Writing to a Theme by Allison Symes

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Do you always write to a theme or do you see where your characters take you (and see what the theme is from that)? I’ve done both but these days I prefer knowing what my theme is in advance (even when I set it). 

What characters could serve/demonstrate this theme well? I don’t plan out everything. I want to give my imagination what I call manoeuvre room but I need something to get me started. This is where having a set theme is handy.

For my short stories and flash fiction, I often write to a theme set by someone else for competitions, themes set by a magazine editor, and so on. I like the challenge here. Having a theme to write to also gives me a framework and I find that structure helpful.

I try to keep a stock of stories (standard length short and flash) so when I have an open theme competition, I know I’ve got something I can look at, polish, and submit. The trouble with openness is there are times it can be too open! 

Having a set theme means I work out different thoughts as to what can I do with this. With an open theme, you can wonder where to start but these competitions make great homes for those stories I don’t have an obvious home for and I have had work published doing this.

I like themes which are open to interpretation. Love themes, for example, can be taken in many different directions - romantic love, the love of an adult child for an aged parent, the love between friends, when love dies, and so on. The classic themes, including love, justice, honour, and crime, all have great scope to write about - and for non-fiction too.

As for setting themes myself, I use a variety of means for this. Proverbs can be great here as can well known phrases (so don’t throw out those old proverb books!). I’ve occasionally subverted the latter.

One of my published pieces is called Punish the Innocent. We’d usually talk about punishing the guilty (I hope we would!) but just the idea of turning things around here gave me a great theme to write a story around.

 I also use random generators. The random question one, for example, has often given me a title for a piece directly or with only a little alteration to suit my purposes and the theme all in one hit!

I like to know something about my characters before I write their stories up and that can trigger themes.

 

Asking a couple of pertinent questions such as what would Character X never do and why? How would Character X react when put in a situation where they must do that thing? From the answers to those questions, I can find out what motivates Character X. Often themes emerge from that.

How do you find themes for your pieces? Do you find themes helpful or a hindrance?