Is Theme Really Important in my Novel? Part One

Happy Wednesday, my writing friends,

Recently someone asked me to describe the theme of a book I was reading. I tried, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I couldn’t figure it out. It was foggy, at least to me. This started me thinking about the importance of clearly communicating theme in our stories.

Most great books have obvious themes.

Great Expectations—ambition and self improvement

A Wrinkle in Time—the ultimate triumph of love

Les Miserables—the power of redemption

Pride and Prejudice—well … Jane Austin just comes right out and tells us, doesn’t she.

A well-portrayed theme boosts a book from something to fill an afternoon, to a life-impacting experience. Oh, I’ll never forget how The Robe changed me. There’s a book with a magnificently shown theme.

Let’s figure out what it’s all about, then in following weeks, we’ll look at finding the elusive theme and incorporating it into our stories.

What Theme Is Not

It’s not a preconceived agenda to preach at readers. I once edited a book and every page felt sticky. (Do you know what I mean?) It dripped with the author’s agenda, and I hated the feeling it gave me. Story and character depth were thrown aside, replaced by the author’s desire to teach me something. I resented it.

Preaching in fiction is a big no no. Avoid at all costs!

Two Sides of the Coin

Yet, even though I don’t want to preach, I do want to convey truth. That’s where theme comes in. A theme is the overarching essence of the story. It’s the other side of the coin from the plot.

My latest book, Love Finds You in Glacier Bay, Alaska, (coming out in January—woo hoo!) is about a mail-order nanny who goes to Alaska to help a widowed missionary and his family. That’s the plot side of the coin. The other side (the theme) is: Learning to trust in Christ above self or others.

Both are important. Both race through my mind as I plan a story. For me, it’s impossible to separate them. (We’ll get more into that in the following weeks.)

One Last Word

Like a gift we give our readers, theme surprises. They thought they were just going on a romantic journey, or a suspense ride, or a comedic tour, but along the way, we can give them something even more powerful. A challenge to their thinking. An encouragement to cherish life. A nudge toward forgiveness, peace, action, or who knows what else.

That’s what a well-crafted theme can do. Isn’t writing fun!?

What books or movies do you think have the most clearly defined themes? What’s been your experience with them? 

I’d love to hear.

God bless and happy writing!

Ocieanna

Photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/456250017/">Randy Son Of Robert</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photo pin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>

My Unbalanced Life by Mary Connealy

I have people ask me how I find time to do all the marketing involved with being an author and still get my books written.

Add in I’ve got a husband who likes some attention, four adult daughters who I love hanging around with, two glorious grandchildren who NEED THEIR GRANDMA!!! A home to maintain and a full time job.

So how do I do it all? Here’s the answer.

I don’t.

When someone asks me how I balance everything I have to admit I am unbalanced. I believe there has been some paperwork filed with the County Attorney to that affect.

Writing isn’t something I find time for. Writing is my default activity. I have to be dragged away from my stories. It’s the rest of my life that I struggle with.

Writers write. That’s what we do. No one can sit alone for hours on end, having imaginary conversations with themselves….if they don’t love it.

When you talk with a writer who is harried and exhausted and under deadline she may worry about getting her book finished but that’s not because she doesn’t love writing, it’s because life intrudes on her book. She has to pull herself away and feed small children. Field emergency phone calls. Pay attention to her husband, very often the man supporting her while she works on her often poorly paying little hobby/job. Walk the whining dog.

And don’t even talk about marketing. It’s fun to write blog posts. I’m having a really good time right now. It’s writing, of course it’s fun. But it takes time. It takes creative energy. And that book is always whispering to you, alive in the back of your head ‘come back. You left your heroine hanging on a cliff by her fingernails. You left your hero heartbroken but too macho to admit he loves the heroine. You left a villain who needs to be arrested and shot and beaten with a big stick.

If the world would just leave a writer alone there would be only peace and harmony. (for her at least, heaven help the kids and husband and dog)

I have people say to me A LOT ‘I think I have a book in me.’ Or sometimes, ‘I’ve always wanted to write a book.’

I always say, “You know, write if you have the desire but don’t feel bad if you never get that book written. Sitting alone hour after hour makin’ stuff up isn’t a very normal way to conduct your life and most people just can’t do it. They like human interaction, they like talking to REAL people. They like MOVING.

