Elements of Storytelling – Theme
Beth Ann Erickson
FilbertPublishing.com
This is the final
installment in the Elements of Storytelling
series.
It’s hard to believe, but we’ve finally covered
a lot of what you need to know to spin a good
yarn! Now
it’s up to you – and I hope you’re hard at it, writing
the story within you.
But before we wrap this series we need to talk
about “theme” for a moment.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever sat in an English
Lit class trying to vocalize the “theme” an author was
trying to convey in a work of fiction.
For me, it was horrible. I could NEVER come up
with a concise one-sentence definition of what the author
was trying to tell me as I read his/her book.
Besides, sometimes I wasn’t
sure they were trying to say anything anyway.
Determining the “Theme” was something that
terrified me as I sat down to write my first
novel. I had
this fantastic story swirling around in my mind, but what
if it was just that – a fantastic story without any
moral-of-the-story message – without a theme?
Well, I didn’t have a choice. I had to write the
story or I’d go crazy. But I still couldn’t
come up with a theme. So I decided to write
it anyway. I
wrote every day, stayed faithful to the story, until I
finished it.
Then, as I finished my first edit, lo and behold
I discovered the theme.
Which brings me to my point. I believe that every
writer has a unique story within them. If you’re faithful to
your story, your “theme” will naturally
develop.
It’s when you contort your story to suit what you think
the theme should be that your story turns cardboard,
lifeless, and heavy-handed.
So once again we arrive at the same destination
we’ve visited so many times before: Just tell your
story. Get
writing and tell the story.
Sounds easy. And sometimes it
is.
But it’s always a joy.
Now get to work and let me know when you get
published.
~~~
Beth Ann Erickson is Queen Bee of Filbert
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