How do you come up with them? Or do you just wait until the end and see if there are any? Are themes important?

I'm just curious. I realized a while ago that my stories tend to have the common theme of family, and I had no idea the theme existed until I began to go over the stories.

What are some themes from your story? Did you lay them down before you started writing, or did you find them popping up?

I usually just write the story and let themes come up by themselves. Penalty has a couple of themes that I didn't know would pop up, and many of my other stories have some sort of theme.

What kind of themes appear in Penalty?

I suppose it contains themes such as: Loyalty, Justice, Family, Mercy, and probably a few others I don't know about yet.

Yeah, I tend to just see what turns up in my stories. A lot of mine tend to be centered around sacrifice as the definition, outcome and embodiment of love...but I know there are a lot of other themes in my writing as well.

Mine usually have the themes of Forgiveness, Acceptance, and Friendship.

I once read a good novel will have three themes: the one you have in mind when you write it, the one that evolves on its own that you might not even notice, and one the reader sees.

I might not have a theme in mind when I write the first draft, but I will have certainly decided where it is going by the time I come back for edits, where I can strengthen the theme. A good theme you consciously manipulate will give a novel a cohesive feeling.

You might not - or even probably won't - notice themes that evolve on their own because they are accidentally inserted because of a deeply ingrained belief or worldview. You have events and actions and reactions because you think those are the natural way things work, but to someone who thinks otherwise or just doesn't have the same view ingrained as deeply, it's a recognizable theme.

The theme the reader sees is different from the above because it is formed by the reader's perception. A story will always be so much more in a reader's head than it ever could be in print. Some of that "so much more" in the readers mind will be a theme they interpret from the story.

Most of my themes are about the trials of love, patience, forgiveness, perseverance, and trust. ^^

Well, I maybe don't really qualify for this since I haven't written much, but in my fantasy stories, it's always just come up.
For example, when trying to figure out my Werewolves, I ended up with the theme of redemption and subsequent rejection and reviling from those around them (very similar to what happens if you are/become a Christian) when they repent and follow God's call.
So in that case, a theme emerged strictly from world-building.

But also, another story I actually wrote (most of, anyway), emerged from my deep frustration with people that seem to think the world is for sure ending really really soon (people have thought that for hundreds of years). I'm inclined to agree that it's probably not long, but I wanted to show that it was very possible that it would be hundreds or thousands of years before Armageddon.
Then, when writing the story, I encountered other themes (that I have yet to accentuate in the story), such as resigning to God's plan for you and your situation (the MC is going to be one of few survivors of a virus that has infected his family along with most of the human population), becoming a man (protecting those given to you as companions, etc).

So I guess you can tell that I don't really deliberately pick something out and say "Ok, this is the theme for my story" and stick to it. Even if a certain conviction or idea starts the story, that won't necessarily be the main theme.

I hope this helped...

How important are themes to a story? I mean, are they the points you try to make, or could primarily be used to interest and draw readers in? Should you follow the theme like you would the plot when you write?

You all have some interesting themes. Makes me want to read your stories.

For me, so far, they are points I'm sort of trying to make, but not consciously so much as a campaign to rub the point in their faces...but a subtle example of how, to use my first example, redemption works/could work in a given situation; or to use my second example, to demonstrate how the human population might go down under 1000 and the likely time for the world to end to be pushed back...does that make sense? (and keep in mind, that's just my version of themes from two stories...I haven't written that much so I don't have the most experience really).

I think themes are important, but I think you should be careful when you consciously work them into a story - that could easily lead to preachiness with some themes. The story should drive the theme, not the other way around.

That said, I do have a couple reoccurring themes in my stories, I think. Shapeshifters is almost a coming-of-age story; a large portion of it is devoted to one of the main characters discovering who she is. There's also a theme of sacrifice: another main character has to give up a lot of his dreams to protect those with him.

My other story definitely has a redemption theme. I won't say why, though... that would give away a lot of the story.



