You could think of it a little like
submitting a guest blog post,
for a blog. Only, this is a piece
of recorded audio.
Now, just like any submission,
(05:19):
there's no guarantee that we'll end up using
your audio on the show. Although we're going
to do our best to find a way
to get all of them out there. We
may even do smaller bonus episodes for some.
And also, at least at this time, there's
no compensation
for audio segments. That's something I'd love to
have in the future.
But you can feel free to mention your
website,
(05:39):
your Twitter handle,
any books you currently have available, anything along
those lines.
As long as promotion isn't the focus of
your segment, as long as the the focus
is really sharing
a technique, an element of craft
that, really works for you. So if you
have any questions about that,
please don't hesitate to give me an email.
(06:00):
It's bradreed@bradreedwrites.com.
Now, last week we explored the concept of
writer's block on the podcast and I asked
for your feedback about the show,
about some of the claims that I made
and especially for you to share any techniques
that you might use
to push past those roadblocks that we hit
(06:20):
when we're writing.
So listener Jesse Holly, called our message line
and left us some thoughts about something that
works for him. So let's take a listen
to what Jesse had to say this week.
Hi there, Brad. This is Jesse from Sydney,
Australia.
Just giving you a call in response to
the recent episode on writer's block. I loved
it very much. I think,
the writer's block is nothing supernatural
(06:41):
or insurmountable,
and I thought I'd share a recent,
perhaps cure for it that I've observed. My
friends recently,
started up a book club
and their first recommendation was, Ready Player One.
I was reluctant to engage, but, I did.
And starting to read it, I, I found
myself arguing with the the author's writing style.
(07:03):
I found it
lazy and maybe simple. So my advice to
writers for overcoming writer's block is engage with
a piece of art that you find a
little bit simplistic
And, hopefully, you'll see yourself coming up with
all these different ideas of how you would
have done it better and, perhaps it's the,
sense of competition in my nature. But I
found it really drew out my creativity.
(07:23):
Bit of a negative bridge, but, it certainly
worked for me. Thanks very much. Bye.
Alright. Thanks so much for your call and
for your insight, Jesse.
You've hit on a technique here that I've
never really thought to try on my own.
And it makes sense,
since so much of what causes what we
like to call writer's block
(07:44):
actually boils down to a kind of lack
of confidence
in our own skills. So it makes sense
that looking at a piece of writing
that you might consider to be inferior in
some way,
yet it still found some level of success,
that process could help to give us more
confidence in our own writing. Now, I haven't
(08:04):
read ready player one. It's actually been on
my to read list for a while now,
but I just haven't gotten around to it.
So I can't really comment on, what I
think of the writing of the book.
But your your angle here makes me think
about something I heard a few weeks ago
and I apologize that I can't
place exactly where I heard it to give
credit.
(08:24):
But, they were basically saying that if you
have a good enough plot
and your structure is solid,
then readers can look past writing that is,
less than stellar.
But if your plotting and structure aren't good,
in other words, your story isn't working on
a basic story level, then no amount of
(08:45):
good writing, kind of that sentence level prose,
will save your book. Right? It's about the
story first and foremost.
And I think that goes hand in hand
here with what Jesse is talking about.
Whatever it takes for us to get out
of our
perfectionist
mindset
and simply into getting words on the page
(09:05):
is a good thing. So thanks for sharing
those thoughts, Jesse and,
for your support of the show. That means
so much to me. If you have comments
you'd like to get to us about today's
podcast, any other podcast, and especially comments that
we might be able to use on a
future episode,
you can give us a call like Jesse
did at our message line. That's (541)
(09:26):
952-2406.
Okay. So all enough of the introductory stuff
here today. I'm excited to get into today's
topic. So let's get to it. Theme.
What it is, what it isn't,
and how we can use it in our
writing.
(09:53):
Of all the things that English teachers teach,
I think theme
might be one of the hardest ones. And
I'm actually not sure
why that is.
I think part of it is that there
isn't a clear agreement, even across teachers of
English,
what exactly we mean by theme.
