Hello! Alayna here!
As is my great honor, I’ve been chosen to write the next Honeycomb blog post! You’ll be seeing a lot more of me on here from now on, and I’m so excited to explore these writing ideas with you. This week I’ll be picking up where Emily left off in our exploration of theme and its purpose in the writing process.
Discovering Your Theme
Theme is the salt and pepper of your story. It’s the thing that draws out the flavors and ties together the loose, individual elements in your work. A theme, when used appropriately, enhances the character arcs, plot structures, and worldbuilding in your story, tying it all together into one cohesive whole.
So how do these story-enhancing themes fit into your book? Where can you find them? And how??
When it comes to writing theme, there are two types of writers: Those who start with theme and those who discover it along the way. In attempting to make your work cohesive, they can sometimes demand two different approaches.
For those who start with theme, you have already have questions to ask. You know what you want the core of this story to be about. But you need to make sure it all connects––that the characters, plot, and world all mesh together in accordance with your ultimate goals.
For those who discover along the way, the hardest part may be finding out what it is you’re trying to say. No, not every book has to have a fully developed “theme statement” in order to be a good book, but developing a list of questions that you’re trying to explore with your story can help you develop greater cohesion between different story elements in your book.
So then how do you find your theme? A great place to start is with your characters.
Step 1: Finding Your Theme–Character Questions
Ultimately, a theme can be boiled down to the overarching question (or questions) that your story is asking. It can begin with the author (the question that you as a writer want to answer) or it can begin with the story (the natural questions that come out of the world and conflicts you’ve created).
When the questions begin with you, the difficulty is making sure that the entire story feels natural and not forced, that it doesn’t just sound like you’re standing on a soap box but that you’ve developed a “real” world with characters motivated to answer the questions you’re trying to ask. In this case, you start with yourself: “What questions are you trying to ask in this story?” Once you’ve determined what your question is, the next step is to flesh it out: “How do these questions relate to your character’s story arc?”
On the other hand, when the questions come from the story organically, the difficulty is often in narrowing down all the story elements and identifying the theme.
When you’re trying to figure out the questions you’re asking in your story, the best place to start is with your characters. Generally, characters are the clearest manifestation of theme in a story because they themselves are often asking questions––trying to find a solution to a particular set of problems connected to the way the world works and who they are as characters. A character’s perception of the world they live in and their place in it shapes their motivations which in turn shape the trajectory of the plot. Each element flows into the other, ultimately returning to what the characters want and why. That “why” is the character question; it’s the core idea that the character is wrestling with throughout the story.
A great example of this is Lois Lowry’s The Giver. In this book, Jonas begins questioning the world in which he was raised due to the memories he receives from the Giver. He starts asking if it is right to cast aside what is beautiful just to avoid what is painful. Jonas’ experiences with the twin Gabe layers this question more deeply, ultimately leading to the question of what makes life valuable? Jonas’ subconscious pursuit of this question shapes the rest of the book, leading to the climax when Jonas saves Gabe from being euthanized and runs away from the community, his actions emphasizing the value of individual human life.
In this, we see how Jonas’ perception of the world around him is shaped by his thematic question, leading him to reject societal norms. That final scene reveals the thematic thread that Lowry had woven throughout the entire story, emphasizing it through its connection with character motivation. In this, all of these story elements are made more cohesive by the thematic question Jonas is exploring.
So, as you’re trying to identify the theme of your story, one place to start is with your characters and the questions they’re asking. If you’re writing a story about a character who lives in a dystopian world where everything is black and white and suddenly, he starts seeing color, what sort of questions does that prompt him to ask? And once you’ve identified the questions your characters are asking, often times that also means you’ve identified the questions you are asking.
Now that you’ve identified your theme through your character’s questions and motivations, how can you use this newfound knowledge to develop greater cohesion in your work?
Step 2: Incorporating Your Theme in Characters
Your characters are the driving force of the story. They move the plot, reveal the world, and ultimately embody the theme of your work. So as you’re trying to make your story cohesive, you’re going to want to look to your characters and see how their interactions with story elements can reveal the theme.
Character Motivation and Backstory
A key to discovering and incorporating theme, which we’ve already discussed in part, is looking at your character’s motivations: What questions are these characters asking about the world you’ve made? But, as you’re trying to build cohesion and incorporate themes into these characters, you’re also going to want to ask why they’re asking these questions. What past experiences and learned expectations shape the way they see the world?
In The Giver, Jonas is raised in a society built around the values of logic and uniformity––passions and anything that might incite them have been removed from reality. However, Jonas experiences an alternative world through the Fiver’s memories that allows him to perceive reality differently, prompting him to ask questions. Here we can see how Lowry carefully cultivated a setting and history that is perfect for the questions Jonas is asking, such as the value of life, love, and individuality.
So, as you’re building and refining your characters, pay careful attention to how the lives they have led might lead them to ask specific questions of the world around them.
Character Relationships
Another way to explore theme in your story is through character relationships. Not every character is going to answer your central question the same way. In fact, one of the best ways to deeply explore a theme in your story is to create characters who answer the question differently.
For example, often times the protagonist and antagonist are asking the same question but answer it in opposition to the other: Jonas believes beauty is worth the pain it might potentially cause whereas the leaders of the community believe beauty should be expelled because it causes pain. Pitting these opposing viewpoints against each other can lead to scenarios in the plot where you can explore the theme more directly, like the moment when Jonas decides to flee the community; here his values are juxtaposed against the values of the community, creating a tension that culminates in the story’s climax, where one answer has to win out against the other.
There are a myriad of different character dynamics you can develop in order to explore the different potential answers to your thematic question. The protagonist-antagonist relationship is probably one of the most plot relevant ways of incorporating the theme into your characters, but you can also explore theme through character foils and mirrors.
A “foil” is a character who contrasts another character, drawing out their individual traits through their differences–like Draco Malfoy to Harry Potter. On the surface alone, Harry’s humility, bravery, and kindness shines brighter when contrasted with Draco’s arrogance, cowardice, and bullying. You can use a character foil to draw out the theme of your story by either giving the characters conflicting questions or giving them different answers to the same question.
A “mirror” is a character that resembles another character in such a way as to reveal their fundamental differences; in other words, it reveals their differences through their similarities, like Voldemort and Harry Potter–the books are riddled with similarities between Harry and Voldemort, which makes their fundamental differences shine brighter. Just like a character foil, you can explore the theme of your story by giving characters different questions or different answers to the same question.
Using a character mirror or foil to draw out a theme in your story is a great way not only to develop cohesion but also to explore your theme more deeply. When you juxtapose characters against each other through their similarities and differences, you can also juxtapose their motivations, questions, and values–all concepts that are directedly related to your theme.
Conclusion: Exploring Your Theme
Not all books have to ask direct questions, but the stories that stick in a reader’s mind the most are those that make them think. Theme is a huge part of cultivating that stickiness–it’s a cohesive thread that runs through every element of your story, weaving everything together. And, if you’re writing theme well–if you’re writing honestly–then your story should be asking questions. And that means your characters should be asking questions–of themselves, the world, and the story in which they’re placed.
Whether you’re writing theme intentionally into your story or discovering it as you go, the key to incorporating it well is to explore deeply. There isn’t just one answer to the singular answer or an answer at all. But if you explore all the potential answers, you can create a richer picture that more honestly depicts the conflict or tension that you’re trying to get to the bottom of. Neither you nor your characters have to find an answer in the end; what’s important is that you ask the questions, and see if maybe you can learn something through your exploration.
Till then, bee brilliant!
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