- Writing a Killer Book Proposal
- The Parts of a Book Proposal
- Knowing the Theme of Your Book
- Writing A Summary Sheet
Theme is a tough subject. It is perhaps one of the most common reasons writers go awry in the midst of their writing. Theme is, at its most basic, the reason you are writing the story. It is part of our voice; your unique perspective and expression. It is what your book is about.
Read that again – It is what your book is about.
Theme is not characters. It is not plot. It is not about the goal of the main character or about why the villain is in opposition to that goal. Theme is what your readers will get out of the story. Maybe it is a lesson. Maybe it is a new way of looking at things. Maybe it is just something to think about.
Theme is subtle. You might want to think of it as the reason or feeling behind the choices you are making for your story. You have your plot, but the choices you make while telling that plot usually convey the theme. For me, the key to figuring out my theme is to understand what my readers will get from reading the story AND why I wrote it.
For example, one of the themes of Casablanca is the sense of escaping the past. Rick is trying to forget about the love he felt for Ilsa while Laszlo and Ilsa are literally trying to escape to a new life somewhere else. The props used throughout the story help convey this theme, from the airplanes to the songs sung in the café. The theme is there throughout the story, but is doesn’t bang the reader/viewer over the head – it isn’t preachy. Remember, a message is not the same as a moral.
Coming up with a way to express your theme can take some time and energy, as it isn’t something we often consciously think about when writing our books. To help me get to the root of what I’ve been trying to say, I often ask myself a series of simple questions.
1) Why did I write this story?
2) What is it that I like about this story?
3) What do I want my readers to get out of the story?
4) What personal message was I trying to convey?
5) How are my story and my main character linked?
6) What scenes are crucial to ensuring that my theme gets conveyed?
Answering these simple questions not only helps to clarify my theme but makes it easier to write my synopsis when the time comes
