If characters form the heart of a novel, the plot its musculoskeletal system, then the theme is a book\u2019s soul. These might be personal or social issues, like emotional heartbreak or betrayal, or racial hatred or injustice, which sound all the way through the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These themes are not likely to be prominent. Lectures are to be avoided: these are no good. But if a book reverberates in the memory long after it\u2019s been put down, rather like the way a trumpet note sustains itself after the instrument has left the lips, then that\u2019s because of the book\u2019s theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A book with a theme is a book with soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s that easy. Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The appalling shock of racial prejudice in the old American South, the burning sense of justice, the desire to put things right. That\u2019s why the book sold. That\u2019s why readers still remember it today, even if it was a decade or three since they read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps you\u2019ve read Pride & Prejudice<\/em>. Its plot and lead characters, Lizzy and Darcy, are vivid, memorable, but what about the title? Does that just possibly suggest to you that Jane Austen had a certain theme in mind when she wrote it? (Its first working title, also, was First Impressions<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can write a bestseller without having a theme, but you can\u2019t write a good book without one. You certainly can\u2019t write a book that lasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can\u2019t just plug a theme into a book. Other things can be planned, crafted and worked at. But if you approach your theme front ways on, it\u2019ll sound crass and didactic, so what do you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, the most important thing is to write well<\/em>. If your stories, characters and prose are superbly knitted together, you\u2019ll start to see themes forming like a mist rising from a field at dusk. It just happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (That may sound rather fluid, we know, though it\u2019s true for all that.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, it\u2019s fine to have some ideas in mind as you write. They should stay towards the back of your mind, though. Stories must<\/em> be told through character and action, and it\u2019s these things which should occupy your conscious attention. But if those things are at the back of your mind, then they\u2019ll wriggle their way into your work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trust us on this, too, that you\u2019ll often enough be surprised by themes. Things will pop up in your work that you never intended to put there. Welcome all such strangers. Great authors always do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last, as you revise your text, you can shape, nudge, tweak things, so that those themes become a little more prominent. Subtlety is the hallmark. And they don\u2019t have to know<\/em> that they\u2019re reading a book with soul, intelligence, etc. You needn\u2019t lecture or tell anyone anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the soul is there, the reader will find it, whether they know it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If characters form the heart of a novel, the plot its musculoskeletal system, then the theme is a book\u2019s soul. These might be personal or social issues, like emotional heartbreak or betrayal, or racial hatred or injustice, which sound all the way through the novel. What Is A Theme? These themes are not likely to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[28894],"class_list":["post-2995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-novel-writing","tag-how-to-plot-masterclass1"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Find The Theme Of Your Book<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"