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WorldCrafters Guild

Workshop: The Mystery of Theme

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

 

One of the most subtle yet most powerful tools in the writers toolbox is THEME. 

A "theme" is what you want to say about life, the universe and everything.  It comes from the essence of who you are and displays your personal philosophy for all the world to criticise and admire.  Theme ties the art in a story to the craft.  Theme connects the mechanics of writing to the Imagination of the writer -- and it is from THEME that "mood" is established and developed.  It is Theme that lets you induce emotional response in your readers, and control the intensity of that response -- if you have control of the tools that present and express theme. 

Theme usually resides in the writers subconscious -- and many writers, such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, work best by not knowing what the theme of a given work is until maybe 10 years after it's been published. 

To know you have a theme, all you really need is that inner feeling -- an urge to say something that's vitally important to you.  You don't really have to know, consciously, precisely what it is you want to say.  But you do have to feel that inward need to say it, loudly, forcefully, for all to hear and understand.  You have to want to explain what you understand to everyone who reads your story.  If you feel that -- you've got a theme there somewhere.  If your mind organizes it into a single, clear statement -- fine, then you don't have to know anything else.  But if it comes out all jumbled up, with one part of the story saying one thing, and another part saying something else -- then you may find you must bring that theme up to the conscious level to clarify it and unleash its power. 

Theme is the story element that connects the writers subconscious directly to the reader's subconscious.  It opens an avenue of non-verbal communication between writer and reader, between storyteller and listener, and as such partakes of magic.  Via theme, life-lessons can be absorbed without actually living through the agonies yourself in real-time.  Via THEME, your fantasy-life becomes a spiritual initiation. 

It is THEME that dictates Point of View, and chooses your protagonist, and selects your narrative voice and determines your decorative details.

 

"Theme" in a work of fiction is exactly the same as "theme" in a symphony or an Indian Raga.  It is the assembly of elements that recur again and again throughout the work, that is there at the beginning and comes to fulfillment and revelation at the end.  Repetition identifies theme.  That which is repeated is the theme. 

Recently, Cheryl Wolverton emailed me that, while watching the new Star Wars film, she suddenly had a whole new grasp of the concept "theme."  And she explained all the SW films in terms of the theme that she saw uniting them -- it's all about Darth Vader!  I'm hoping that she'll write this up for the workshop soon. 

Cheryl's analysis of SW focused my attention on theme, and then Jenn Vesperman turned in her Assignment 1 on theme (go read that one on http://www.simegen.com/school/studentshowcase -- and think about SW while reading Jenn's Ass#1 and my commentary on it because there's a similarity in the matter of finding and changing your place in the world and how your happiness and joy in life depends on living your life in the right "place" (station, or social level) for you as an individual.)  and then, I watched my tape of the second-to-last STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE episode, "The Dogs of War." 

I watched that episode twice.  On the first run-through, I noticed the blatant and obvious thematic statement for the entire DS9 series, but had the impression that this wasn't a very good script as DS9 scripts go because it's so very fragmented, and the ending doesn't come around back to the beginning.  It's like the middle book in a trilogy -- a bridge between last week's episode and the climactic battle episode scheduled for next week.  Nothing starts and nothing ends in this episode -- but the Situations all progress. 

On second viewing though, I changed my mind. 

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, like Star Wars or Babylon Five, is a massive work, sprawling over years of time, dozens of characters, at least half a dozen themes.  This second to the last Chapter lays out a set of story lines that appear to be unrelated -- until you come upon the clear statement of the THEME. 

More than half way through, the Barkeeper, Quark, is gnawing and gnawing on the horror of what's happened to the culture of his homeworld.  The Rules of Acquisition are no longer being properly taught to children.  The Federation cultural values have suddenly invaded the legal structure -- and taxes have been levied to pay for "social programs."  He's appalled, horrified, repelled, dismayed, and his whole attention is totally riveted upon this dreadful development.  Worse, it's his personal problem because he has been told he's to become the Grand Nagus and have both the power and the responsibility for the planet's economy and wellbeing in his hands.  He will preside over the downfall of his entire civilization.   

