Theme - The Main Idea or Central Belief

So you've got a story with a character, who wants things and struggles to get them, but what is your story really about?

Theme is a tricky thing, because it's usually something abstract and it's not something you want to beat your reader over the head with. So we are going to talk about why you need a discernible theme and how to execute it.

1. Why you need a theme. Having a theme helps make your story more than just another [insert your genre here] story. I helps your book stand and be noticed. This is crucial when it comes to marketing your book. If your are writing an epic fantasy, you've got a pretty small audience, but if it also contains a coming of age story about learning to love yourself you've just opened up and entirely new market.

Aside from the marketing possibilities having a distinct theme gives you as a writer a change to stretch your wings and try something a little more difficult. Interweaving your theme while still telling your story can be challenging, but worthwhile. It can also be a chance to let your audience know about what you think or believe about a certain topic. Just don't get preachy. *coughAnthemcough*

2. How do you do it? Usually the theme is something that comes through the characters and plot. How your characters respond to the events in the story give the readers clues to what the overall message. However, characters and plot are not the only ways to do this. Think about how setting effects your theme. Setting your story in Alabama in 1963 is going to let the audience know that racism is going to be a theme in your story.

Often times you as the author may not even be aware of the theme until after the first, second, or even final draft. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Most of the time (at least in my experience) you've got a theme all nestles in to your story, but you are just too close to see it. This makes "What is the message/theme?" a great question for beta readers.

Again, this is a tricky element because you have to be subtle or your readers are going to feel like you are on a soapbox beating them over the head with your opinion. Just remember to keep balancing all of these things without focusing or overemphasizing one or the other.

Conflict - The Struggle

Lets face it, without a conflict you don't have much of a story. Does that mean that your story has to be about an epic battle to death, or that your character has to face some seemingly insurmountable obstacle on every page? No. Conflict is actually much easier than that.

But, before I blow your mind with the simplicity of conflict, let's talk about the different types of conflict. Don't worry, there are only two: internal and external. As their titles imply, internal conflict happens within the character, and external conflict happens outside of, or to, the character.

Example: Sally knows that her friend Amy's boyfriend is cheating, but doesn't know how to tell her friend, or even if she should.
Sally's struggle is an internal emotional one that takes place in her own head.

Example: Steve is on his way to his wedding when his car breaks down.
Steve's struggle is an external event that happens to him that he cannot control.

Pro Tip: Just because Steve's conflict is external doesn't mean he can't have an internal conflict to go with it.

Now that we've got the basics covered lets talk about what makes good conflict. There are only four components, but if you want your reader to care, you've got to have them all.

You need:
1. A character
2. Who desires something
3. But there is an obstacle
4. And something is at stake.

Lets elaborate our two examples.

Sally (character)
wants to tell her friend Amy that her boyfriend is a cheater (desire)
but doesn't know how (obstacle)
and if she doesn't her friend will get hurt (stakes)
OR her friend might find out that she knew all along and hate her for not telling her
OR cheating boyfriend finds out that Sally knows and threatens her

Steve (character)
want to get married today (desire)
but his car breaks down (obstacle)
and if he doesn't fond a way to the chapel he'll miss the wedding (stakes)
OR his fiancee was left at the alter before and is going to think he changed his mind
 ^ This could be a set up for an internal conflict that Steve may or may not be having.

And that's all there is to it. Just remember the four ingredients, and keep in mind that the higher stakes are the more the reader will care. CAUTION: Does that mean your character should be fighting off alligators to save the girl next door in every scene? No. Absolutely not. Please don't do that. Just have something to be lost or gained for your character. This gives them a reason to act.

Homework: Set up some conflict in whatever you are working on. Good Luck!

P.S. Happy St. Patrick;s Day! I've got Irish roots so I have always loved this holiday. It helps that my son is a red head and looks great in green!

Characters - The Beings!

The people (or animals or taking toasters) that populate your world is one aspect of a story that no one overlooks; that doesn't mean it is always done well.

Think about a character that has stuck with you, and one that made you want to put down the book. What was the difference? Often times it is a lack of "personality" within the character. I put this word in quotes because while you characters must have a personality it can't be yours or your cousin Bob's. We'll get into that more later.

There are a lot of different ways to make sure your character has depth, and I will only be addressing a few of them because I feel like this topic has been covered pretty extensively. My focus is to give you a few principles and set you loos on your search engine.

1. Your character must be larger than life.

By larger than life I mean you cannot simply take someone you think is interesting or funny and drop them into your novel. First of all if they find out they can sue you for liable. Second, it turns out that cousin Bob isn't as interesting as you thought.

A character is completely different than a person (otherwise we wouldn't call them characters we would call them people), they have to stand out more than an average Joe who sits on his couch watching TV every night.

You can take certain aspects of Average Joe or Cousin Bob and start with that, but in the end your characters have to be more than a person.

2. Your character must have a desire and an obstacle.

This is one of the things that helps make your character larger than life. We all have desires, whether it be to write a novel or eat a cookie. We all have obstacles that we must overcome to achieve our goals (time, kids, money, lack of cookies, etc.) and this is a source of action within the story and sometimes conflict within the characters.

3. Your characters must be dynamically different.

My good friend Jae and I ran into a problem when we first began revising an old project of hers. She took three of her friends and made them characters. (This was before she knew any better) As she re-wrote, changed, and revised she just couldn't seem to pin down Carolyn. What was her motivation? Her weakness? What was she contributing to the conversation? To the story? The answer was not a lot. She was too similar to the other three characters. This works great in a real world friendship, but not in a story. Within the story she had nothing to contribute that the other three didn't also have. So she got voted out of the novel.

The bottom line is that each character must contribute something different and unique to the story, their strengths must balance out someone else's weaknesses and their weaknesses should be countered by another's strengths.

4. You've got to get to know them!

This is the key to making those beings truly larger than life. You have to get to know them. What are their secrets, fears, hobbies, short comings, strengths, family situation, race, etc.

Sit down as the character and answer the questions or sit down with them and interview them. The key is to keep them in character as you do it. You may be surprised and hopefully their motivations, hesitations and secrets will help you understand why they will or will not do something.

Doing this before you start writing is a great way to prevent getting stuck in your plotting and keeps you from wondering why your character can't/wont do something in your novel.

There are about half a billion character interviews and questionnaires that you can find. I am going to link you to my favorite to get you started. This questionnaire was designed as a character sheet for an RPG, so it works best for fantasy stories, but there are a hundred questions and most of them are applicable to any character.

Homework: Find a questionare and fill it out for at least one of your characters.

P.S. If you don't like the one I provided search engines are you friends!