But, it also has to do with how
(10:14):
many other ways we use that word theme.
I mean, you could have a prom theme.
Right? Maybe your prom was under the sea
or night beneath the stars or a hundred
other kind of,
tacky prom themes. But we think of theme
that way. Right? You could also decorate your
house
with something like a country theme.
(10:35):
You could compose a theme song for a
TV show. Or you could go to a
theme park like Disneyland or
Universal Studios or SeaWorld or even something like
Dollywood.
And theme,
in that case, just means kind of the
concept or idea
that ties everything together.
(10:56):
So how do these relate to themes that
we either find or want to create
in the books that we read and the
books that we write.
So the first step and the most important
step
is to separate
what we mean by theme in books and
stories
from what we mean by theme in all
(11:17):
of these other circumstances.
So I want you to divorce the word
theme
from all the other connotations when we're using
it to talk about writing. It means
something different.
And getting it all thrown in with the
other uses of theme will only complicate what
we're trying to do here today. So, at
least for now,
(11:37):
forget that you've ever heard the word theme
before. You're starting with a blank slate and
we're ready to give this word we've never
heard before a unique
meaning.
And to do that, we actually have to
start with another word. But this one you
already know and you know it in the
context that we're gonna use it. And that
word is topic.
(11:58):
So topic is
simply a concept or whatever thing is under
discussion. Now, a topic
is almost always one word or maybe it's
a short phrase
that sums up a single idea.
Now, books usually have a huge number of
topics,
(12:19):
which are basically just things
that the book is talking about. So, for
example, the book I'm writing right now is
talking about things or topics like earthquakes,
survival,
family,
love, loss,
religion,
faith,
trust, danger,
hope,
hopelessness,
(12:39):
fear, and a bunch of other things.
So these are all topics. They're not themes.
In fact, let's, you know, let's use Harry
Potter as an example again since we're we
all kind of share that,
story in common, I hope. So what are
the topics of Harry Potter? Well, you have
things like magic
or friendship,
education,
(13:01):
good and evil,
family,
love, adventure,
loneliness, and on and on. You could generate
a huge list of topics
that Harry Potter is dealing with, but none
of those things
are what we're talking about when we're talking
about theme.
Even though you might have been taught that
they are. So forget
(13:22):
all that nonsense. It's not helpful. So we
already have a word for those things and
that word is topics,
not themes.
But what we are going to do is
to use topics
to find or to discover
theme.
And remember at this point you still have
no idea what we mean by theme. So
keep an open mind here, a blank slate.
(13:43):
So let's start by choosing one of the
major
topics
of a book. So So we'll continue with
our Harry Potter example since so many of
us are familiar with it. And I think
it's hard to miss the topic of friendship
as a major topic
of those books. I mean, the whole
adventure revolves around Harry
(14:04):
and Hermione and Ron and how they work
together and occasionally
work against each other to get what they
want in the story. So, friendship is a
huge topic in the book. But it's not
a theme of the book. We wouldn't say
that a theme of Harry Potter is friendship.
We'd say a topic of Harry Potter is
friendship.
(14:24):
So let's choose that one. Now that we
have our chosen topic,
let's discover how to turn that topic
into what we're gonna call theme. And it's
as simple as completing a sentence. It goes
like this.
The creator of Harry Potter of the Harry
Potter stories believes that friendship is
what? Right? Blank. Complete that sentence.
(14:46):
Now, knowing the story,
how would you fill in the rest of
that sentence? I might say something like this.
The creator of the Harry Potter stories believes
that we need the help of our friends
to overcome great challenges.
Now you might come up with something different,
but I think it's clear
that we could all come up with something.
(15:06):
Right? The the author,
JK Rowling is definitely saying something about the
importance of friendship.
And the books and the films too have
a lot to say about it. So we
are almost there with theme now. All we
have to do now is chop off
the first part of that sentence. So the
first part was the creator of the Harry
Potter series believes that. And we're literally just
(15:29):
gonna chop that off of our sentence. In
fact, when you're working with your own book,
I encourage you to write this sentence out.
