Musing on theme

What makes a book really stick with me? Of all the story components, I think theme is the "stickiest" one. A good book must have memorable characters, good pacing and interesting plot, but theme is what gets me thinking, even after the story is over. Many books will also stick with me because they surprised me with some unexpected twist, but often it's only the surprise that sticks with me... theme goes much deeper.

Theme is how the story relates to reality and life in general; it can present a view of an issue, or better yet, it can present multiple views of an issue, and consequences of choices related to that issue. One of my favorite books, The Archived by Victoria Schwab, explores what it means to live a lie, coupled with what it would mean to have access to the living memories of dead loved ones. (The sequel, The Unbound, comes out today!)

Another favorite is The Help, by Katheryn Stockett, which gives three perspectives on racism from three different main characters. These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, has a subtle theme of having preconceived notions about other people based on their background, and the roles we force ourselves to play to be accepted by others.

 The story has to pierce the heart of the reader. A great story is always relevant to life on a personal level… for the reader.  (Larry Brooks: Theme Simplified) 

The path toward thematic richness in a story isn’t persuasion, but the exposure of consequences that tweak the emotions. That gets the reader thinking and feeling. (Larry Brooks: The Thing About Theme)

I believe storytelling is one of the most useful tools we have for achieving meaning (Ursula K. LeGuin: A message on messages) 

From the writing side, about how to write theme, I found this comment interesting:

I think it was Ray Bradbury who said something along the lines of, You can’t consciously write the theme, it has to develop on an unconscious level or it feels forced.

I've found that's true in my writing. I can't start out with a theme that's important to me and write a story about. Instead I write a story about an idea, image, or scene that resonates with me, and as the story expands, some themes sneak in (and some sneak back out again) and it isn't until the rough draft is nearly done that I even start to recognize the theme (or that it's missing).

You don’t need to solve the issue for humanity, or recruit anyone to a point of view… just explore it, allow your characters to navigate the core story from within this microcosm and all its nuances and influences.

Larry Brooks' blog, StoryFix, is a wonderful source of information about theme (and concept, that's a whole other curiosity I might muse on next week). Here's something else from his blog that helped me understand theme better:

Think of a song lyric. Something serious and weighty.  The first one that pops into your head.  Got one?  Got several? It’s important to notice that the lyric that came to mind has remained with you over time.  Maybe a long time.  Which means there’s something about it that resonates with you. Your lyric is perhaps the gateway for a story that needs to be told.  And because it was you who remembered it, perhaps you might be the ideal writer to tell it (Larry Brooks: Finding and leading with theme)

So even before I was finished reading this paragraph the first time, a song lyric was in my head, and the theme that once had resonated so strongly to me... and still does. It's the lyrics from Shimmer by Shawn Mullins, and it goes to a story I rough-drafted back in 2008/2009 and have since put on the back-burner to simmer some more (Raining Toward Heaven). Don't know if I'm ready to start working on this again, but I am definitely making note here of how the theme (found in those lyrics) I need to explore more in that story.

What book has a theme that really stuck with you?

#10bestfeelings

What are your 10 best feelings? For April's A-Z Challenge I did a top-ten list everyday, everything from Actors/Actresses to Non-Conformists to a Zen art of life.  I'm feeling a little nostalgic so time for another Top Ten list!


A day without laughter is a day wasted  - Charlie Chaplin (image removed)

On Twitter's  trends this morning I noticed #10WorstFeelings, and boy was that a depressing tag to follow. So just for the heck of it, I typed in #10BestFeelings, and that was much more my style. Here's some great ones I found: 

Turf on my bare feet

Lying on the beach with a margarita

Having someone draw on your back

Talking to someone special all night and then falling asleep on the phone

The person you want to talk to texts you first

When you have to work for what you want and you get it

When prayer is answered

Waking up, looking at your phone/clock and realising you have more time to sleep

Wrapped in a blanket on a rainy day, reading a great book

Knowing that you've made someone else smile

This is one of my top ten best feelings: 

When you start writing and 2000 words later you come up for air, giddy with ideas

Just realized most of these I could use for characters in at least one of my books, Raining Toward Heaven, or maybe more.

What would you add to #10BestFeelings?

Character-driven action

I attended a writer's workshop this past week at Glen Eyrie Castle, Colorado Springs. I selected just one of many excellent things I learned to share on today's post: character-driven action.

This wasn't a regular writer's conference with agents, editors, pitches, etc. Instead we got to pick from one of four published authors with years of experience, and join them in a small group for writing exercises, brainstorming, group feedback, and some one-on-one critiquing from the author. It was an intense three days! With all the writing books I've studied, critique groups I've been in, and past conference workshops, I was surprised at how much I still learned.

