Themes by Allison Symes

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

Do you have favourite themes in writing, whether this is in your work or someone else’s? I’ve always wanted to see justice done in stories. This is one reason I still love the classic fairytales, as well as the more obvious home for this topic, crime fiction. Even as a child, in the fairytale world I knew the rotters wouldn’t get away with it. Pity that’s not more true in life!

I will often use themes as my way into creating characters and stories. If I know my theme is going to be honesty, say, I will create a dishonest character and show them not getting away with it, or I will show a truthful creation being rewarded for their honesty (not necessarily in money).
 
I lead an online flash fiction group for a Christian writing organisation I’ve been a member of for years. It’s fun to do and this has led me to rediscover the joys (and otherwise) of PowerPoint after a break of many years from it. 

But I’ve found having a theme for my monthly workshops gives me a “peg” on which to share writing related news and makes it easier for set exercises for those attending to have a go at on the evening.

 

A recent one I used was the theme of Tens. I shared ten top flash fiction tips, ten dialogue tips, ten character tips and one exercise I set was to write a story in ten words. That’s great fun to do. Why not try it? 

The point of that was in writing to such a short word count, it is excellent practice for writing a strapline for your book. Indeed the strapline for my From Light to Dark and Back Again comes in at ten words (A collection of very short stories to suit every mood).

But having the theme to hand triggered other ideas to “feed it” which was useful.

I will often pick a theme I love when thinking of short stories and flash fiction to write. I see this as useful practice for writing to competitions where the theme has been set. 

I know I can write to a theme at random because I do it myself so this no longer fazes me. I know I can try whatever has been set at least. Also several themes come up time and again in competitions so practicing writing to them is never a waste of time.

 

 

I also set a theme for my monthly newsletter because again I find having a “peg” useful to work to and I make a point of mixing up the ones I use. I want to keep the newsletter content fresh, relevant, and interesting. I know I am mainly sending to other writers so setting a theme and sharing tips I’ve found useful on writing to it gives me good “stuff” to share here.

 

After all, nobody wants to hear “buy my book” all the time, do they? That theme can become tiresome remarkably quickly!