There's something about that process that helps you
more clearly identify your theme. So we're crossing
out now. Imagine we've got that written on
a piece of paper and we're gonna cross
out the first part that says the creator
of the Harry Potter stories believe that. So
we've crossed that out. And what we're left
(15:50):
with is this.
We need the help of our friends to
overcome great challenges.
Now that's a theme.
We need the help of our friends
to overcome great challenges.
Notice that it's not a single word or
a single concept. Right? It's a statement
of belief.
Now some people are tempted to call this
(16:11):
a moral,
but I like to stay away from that
word because it's just a bit too loaded
and, it gets kind of into this good
and evil, right and wrong thing, which doesn't
have to be a part of theme.
Morals,
when we look at theme that way, it
starts to sound like it's something that's preachy.
And I'd rather think of it simply as
a statement about one way
(16:33):
to see the world.
Now, before we decide that that's our theme,
there are a couple of quick checks that
we can do to make sure that we've
identified
that theme well, that we've got a strong
one. And the first check is to ask
a simple question of your theme. Could someone
argue against it?
So let's try it. Is it possible for
(16:53):
someone to believe that we do not need
the help of our friends to overcome great
challenges?
Sure it is, right? Absolutely.
There are a lot of great stories, both
true and fictional,
about,
how important it is to go it on
your own. Right? To not rely on anyone
else for the things you want.
So this is an important aspect of theme.
(17:14):
It has to be arguable.
In other words, we're kind of getting at
the an opinion
on a topic.
This is one of the reasons a topic
can't work as a theme.
Could you argue against the single word friendship
or,
war
or love?
Well, not really. Right? And sometimes my students
(17:35):
will say, yeah, you can. You could definitely
argue about war. I'm not saying argue about
war. I'm just saying put that word out
there, war. Is that an argument? Is that
an opinion?
No, it's not. Right? It's just simply a
topic that you would have to
bring opinions into to turn that into
some kind of topic or statement of belief.
So difference between topic and theme,
(17:57):
huge here.
But, that so that's the number one check.
Right? Do I have a good theme? Is
it arguable?
Could someone
reasonably
disagree
with the theme that you've identified?
Now, on to check number two.
Can you back,
up your theme with evidence from the story?
So, in other words, does the book or
(18:17):
story really say that? Can you point to
specific things, specific scenes
that suggest that that theme is true or
that at least the author, the creator of
that text is putting forth
that that theme is true. So let's take
Harry Potter again for example.
The books are, filled with specific moments where
(18:38):
without the help of Ron and Hermione,
Harry wouldn't have been successful. Right? He probably
wouldn't even have survived for that matter.
So yes, our theme that we've come up
with stands up for Harry Potter.
So one, it's arguable. It's a statement of
opinion. And two,
you can back it up with evidence.
(18:58):
And here's the thing, a book can have
a huge
number of themes.
Virtually any topic you've identified
could be,
extrapolated
out
into an effective theme as long as it's
arguable
and as long as it can be backed
up by evidence.
Now some of you guys, I can feel
it right now where you're having flashbacks,
(19:20):
to your high school English class. I mean,
what does proving a theme with evidence
have to do with writing our own books?
Right? That feels like something we had to
do in a,
writing assignment in high school. Well, it actually
has everything to do with writing.
Because our goal
as writers
is to show our readers another view of
(19:43):
the world. A compelling,
interesting, authentic view of the world.
We want to give them a new way
to process
what's going on around them. So in other
words, our books, whether we intend them to
or not,
are expressing themes.
Now, they may be doing doing that very
badly. Right? If we're not being intentional about
(20:04):
it, but they are doing it. They are
expressing themes.
So let's figure out how to work with
theme intentionally.
So that when a reader finishes our story,
they aren't left either feeling like they've been
preached at,
about how they should see the world or
that they're left act asking themselves,
yeah, good story, but so what? Right? What
(20:26):
does it mean?
Now some of you already know, how you're
wanting your reader to see their world differently
after reading your story. So you have essentially
already kind of got your theme worked out,
whether you already knew this concept of how
to use theme or maybe you just stumbled
into it, which is very possible. Right?