I was going to say the same thing!

Abigail- Yeah. That would be something I could see myself doing. If I came up with a theme for a story, the theme would drive the story. But thankfully my themes seem to pop up on their own, no driving experience needed.

Lycanis- So your themes are like lessons, more or less?

Sort of, but I usually recognize them as they enter the story, then I guide them a little as I implement them (at least, as far as my experience has gone). So I wouldn't say the theme drives the story (though I also could see myself doing that, and likely have done that sometimes), but the story (or character, or race) exemplifies the theme in a way, and so far the recognizable themes in my stories are sort of lessons, convictions, or just important theological things.
This is really hard for me to put into words, so I hope I'm making sense here.

You're fine. I'm just curious what everyone's themes were and their thoughts on them.

That's a good point. Like in my story, the family theme is portrayed in several ways: the MC is an orphan, and wants a family (the closest thing she has to family is a friend from the orphanage, who's like a brother to her), and then there's eight brothers. They're a close-knit family, since they have no parents. They take the MC (and another orphan character) in as 'sisters.'

I'll stop rambling now.

Yeah, that sounds similar to mine (except different theme, but exemplified in a similar fashion).
Don't worry, I've been rambling all over the place on this thread.

The three books in my trilogy have different themes to them. For me, I took my characters, Tierin in particular, and thought about all the things he was going to undergo. I took where he was going to start, and decided where I wanted to be. There would be many trials along his road.

In simpler terms, I take the journey my character must undergo and build the theme from his trials and his struggles. The other themes that come stem from there.

It's working well, I think.

Says the Alpha reader.

Ooh, cool. What kinds of themes are in your books?

How do you come up with them?
They just happen, it's a subject I'm passionate about, etc.
Or do you just wait until the end and see if there are any?
No, though some additional themes will undoubtedly appear.
Are themes important?
Yes, otherwise you're just writing "cotton candy."
God bless,
Joel ><>.

Mine?

Racham- I like those themes.

Crush- Cool. What would 'cotton candy' be?

Airi- Yes ma'am.

I have a lot of themes that tend to creep into all my books when I'm not looking. Things like justice, and pacifism, and the ends never justify the means... and mercy, and compassion...

The theme of Prince of Yen would be that no government is unfallible and that justice is nothing if it's not paired with mercy. What I set out to write is that nothing is impossible, and while that's still incorporated it's not nearly as strong as I intended.

Whoever said it, they're totally right about the three themes. One that the author intends, one that the story invents, and one that the reader perceives. The last is different for every person, and the first may not necessarily exist.

Most of my books, it seems, ends up with a theme of justice, mercy, revenge, and general finger pointing in the direction of big governments. I suppose you can deduce from that what's most important to me.

You never struck me as a pacifist, Constable.

Have you read my sanctity of life series?
I'm not a pacifist like, say, the Mennonites. I believe in self-defense. But I'm against war in any shape or form. And pacifism is the easiest way to describe that.

"Cotton candy" is the term I use for stories without any real substance; not really any theme(s), or lesson(s).
God bless,
Joel ><>.

No. But I'll check it out. I assume that's on the blog?



Ah, interesting. Thanks for clarifying. I'd love to pick your brain about that sometime. This thread doesn't seem the place, though.

It might make an interesting thread in Theology.

Yes, it's on the blog. I'd love to have a discussion with you on it, but yeah, that would be derailing this. We can meet up in chat, or you can go ahead and start a thread.

Here's my personal blog which provides links to the entire series. I was going to link you to the HW blog, but you'd still have to sort of fish around to find them in order, because there were other posts in between mine. This is a sort of index thing: http://katie-ideas.blogspot.com/2011/12 ... -life.html

There are a few that I come up with themes in mind, like The Price of Freedom and it's sequels, along with the sequel story arc, Dystopia Fallen. Those are about how freedom and liberty must have responsibility and selflessness to survive.

Others have themes that just grow out of the story.