Thoughts on Theme: Part II

It’s been a while since my first post on theme, but I haven’t forgotten about it. The Plotting Bootcamp workshop I took through Rose's Colored Glasses in June kept me busy all month. I accomplished a completely re-worked outline for the new and improved All Roads Lead to Ross, so the workshop was worth its weight in gold to me. Then the last weekend in June, I attended a writer’s retreat with several of my DSRA chaptermates. In one weekend, I turned my outline from the workshop into a scene by scene layout of the story. I still have a few holes, but I’m proud of how the story has shaped up.

So, enough excuses about why I haven’t written more about theme and on to the point. The workshop planted a seed for the theme of my story, and I keep thinking about how I can subtly layer it in. I asked several of my writer friends about their thoughts on theme, and I posed to the question over at Romance Divas too. I discovered writers’ attitudes about theme are as varied as themes themselves.

Many writers don’t seem to think about theme at all. That made me feel better about never having thought much about it myself until now. Many of them say they discover the theme as they write the story and then elaborate on it through revisions. Some feel they have the same theme in all their work--that it’s the piece of themselves that occurs naturally in their writing, the touch of their personal philosophy about life or love, that continually recurs.

I was cautioned by more than one writer to watch out lest I “beat the reader over the head with it (theme).” Subtlety and subtext are generally best with any writing device. I know this. I also know my own tendency to over-think things. So…my newfound obsession with theme may become a vice when my critique partners start looking at my WIP. Only time will tell.

The most intriguing concept someone shared for developing theme involved thinking of it as a continuum. Almost any of the abstract subjects listed in my first Thoughts on Theme post could be set up on a continuum. Truth wasn’t on my original list, but I’m going to use that as an example here anyway. If I plot my Truth Continuum below:

FALSE__________________________TRUE


Then things that are absolutely true fall to the far right, and things that are absolutely false fall the far left. Everything is simple. Black and white.

But some things aren’t that easy to classify—there are gray areas that fall in the middle or to the left or right of the middle based on their level of trueness or falseness.

What’s true for one character might not be true for another. One character might know something the other doesn’t, something that will completely change what the other character believes to be true. Or the character's beliefs themselves may color what is true for that character.

Taking an abstract concept and making it fluid via a continuum, marking its stages of progression on a line, can show a writer where each character falls and reveal multiple themes (complete philosophic statements about that abstract concept) that can be, or may already be, embedded in the story.

Using the concept of betrayal, betrayal goes at one end of the continuum and its opposite (as the writer defines it—in this case I’m going to use loyalty) goes at the other end. Then, considering the characters’ conflicts and viewpoints, the writer can place each in the appropriate place on the continuum. And of course, the character may be at different points on the continuum at different points in the story.

I wouldn’t make multiple graphs for this or spend too much time worrying with it (my effort to avoid over-thinking), but I can see how the visual idea of a continuum could help me in my plotting as I’m trying to establish running, cohesive themes throughout the whole story—both main and subplots.

I think I will make theme a major point of consideration when developing new story ideas from now on. After doing some thinking and researching about it, I believe it’s a concept that should be deeply rooted in the characters, in the conflicts, and even in the setting. For me, it’s too important to ignore because, obsessive plotter that I am, I don’t trust myself to work it all in naturally.

My thoughts on theme have led to thoughts on motif and symbol, but I’ll save those topics for a future post or two.

By the way, if you’re interested in the Plotting Bootcamp workshop, they’re offering it again in September. You can find more information about that HERE.