(20:47):
Like I said, theme is there whether you
intended it to be or not.
So the the next step is to identify
it.
Make sure that your theme is saying
what you want it to say. And then,
once you have identified it, that main theme,
you wanna intentionally
weave that
into your story,
so it doesn't stick out like an example
(21:08):
in an English textbook. Right? We don't want
this to be obvious. We want this to
be under the surface so that your reader
is
discovering the theme for themselves
as they're reading your story.
So, for the sake of, this, kind of
lesson today, we're gonna pretend that you don't
have your theme figured out yet. So you've
got a great story idea, you've either written
(21:30):
it or you're planning to write it, but
you haven't really given any thought to theme.
So I want you to start by doing
the same analysis that we just did with
Harry Potter. Right? Make a list. What are
all the topics of your story? Think of
that list that I gave you a little
bit early earlier of all the topics in
the story that I'm working on. So you
wanna list everything you can think of. If
(21:51):
there's love if there if you got a
love story in your story, write down love.
If there's a war happening in your story,
write down war.
If one character undermines
another, you might write trust.
So make as big a list as you
can.
Then start pairing that list down to what
really
(22:12):
matters.
So sure, your story has a love interest,
but it's kind of a subplot
and it's not all that important, so you
may cross out love in your list. And,
yeah, there's one character that's always kind of
gaming the other, so trust is definitely a
topic,
but it's not something that you're all that
passionate about exploring in your story, so you
may strike through,
(22:33):
that topic as well. Strike through trust. So
what you wanna do is go through that
process until you whittle it down to
one or two or maybe three
main topics.
And this is the real,
meat
of what you're dealing with in this in
your story. The real topics that you're dealing
with. It's the heart
(22:54):
of your story. Now for me, as I'm
working through my work in progress, I came
down to the three topics of authenticity,
of faith,
and of family. Now your list will almost
certainly
be different, but you wanna get to that
heart of your story. These are the one,
two, or maybe stretch it to three things
(23:15):
that are the heart of your story.
Now what I want you to do is
start to write some theme statements like we
did to identify theme earlier. So you'll write
the sentence out, the creator of this story,
which is you of course, but I actually
find it helps to disassociate
myself
from my story at the step. So when
I'm doing this, I actually write out the
(23:35):
creator of the story,
believes
what about each topic. Right? Based on the
evidence that you see in the story.
So what you wanna do is write a
few of these at least,
maybe a whole bunch more. You wanna keep
at it
until you discover what it is
that you
really actually want to say about the topic
(23:58):
and about
how it affects the world or how you
want, your readers to see the world differently
through this topic.
So
that's the progress the process that's going to
lead you to your overarching
theme. So this is the answer to the
yeah, so what question that readers sometimes ask
(24:18):
after they've finished even a good story
that might lack a clear theme.
So this is hard,
but it's actually really fun work.
And I encourage you to give it as
much time and thought as you need. It's
so key to your story that you really
wanna have this solidly figured out. So your
story, if written well,
(24:39):
will change the way people see the world.
It will change the way they understand and
relate
to the topic or topics that you're exploring.
So it's worth your time
to make sure that it's working the way
you intend it to.
So we're essentially skipping
a big chunk of work here. Right? We're
assuming that you've,
(25:00):
now done the work of,
creating lists of topics, of identifying your overarching
theme,
that one topic that is most essential to
your story and how you want your reader
to come away from your story,
understanding it in a new way. So, let's
move on to how to get that theme
working in your story in a way that
(25:21):
is subtle enough
to not call attention to itself, but it's
still
obvious enough
that it lands with your reader. And by
the time they're done reading, they get it.
So this is where some writers and educators
disagree.
So the best I can do is give
you my own technique.
And I tend to think that theme is
(25:42):
best expressed
through characters who believe differently from each other
about the theme.
So in other words, I very intentionally give
each of my main characters
and sometimes the secondary characters,
an opposing view
of the theme
so that my readers get to watch as
(26:02):
each of these characters
approaches the world with their own particular world
view and either succeeds, shows it to be
valid,
or fails. Right? Shows that belief to be
invalid.
