Themes Friday, Aug 14 2009
For some reason I have been recently explaining themes and motifs to people a fair amount. I am not going to do so here, but I have been thinking about themes and motifs, and I realized it’s generally themes that my more ambitious projects are really lacking. It’s always story first, then later on, a theme would happen. They are fun to write, and they are usually not too bad to read, but their lack of a driving purpose tends to keep me from actually finishing them.
My short stories tend to start with a theme, which is why I spend so much time hunting for a title for them: I want it to encapsulate the theme in some way. And the short stories tend to be solid, and I complete them easily and usually think they are pretty decent. Sometimes it gets lost on the way. I’ve got a theme in mind for a new one, and I will probably work on it as soon as possible. It will be called ‘Stalker.’ Isn’t that fun?
(This is true of my best very short fiction, also, though I write so much of that it’s hard to say there is a rule for it.)
July 21st, 2010 at 12:04 am
(Hi there, just dropping by from xkcdsucks in response to your “anyone can find my writing with a bit of research”)
So it is true that “nobody can tell you how to write”- meaning, there is no recipe that someone could give to anyone else and make them a writer. Not even a good one, just a writer that gets things done- no recipe for that. (Well duh).
Your words here are exactly opposite to what Ben Croshaw said about HIS writing- that if ever he figures out themes from the get go, he’d get too bored and move on to something else!
Me, I’m not a writer. Plopping a very short story once in a blue moon in a text file nobody would see does not a writer make; but if I were a writer, I would be an obsessive planner, pacing the room for hours thinking of things up to turns of phrase level before sitting down, staring at the wall for fifteen minutes trying to figure an opening sentence. It gets better after that.
July 21st, 2010 at 12:19 am
Well done! This blog is at least marginally harder to find than the other one. (But not, I assume, by much.)
There are tricks that make people better, but there’s no single list. It’s a lot of “I read what you wrote, now do this instead of that.” There are things that will make your writing better, but it takes a certain level of intuitive understanding to become a good writer.
The ritual for how to write varies from person to person, though. Some people plan, some people don’t. Some people start with plots, some people with characters, some with themes, etc.