At the end of that scene, Quark walks down the stairs from the mezzanine, and turns and looks UP at the camera (remember, economics is sacred to the Farengi -- this is visual storytelling at its best here), and in a ringing, loud and passionate voice, he declaims the OVERALL THEME of STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE -- and maybe of all the Treks -- "The line has to be drawn here.  This far and no farther!" 

And you go back and look at the other jumbled-together story-arc threads in that one episode, and suddenly you see everyone involved in decision making processes has been pushed by events to the point where they MUST DRAW THE LINE.  And the lines they are drawing are battle-lines which defend their ethical and moral positions on THEMATIC ISSUES that have been dealt with in previous episodes. 

At first I thought that Ezri Dax and Dr. Bashir were an exception -- that they had decided to reach across their battle-lines and make the connection with each other.  But their situation can be looked at another way -- they have drawn the line in the dance-of-avoidance they have been engaged in for a number of episodes now.  They have agreed to take their friendship to the next level -- saying in effect that they can't dance this silly jig around each other any more.  "This far and no farther."  Or "from now on things will be different." 

And in discussing their problem, they both agreed that once they CROSS THAT LINE with their friendship, there will be no going back.  That's the connecting link between their story and the other story-arc lines in this episode.  THE POINT OF NO RETURN, is another way of stating, THIS FAR AND NO FARTHER.  It is the definitive act that establishes a boundary, that commits to a fate.  So thematically, the little Ezri/Bashir bits are in perfect thematic unity with the rest of this episode. 

So, if you've watched enough DS9 to be able to follow the complex story-arcs, analyzing "The Dogs of War" for THEME -- and contrasting and comparing that with the new SW film (which I haven't seen yet) may give you a new level of insight into this vital structural element of story called THEME. 

Remember that the title of any work is one (sometimes symbolic) statement of the theme.  The theme must be clearly delineated in the first couple of paragraphs -- and should be a nascent element in the very first sentence.  The theme is the reason you want to write the story -- so that means it is also the reason why any reader might want to read that story.  If you want people to buy your books, you must learn to tell them why they should spend their money on this book right there on page 1.  And theme is the nucleus of conflict.  And conflict is the essence of story. 

The reason why very often a writing project stalls out either at the beginning, in the middle or at the end, (a problem often called writers' block, but is actually just a lack of the proper tool in your toolchest) is that the theme and conflict have not been clearly stated and linked into the choice of protagonist and POV character.  If the writer pushes on through and produces a set of words to call a story, without the matched set of theme/conflict/protag/POV character, those words will likely not add up to "story."  The result will be 'contrived' or not convey the level of passion the writer feels for the material. 

Since these elements must come in matched-sets to support a "story" -- you can find all of them by just "reverse engineering" any one of the set.  Each one contains the essence of the other.  If you know the conflict, you then know the theme, protag and POV.  If you know the Protag, you then know the theme, conflict and POV.  If you know the POV, you know the theme, conflict, and protag.  And so on.  It doesn't matter which one of these your subconscious tosses up before your eyeballs flashing "TELL THIS STORY" -- it doesn't matter where you start.  But when you FINISH, you must have a matched set for your work to have the power of real art behind it. 

And that's the real mystery of theme.  It's power lies in its binding properties.  The way you get your sets to match is by finding the elements that match your theme. 

Examples: A story with a theme about justice has to have a criminal in it, more than likely the Protag. but not necessarily the POV character (who might be a lawyer or Detective.)  See if you can come up with 5 more obvious examples.  A story with a theme about Love?  A story with a theme about Divine Providence?  A story with a theme about Responsibility?  A story with a theme about Self-Assertiveness?  A story with a theme about Compassion?

If ST and SW etc. are not "your thing" -- then analyze some favorite of your own until it comes clear to you.  Cheryl admits that SW is a big passion of hers - so it makes sense to me that she'd have a big "Aha!" experience studying SW for theme.  Study your favorites.  It's the best way to learn. 

Now go start on Assignment 2.  http://www.simegen.com/school/OnlineLessons/

Live Long and Prosper,
Jacqueline Lichtenberg