So let's start with a really simple example
of that just to flesh this idea out
a little bit. And we're gonna pretend that
we're writing a war story.
(26:23):
So war is our topic. Right? Not our
theme, single word so it can't be a
theme.
War is our topic.
And let's say that our story is going
to follow a group of soldiers who are
tasked with an extremely
dangerous mission behind enemy lines. And we're going
to set it in some
future world where military service is no longer
(26:44):
optional,
just because that's gonna help us get a
bunch of different perspectives involved as possible. Right?
We may have,
soldiers that don't even believe in war because
they've essentially been drafted.
So after really thinking about what we wanna
say about war
somatically,
we come up with this.
War is an effective way for boys to
(27:06):
mature into men. So that let's pretend that's
the theme
that we're going to be showing. War is
an effective way for boys to mature into
men. Now, I'm not even saying that I
agree with this theme.
It's just the one that I kinda came
up with to work with this story idea
and illustrate what we're talking about.
So what I'm going to do with the
story is make sure
(27:28):
that I've stocked it with characters who have
different takes
on that theme.
So I'm gonna have one or more of
the characters who are going to agree
with that theme. Right? They are going to
see war as an effective way for boys
to mature into men.
They're in the military to improve themselves. Right?
They've joined to become men.
(27:50):
And then I might even have an old
kind of grizzled military captain who also shares
that worldview, kind of that mentor, right, who's
pushing that worldview onto these young soldiers. He's
not just there to win a war. He
sees it as an opportunity to change these
boys into men.
But then, I want some characters who don't
(28:11):
operate with this worldview.
Right? I want a character who absolutely opposes
war,
even though he's forced to be fighting in
it. He absolutely sees
nothing
redeeming about it at all, and he views
it as the worst expressions of humanity.
It's turning boys not into men, but into
heartless killing machines.
(28:33):
And then let's have another character who sees
war entirely different from those two. Maybe he
sees war as an opportunity for wealth.
So he's consumed with,
pilfering things, right? Stealing things from,
captives in the war and and, basically looting
the places that they have attacked. And he's
(28:53):
always looking for that angle to either make
a buck
or make a connection that will help him
get rich after the war.
And then let's throw another character in. Right?
Now we have the peace loving activist
who sees,
it as his mission to redeem his comrades.
Right? He is there almost like a missionary
for peace trying to bring others around to
(29:16):
his world view. And I think you see
where I'm going here.
Right? Each character I'm bringing into the story
has a different take on the topic.
And by doing that,
we've created
well rounded characters that feel real
to your reader. Now, this can,
(29:36):
quickly become kind of dangerously preachy. Right? What
I'm not suggesting is that we have a
bunch of scenes where all these characters are
sitting around a campfire
arguing,
their own points of this theme. Right? What
we do see is that in their reaction
to
conflict, in their reaction to tension,
in the way that they phrase their sentences,
(29:57):
we begin to understand, oh, this person's coming
up from it coming at this from this
point of view. So your reader is discovering
this along the way, rather than have you
come right out and tell them. Because if
you come right out and have your characters
just speak these beliefs into the world,
that's where it starts to feel preachy. Right?
We want to see authentic characters
(30:18):
who aren't just spouting what they believe, they're
living
what they believe. And that's where we get
to begin to solve that puzzle
that you're,
creating
for it. So your reader really gets to
watch
all of these competing views on the topic
play out in that story world.
So from this point, you can make basically
(30:38):
one of two choices in how your theme
plays out.
You can either validate your theme and invalidate
the opposing ones,
or you can use your story as an
open ended exploration
of the theme. So in other words, you
could write your story that so that the
people who hold views opposing your intended theme
(30:59):
fail in ways,
that show their beliefs to be wrong.
Or you could show the complexity
of the theme,
illustrating positives and negatives
of all the various views. And I I
feel like I didn't say that very well.