I tell heartbroken, cruelly rejected authors that if they can’t take the pain then GET OUT. Go do something else. The money is probably better in a career that includes the words, “You want fries with that?”

For the most part, writers can’t stop. The pain and rejection and public humiliation (I’m thinking of One Star Amazon Reviews here) would stop any writer if they could be stopped.

But there is peace in knowing this is how God made me. We just have to accept that. Embrace who we are. Live an unbalanced live with joy—since you can’t stop anyway.

ABOUT MARY

Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys.

She is a Carol Award winner, and a Rita and Christy finalist. She is the author of The Kincaid Brides Series: Out of Control, In Too Deep, Over the Edge.

Lassoed in Texas Trilogy containing three full length books: Petticoat Ranch, Calico Canyon and Gingham Mountain. Petticoat Ranch was a Carol Award Finalist. Calico Canyon was a Christy Award Finalist and a Carol Award Finalist.

The Montana Marriages Trilogy: Montana Rose, The Husband Tree and Wildflower Bride. Montana Rose and The Husband Tree are Carol Award Finalist.

Cowboy Christmas and Deep Trouble: Cowboy Christmas is the 2010 Carol Award for Best Long Historical Romance, and an Inspirational Readers Choice Contest Finalist.

The Sophie's Daughters series: Doctor in Petticoats, Wrangler in Petticoats, Sharpshooter in Petticoats. Doctor in Petticoats was a finalist for a Rita Award.

Mary is also the author of Black Hills Blessing a 3-in-1 collection of sweet contemporary romances, Nosy in Nebraska, a collection of cozy romantic mysteries and, writing under the pseudonym Mary Nealy, she's the author of Ten Plagues.

About Over the Edge

Seth Kincaid survived a fire in a cave, but he's never been the same. He was always a reckless youth, but now he's gone over the edge. He ran off to the Civil War and came back crazier than ever.

After the war, nearly dead from his injuries, it appears Seth got married. Oh, he's got a lot of excuses, but his wife isn't happy to find out Seth doesn't remember her. Callie has searched, prayed, and worried. Now she's come to the Kincaid family's ranch in Colorado to find her lost husband.

Callie isn't a long-suffering woman. Once she knows her husband is alive, she wants to kill him. She's not even close to forgiving him for abandoning her.

Then more trouble shows up in the form of a secret Seth's pa kept for years. The Kincaid brothers might lose their ranch if they can't sort things out. It's enough to drive a man insane -- but somehow it's all making Seth see things more clearly. And now that he knows what he wants, no one better stand in his way.

Find Mary online at:

Seekerville
Petticoats & Pistols
My Blog
My Website

Do Violence to Your Reader, Part III: The Trough and the Wave by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

Happy Monday, dear readers. Annette here. We writers always hear about tension and conflict, but what about letting up on that tension? Jill Elizabeth Nelson is back with part three of her series on keeping those readers hooked. Read on! 

 Do Violence to Your Reader, Part III: 

The Trough and the Wave

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

The most effective storytellers have a highly developed sense of rhythm and balance. Every wave on the ocean is followed by a trough, and every trough is followed by a wave. The variety is found in the depth of the trough and the height of the wave. This sense of rhythm and balance requires both instinct and planned design. Developing the knack takes practice, but is well worth the bother.

In writing circles, we talk often about heightening the tension and escalating the conflict, but a subtle and necessary aspect of tightening the screws on your characters, and thereby, on your readers is to know when to back off. Let your characters—and your readers—take a deep breath before plunging them once more beneath the stormy waves of tension and emotion.

These short-lived lulls serve not toward dullness in the story, but actually emphasize and highlight the tension, just as the trough of a wave emphasizes the crest of the next wave sweeping in. Our object as writers is not to wear our readers out with perpetual motion, but to draw them ever onward, eager to experience the next emotionally resonant moment.

For instance, in a romance the hero and heroine might savor a sweet and gentle idyll together, but then something occurs to throw them once again into emotional turmoil or physical danger or both. The rapport between the characters is rendered the more poignant and precious by its loss, thus raising the stakes in the reader’s mind for the characters to regain both their safety and intimacy.

In a suspense novel, the heroine might enjoy a brief respite from danger in a return to ordinary daily activities. However, safety proves to be an illusion as the next and more horrific moment of danger overtakes her. Briefly experiencing the false security of the ordinary raises the terror bar on the next eruption of evil both for the character and for the reader.