There's taking-it-all-in kind of learning, and then there is learning by application. This unusual type of extended small-group workshop gave me opportunity to immediately apply things and almost just as immediately get feedback and brainstorming. Amazing! It helped me work out some crucial turning points in my book, Raining Toward Heaven.

The most crucial thing I learned/applied was the idea of character-driven action. We all know how we need to start our first chapters with action to hook the reader. As soon as Kathryn Mackel, the author that lead my group, described character-driven action to me, I knew it was going to help my first chapter. It's putting your character in a situation that causes them to act, so we get to see something about their personality and their motivation.

My main character is in a coffee-shop that adjoins a flower shop and she sees a young man buying roses for his girlfriend. She feels envious because today is her first anniversary and she hasn't even heard from her husband yet - typical of his neglect of anything romantic.

My group helped me brainstorm character-driven action to start this first chapter. So far she sees something happening and reacts to it. But she's not doing anything. One suggestion was to have a kid come into the flower shop on the heels of the young man to purchase a flower for her sick mother. The kid counts out her change, but she's fifty cents short. My character offers to pay the difference. Now she's actually doing something that tells us about her character. I'm not sure if I'll use this particular example, but it definitely shed some light on the power of character-driven action.

Ending with a couple great quotes I got from the other authors at the workshop (James Scott Bell, Angela Hunt, Nancy Rue):

Good writing is where precision meets passion

Creating art is an interaction between you and God

We write a novel to evoke emotion

Just curious about that last quote, what do you guys think? Is storytelling about evoking emotion?

"Let's Talk" blogfest

Fictiongroupie is having a blogfest today where we all post a bit of dialogue and then compare notes. Blogfest is open until midnight, details are here.

This is an excerpt from my women's fiction nearly-complete novel, Raining Toward Heaven. A single sentence summary, by way of intro: When Rowen wished she could go back in time to before her marriage started falling apart, she never expected she would actually get her wish.

The following dialogue is between Rowen and her husband's ex-wife, Kell, who has just been hired as Rowen's office assistant (not Rowen's choice!) Because of the time-twist, Kell doesn't know that Rowen will be her husband's future wife, but Rowen unfortunately still has all her bad memories.

Rowen checked her watch. Five minutes to noon, but that was close enough. Time for lunch and she couldn't wait to get out of here. She logged off her computer and grabbed her purse. "I’m heading off for lunch."

Kell's cell phone rang for fourth time, the same ring tone. She silenced the ringer without answering it. “Sorry about that, I’ll remember to keep my phone silenced while I’m at work, from now on.”

“No problem,” Rowen said. "So who is it that keeps calling you?”

“Pete,” Kell said, saying his name like it had a bad taste.

“Oh, is he your husband?” Rowen asked, all innocence.

Kell rolled her eyes. “Not for much longer.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m not.” Something about Kell’s demeanor made it clear she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Okay, well I’ll be back from lunch at 1 pm.”

Just as Rowen opened the door to step out, Kell made a hissing noise that made her look back. The cell phone, again? But Kell was looking at her computer monitor with shock. “Wait a minute, Rowen!”

Rowen tried to keep from grinning. Skip’s little prank had just taken effect.

“What is it?” she came over to look at the computer.

“Um, no, never mind,” Kell said, waving her off. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you sure?” she kept walking forward, fully enjoying Kell’s look of distress as she got closer.

“No really, it’s nothing.” Kell was clicking her mouse furiously. No doubt trying to erase the message that had popped up on her screen. Implicated for hitting the backspace key too many times! Kell's flushed cheeks showed that she was annoyed – no – mortified by the accusation.

Her computer beeped and Kell’s eyes flew open wide. “Why, that bugger – ”

Rowen finally let her laughter loose. “Let me guess. Skip just played a practical joke on you, didn’t he?” After freezing Kell’s computer long enough to make her panic, Skip had probably just popped up another message informing her of the fact that she’d just been hoodwinked.

Kell looked up at her with a frown.

“Sorry, I forgot to warn you,” Rowen lied. “He did the same thing to me on my first day.”

“Oh, did he?” Kell smiled frostily. “Well, two can play this game.”

“I don’t think anyone can booby trap Skip’s computer, he’s got it too well-guarded.” Rowen warned her.

“Who said anything about booby trapping his computer?” Kell asked, with a wicked grin.

For one brief moment, Rowen considered the possibility that it might actually be fun having Kell around the office.