Let me try to restate that one more
time. So essentially,
once you've decided you on your theme, you're
either going to tell your story as though
(31:22):
your theme is right
and the way you've set up your entire
story keeps proving that over and over again.
So at the end of the story, it's
very clear what worldview is correct. Or you
could make the choice
to use your story as an exploration
of the theme.
So not only are you giving opposing views
and different takes on it, but you're also
(31:44):
sometimes validating those views and invalidating
the theme views so that it becomes kind
of an exploration.
So this is getting into some pretty deep
water here that might be beyond
what you're ready to think about, especially if
this whole concept of theme is is a
little bit new. But in case you're feeling
good about the work we've done so far
(32:04):
with theme, I want to get into it
just a little bit
more here. So I'm I'm hoping that I
don't lose, too many of you here.
So my own opinion on this question is
that it's always better to leave some ambiguity
about where you stand as the author about
your theme.
(32:24):
This is yet another opportunity for your reader
to invest in your story
and let them come away with the experience
that they find most value
or most valuable.
In some ways, I think the way we
choose to go about exploring our theme
is actually one of the main differences between
what we might think of as genre fiction
(32:46):
and literary fiction. So genre fiction for the
most part, and yes, I'm making sweeping generalizations
here, but genre fiction has
clearly defined themes that leave little room for
alternative views. Like, take superhero movies for example.
Good
is always good. Evil is always evil, and
good triumphs over evil. Right? And, again, generalization,
(33:09):
but
overall, that's true. We kind of know
who is who. We know who's right and
who's wrong.
But in literary fiction,
we're often left
with an unclear take on the theme.
In other words, this book has not shown
us what's right or wrong, but it's shown
us how complex
(33:29):
a worldview is and how each tape take
on the topic
has nuances of both good
and bad. And as audience members, we're left
trying to sort through those thematic elements of
the story,
long after we've seen it or read it,
and we replay it over
and over again in our minds to try
to sort it out. So, that's the kind
(33:51):
of story that stays with the reader as
they wrestle with it after the fact.
What appears very complex from the audience perspective
is actually
pretty simple from the writer's perspective.
If you want a clear theme in your
story where the audience leaves seeing the world,
the way that you want them to,
have your theme clearly be the correct
(34:14):
take on your topic throughout your story.
So have characters who disbelieve your theme
suffer the consequences
of it. But if the point of your
story is to leave your audience
kind of chewing on the nuances of your
theme,
instead show them the complexity of it. Show
them how your theme can be both redeeming
and valid
(34:35):
but also at the same time
a bit problematic
and maybe even hurtful.
So before we leave this topic for today,
I fear we got a little into the
weeds with it. So I want to end
with a simple,
actionable technique.
It's a technique I usually save for revision
since my first drafts are really,
about just discovering
(34:57):
who I'm telling a story about and what
that story is. It's in revision that I'm
putting in these nuances of theme and such.
So here's our nuts and bolts technique. First,
discover your main theme. Right? That's what we've
been talking about and you have those tools
now. So the main theme, the one you
really want to focus on.
Now there will be other smaller themes that
(35:17):
sneak in, but you wanna have a main
one in mind for this step especially.
And once you've discovered your main theme,
make a list of every opposing view
that you can think of for that theme.
So, if our theme from Harry Potter was
that we need friends to overcome great challenges,
we might list things like,
(35:39):
one, we must be able to go it
alone if we want to be truly successful
in life. Right? That stands in opposition to
our theme.
So number two,
fate drives our every action. So it's irrelevant
that we have friends along with us. Whatever
is fated to happen
is going to happen. So there's a a
another take on it. Or, maybe friends are
(36:01):
a liability
when you're trying to overcome great challenges because
their needs and desires
compete with yours. Right? So we're just brainstorming
this list as many ideas that we can
think of, as many world views as we
can think of that contradict
our theme.
And then just like we did before, narrow
it down to just the most powerful ones.
(36:21):
The ones that you actually see
in the world around you. The one that
actually your readers
might hold if they don't agree with your
theme.
So now what you have is your theme
and
hopefully four or five
really compelling,
valid arguments against it.
