Choosing Themes for Your Stories
Having woven themes within your story can enrich your writing. They add layers to your storytelling and allow your readers to connect on a deep and personal level. You may be asking, what is a theme? A theme is an idea or philosophy that permeates a work of art or literature. Themes are often lurking beneath the obvious and encompass the entirety of the story.
For example, in my Latinx fantasy, I explore themes such as family, coming of age, losing hope, fear of failure, grief, death, guilt and friendship, which are under the umbrella of a larger theme—identity. Sometimes themes emerge as you write your story. In my case, however, I like being deliberate about which themes will appear in my book before I begin writing. Here are three tips that will help you choose the themes for your story.
Be Inspired by Your Experiences
When wondering what themes to include in your story, it is useful to think back on your experience and ask yourself: what themes have been present throughout my life? By analyzing the feelings and values you’ve experienced firsthand, such as love, loss, friendship, compassion, anger, etc., you can write with a true sense of understanding of what it is like to live through these emotions and situations. This will add a layer of realism to the themes you want to embed in your story and to your characters’ inner conflicts. For example, I wished to explore the theme of responsibility to one’s family in one of my books, so I included this struggle within my main character’s arc. This is a struggle I know firsthand, thus this theme comes naturally when I’m writing.
Write a Theme Statement
Writing a theme statement can be useful during the brainstorming process. This is a sentence that will describe your overall theme. You can refer back to this sentence as you write your first draft and tweak it as you go, but the core idea will be represented in this sentence. For example, a very simple theme statement can be “embracing your true self can lead to inner peace,” but you can make yours as complex as you want. Even though the theme statement can seem to be the moral of the story, it isn’t necessarily that. Themes aren’t lessons; rather, they are ideas that allow readers to find a deeper meaning.
Include Your Themes in Your Story Outline
Having your themes in mind when you outline can lead your story in the right direction. The way I include my themes in my outline is by embedding them into my characters’ arcs. If your story is world- or plot-driven, characters might not portray your themes. But if you are writing a character-driven book, this can be a great way of showing your themes.
I hope these three tips guide and help you think about themes when writing stories. The amazing thing about themes is that, more often than not, they are universal. They allow you to connect to everyone, which is a magical aspect of literature and art.
