The All-Important Link Between Theme and Character Progression
by K.M. Weiland @ Word Play charactersthemesTheme is a slippery concept. The prevailing wisdom among writers is that if you apply any deliberate force to your theme, you’ll end up with a heavy-handed Aesop’s fable. On the other hand, a story without a theme is shallow escapism at best and an unrealistic flop at worst. Theme is arguably the single most important facet of a memorable story. Vivid characters, witty dialogue, and killer plot twists can certainly carry a story by themselves, but without theme they will never deliver their full potential. And yet, no theme at all is often far better than a poorly delivered theme.
Variations on a Theme
by K.M. Weiland @ Word Play themesIdeas swarm from the writer’s brain like bees from a hive. At any given moment, most of us have snippets of inspiration floating around in the netherworld between our conscious and unconscious. Some of those ideas we develop, some we abandon; some will turn out to be gold, some will be trash. We’ll probably never have time to write the vast majority of these ideas, which is why we must prune so carefully through our hive of our ideas, attempting to focus our attention on only the best.