Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos
Themes crop up all the time in creative writing. Many story and article competitions set a theme. Many writers have a theme in the back of their minds when creating a story or piece of non-fiction writing. Indeed, my theme here is to share tips about writing to themes.
For Writers’ Narrative magazine (which can now be found via Substack), there is a monthly theme the core contributors, including me, write around.
Even for those “open” competitions where a theme is deliberately not set, most writers will take the opportunity to write a piece based on themes they love writing about. Well, they do say write what you know. Also, it makes great sense to play to your strengths. What you love writing about will, generally, be a joy to write for you. I’ve found (and continue to find) this to be the case. Something of the author’s love for their theme does, I think, come through in the writing, even though they may not be aware of this.
For competition organisers, having a set theme simplifies things in some ways. All competition entrants have to work to the same remit though it is amazing the range of “takes” that can be had on a theme.
Many moons ago, I was privileged to be one of the winners three times in a row of the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition. All of the writers had to work to the same theme and word count. The prize was publication (via Bridge House Publishing) and I found it fascinating, when I read the books which came out, how many different takes were taken on the theme. The range was incredible yet each writer had fulfilled the requirements of the theme.
So how can a writer make the best of a theme? How can writers to find themes to write about? I hope the following tips help.
Making The Best of A Theme
The best themes are open to a wide range of interpretation which gives writers much more scope to work with. I love these.
Write down everything you associate with the theme you’ve been given (and this is a game of Word Association). Links will start to emerge. Story ideas in turn can come from those links.
The other advantage of writing down associations is the “obvious” ideas will come first. As you jot down further associations, more original thoughts will come to you. You have to push yourself a bit here, I always find this, but what I come up with later on is often what I will turn into a story. It is more likely to be unique. Story judges like seeing something which “answers” the theme in a new way. These kinds of tale always stand out for me when I’ve got my judge’s hat on (as I have again as I write this).
Do read stories which have already been published on the theme. You will learn what you like/dislike and that in turn can inspire your own writing.
Jot down what you like about the theme/what you dislike about it. For example, for a love story, I loathe soppy, sentimental tales. So does that mean I can never write a love story? No. I would write one which, perhaps, showed love in a different way. It doesn’t have to be soppy! I’d perhaps write a tale about a couple who finally have their happy ever after ending after going through various difficulties. There would be no room for the soppy stuff and I would be doing my characters a disservice if I introduced that. But you get the idea. I like love stories. Just not overly soppy ones. So working out what you like and dislike here is a good idea.
Give some thought as to why the theme has been chosen at all. That can be enlightening. Some reasons will be obvious – there are always love stories in February to commemorate St. Valentine’s Day but if a love theme has been chosen in, say, October, I would be curious about that. Are the judges looking for love stories where the characters cope with the darker times of year? Interesting thoughts, and therefore ideas, can come from this.
With popular themes, think about what you would like to bring to it. What would your angle be on it? It won’t be the same as someone else’s. There will be some similarities but no two writers write in the same way.
Finding Themes to Write About For Open Competitions
The advantage to having a theme set for you is it gives you a starting point, a framework if you like. There are various ways to finding those themes. Some of the ways I use (and continue to use) include:-
The random question generator can often throw up questions which make excellent themes. For example for this post, I’ve generated What’s the best piece of advice you ever received? For fiction, I can create a character who will show the answer to that question or write a story based on the overall theme of advice (good or bad). For non-fiction, I have an immediate theme for a blog post or an article here… now there’s a thought. But you get the idea.
Proverbs are excellent themes and rarely go out of date.
Certain times of the year have themes – February (love); June/July/August (summer); December (Christmas). All are timeless themes and if you list words associated with the theme (for example, summer = holidays = how holidays have changed over the years), you can come up with even further ideas to write about.
Think about the themes in favourite books of yours – what could your take be on that same theme?
Look at the headlines (newspapers or on websites) – what are the themes coming out from those?
What do you care most about? I’ve always loved the fairytales because justice is usually seen to be done in some form so that element often comes out in my stories.
Conclusion
Writing to themes is something every writer will do. It’s a question of whether it’s consciously done or not. It is possible to surprise yourself when you read a story of yours back to see the unconscious themes emerging.
I’ve had this happen often. Yes, the main theme is there but then you spot something else. Sometimes I’ve had someone point this out to me on one of my tales and I look again and see they were right. It is nice though when that happens. It means the story has engaged!
For competitions with a set theme, you don’t have the choice other than to write to it there but it is a good discipline to write to what is effectively a prompt set by someone else. I’ve found it makes me think more laterally and I’ve come up with stories I wouldn’t have otherwise have invented because of that.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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