And then the next step is to make
(36:41):
a list of every single character in your
story.
I encourage you to list even the small
parts
where maybe they just show up for one
scene and then they disappear forever. Right? They're
gone. And once you have all these characters
listed,
start brainstorming
which view of the topic
each character would hold
from that list. Right? So you have a
(37:02):
whole list of all these characters
on one side. On the other, you have
your three, four, five different takes on this
theme, and you're matching them up. Right?
Once you do that,
you're gonna find that this is actually a
great source of conflict
for your story and between your characters.
And it's a great way to round out
(37:23):
your characters
so that they begin to feel real. Right?
You're going to start discovering ways
to,
imbue your dialogue and your actions with subtext,
because now you know
what's kind of boiling underneath
underneath the surface of these characters.
So I can honestly say that this exploration
(37:43):
of theme has been one of the most
powerful techniques I've used
in crafting a story.
You may have the greatest plot of all
time, but
if there's nothing happening
under the surface, if there are not
great truths being argued about and
illustrated, brought to life in your readers' minds,
(38:05):
they're going to be left asking,
so what at the end.
Theme, as we now understand it,
is the
almost magical element
that makes your book matter,
that makes it actually say something important
and true
and compelling.
(38:30):
Today's wise word is a short little quote
from the author of The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret
Atwood.
Margaret says, the answers you get from literature
depend on the questions you pose.
Again, that's Margaret Atwood.
And this is essentially
what we've been talking about today with our
discussion of theme. Theme is essentially the answer
(38:53):
to a question that you as a writer
are asking through your work. In fact, another
great addition to identifying the theme you're incorporating
into your story
is coming up with an essential question
that your theme is going to be the
answer to.
So what is the big question
that you're exploring
(39:13):
with your story?
What's truly great about books and films and
all kinds of storytelling
is that our audiences
show up with their own questions as well.
Theme
provides us the opportunity to meet on the
common ground of our story world and explore
those answers together.
(39:37):
Our challenge this week is not about writing
your own story.
Great writers must be great
readers.
And not just that, we must know how
to read
like writers read. We we have to read
with an eye
toward craft and technique.
We have to be taking apart
what the writer has done as we're reading,
(40:00):
why they've done it, and asking ourselves how
effective
was that technique that they used. Think of
it a little like a musician
listening to a piece of music. So, yes,
of course, they enjoy it. They may even
be in awe of it,
But they're also curious about how it works,
how it was put together, how it was
arranged.
That's the kind of reading
(40:21):
we need to do as writers. So this
week's challenge is, one, make sure that you're
reading something.
And two,
while you're reading,
be thinking about this concept of
topics leading to theme.
Ask yourself as you read,
what topics is this book dealing with? You
(40:42):
might even wanna make a list as you
discover them when while you're reading.
Then take a little while and see if
you can turn one or two of those
topics into a theme of that book.
What is the writer trying to get you
to believe about
the topic?
Ask yourself if they're successful at it.
And are they offering you an opportunity to
(41:04):
explore that theme's complexity?
Or are they arguing for a more straightforward,
this is right, this is wrong approach?
Paying attention to how other writers use themes
in their work is perhaps the greatest teacher
of how you can implement theme in your
own work.
Now I'd love to hear how your exploration
(41:24):
of theme in someone else's work goes this
week. You can let us know in a
bunch of different ways by going to bradreedwrites.com
and clicking that talk to us link that
you'll find there. So that's gonna wrap it
up for us this week.
Just a reminder that our most recent real
time revision video
is an opportunity to watch as I work
with the concept of theme in my own
(41:46):
work in progress. So it's a great companion
piece,
to this week's topic and I hope you'll
check that out over on our Patreon page.
So until next week, remember the best way
to improve your craft
is by writing.
That's what I'm going to have to go
do and I hope you're off to do
the same. Let's get some words on paper
(42:06):
this week and we'll meet up again next
week for another episode of
the Inside Creative Writing Podcast.
Thanks for listening to the Inside Creative Writing
Podcast with your host, writer and educator,
Brad Reed. We'll be back next week.
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