Perhaps you have never consciously noticed these rhythms in your reading, but you may be using them at some level by instinct in your writing. Becoming aware of the rhythms will enable you to consciously and strategically employ them in your stories.

Here’s your assignment:

Pick up a novel that made a profound impact on you, and evaluate it for the trough and wave rhythms that gripped and fascinated you. How might you apply those rhythms to your current WIP (work in progress)?

~~~~~

Award-winning author and writing teacher, Jill Elizabeth Nelson, writes what she likes to read—tales of adventure seasoned with romance, humor, and faith. Jill is a popular speaker for conferences, writers groups, library associations, and civic and church groups. She delights to bring the “Ah-ah! Moment” to her students as they make new skills their own. Her handbook for writers, Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View, is now available at Amazon (see links below).

Connect with Jill:

Website: www.jillelizabethnelson.com  

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JillElizabethNelson.Author 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/JillElizNelson.

(print version)      (e-book version)

My Journey to Publication by Kelly Irvin

You may believe that you’re doing all the right things, but feel discouraged because you still haven’t received that elusive call from an agent or editor offering you a contract. On this Fortifying Friday, author Kelly Irvin shares her journey to publication. It’s a wonderful reminder that we need to trust God’s timing—he doesn’t forget us. Be encouraged by Kelly’s personal story. ~ Dawn

My Journey to Publication

by Kelly Irvin

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.

Psalm 37:7 (NIV)

I’ve been a writer my entire life: junior high yearbook editor, senior high newspaper and yearbook editor, a University of Kansas journalism school graduate and then a print journalist for ten years. All along the way I knew I wanted to be a fiction writer, but I kept putting it off in order to pay the bills and start a family and fulfill all those other obligations.

I didn’t become serious about my novel writing aspirations until I turned forty-five and realized time continued to slip away. I worked full time in public relations and had two kiddoes in middle school. Still, I knew I couldn’t wait anymore. For the next seven years, I struggled to eek out time each day to write. I attended workshops, joined ACFW, honed my craft, entered contests, and joined a critique group. I wrote four novels. After three years, I signed with literary agent Mary Sue Seymour. Years went by. Still no contract.

Along the way, I prayed and I prayed. I kept telling myself God would hear my prayers. But inside me, a kernel of doubt grew and took hold. How could I expect God to bless me as an inspirational writer? After all, I’d taken a long hike off the path for the entire decade of my twenties. Never mind how hard I tried to be a good wife, mother, and Christian now. How could He forgive me?

Finally, one Sunday in 2009, I sat in my church pew and I told God how exhausted I was. I told Him I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t be a wife, mother, PR professional, and writer, too. I asked Him to give me a sign. Did I keep going? Should I give up my dream?

Three days later Mary Sue called. My inspirational romantic suspense novel, A Deadly Wilderness, had sold to Five Star Gale, a mainstream publishing house that specializes in library quality hardbacks. It was like a big smack on the back of the head. God’s grace covers every inch of me. I can’t earn it and I can never be good enough to deserve it. I can only be supremely grateful for it.

The ruts in the road continue to be big enough to lose a buggy in them, but I enjoy the journey. Signing with Harvest House for six Amish romances was an unexpected and delightful new direction in this journey. To Love and to Cherish explores the theme of forgiveness, something I know about firsthand. A Heart Made New, which debuts in October, examines walking by faith and waiting upon the Lord. I’m blessed to know that these stories entertain, encourage, and edify readers.

As I write this, I discover another truth. Even if I weren’t published, I couldn’t stop writing because publication isn’t the destination. It’s part of the journey. Along the way I’ve experienced pure joy in the writing itself. I’ve traveled to new places and met wonderful people and made great friends I would not have had in my life otherwise. It’s about the writing journey, not the destination. If this can happen to an unruly, stubborn, stiff-necked woman like myself, it can happen to any writer committed to working hard, persevering, and praying. Go forth and write!

Click to reach Amazon.

A former newspaper reporter, Kelly Irvin is the author of the Bliss Creek Amish series from Harvest House Publishing. She recently contracted for a three-book spin-off series entitled the New Hope Amish. She also penned two romantic suspense novels. A public relations professional, she lives with her husband, two children, three cats, and a tank full of fish in Texas.

To learn more about her writing, visit www.kellyirvin.com.