If you want to create a masterful book, you need a powerful theme.
Think about the ancient tales that are still told and retold today. Aesop’s Fables and Greek myths share themes that resonate with people. In more recent years, Dickens’s A Christmas Carol and C. S. Lewis’s Narnia. In modern times, Star Wars and Harry Potter.
If that’s not enough.
It will help you focus on the important and emotionally significant parts of your book. It is the glue that holds everything in your story together.
While the plot engages your audience intellectually. Your theme engages your audience emotionally.
Patty Robinson
What is a Theme? 
If you are at a party and someone asks you what your book is about, you will most likely launch into a mini synopsis of the events in your book.
I’ll let you in on a secret: that is not your theme.
A theme is less about the events in your story and more about the significance. Plot is the events. The theme is the meaning or lesson revealed by your story.
Most of all, a theme is crucial to a well-written book. Without deeper meaning, your story is just a shell with no heart, no soul, no emotional connection to your reader.
A theme is a truth that explains human behavior. Often it will be a moral premise.
For more information, see: https://www.novel-writing-help.com/what-is-theme.html
For more information about building a moral premise, check out https://www.moralpremise.blogspot.com
To learn more, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme
Your story is a vehicle for exploring your deeper message.
A Powerful Theme Adds an Inner Richness
When you first lay out your story, consider what message you would like to share. The theme is the overall life lesson, the moral, of your novel, play, or short story.
It is the struggle your characters face as they try to maintain their personal values. Think about what motivates your characters.
You want to create characters with an unquenchable desire to:
- Seek the truth Improve the environment
- Have a family Defend the poor
- Promote a patriotic cause Save the world
- Loyalty and friendship Have compassion
- Protect others Has a spiritual awakening
For more ideas, go to:https://www.nownovel.com/blog/choosing-themes-for-stories/
Believe it or not. It is the emotional connections that engage your readers.
Base your characters’ motivations on a philosophy that excites you. Instill your characters with principles. Create a storyline that allows them to hold fast to those values with courage and perseverance.
It is important to understand that the greater the obstacles and the more steadfast your characters, the stronger your theme.
Remember, the most powerful theme will come from your heart.
A Powerful Theme Creates a Memorable Story
To create a really memorable story, you need a theme. Something of profound depth and vivid significance to you. A significant theme should prompt your readers to ponder your story beyond their desire to find out what will happen to your characters.
Your readers will gain insights into their own lives as your characters find answers to their moral dilemmas.
The theme must be a truth about life, love, or people based on observations you have discovered. As a writer, you want to present a clear examination of human foibles. How your characters overcome their own weaknesses or others’ character flaws is what will make your message resonate with your readers.
You need a significant theme if you want to create a haunting novel. One well-remembered and well-loved.
Patty Robinson
Consider a Theme Before You Write.
John and I did not understand the importance of a theme when we first wrote. We had to go back and add a theme to each book.
So now, before we write, we consider what message we want the reader to gain from our story. We think about the characters and events we have in mind. Then we consider the type of messages we can use the events or characters to emphasize.
We weave the message throughout the story in different ways.
More on how to do that a bit later in this post.
Ask yourself: Will my message echo in the reader’s memory long after they put my book down?
Patty Robinson
Does Your Theme Impact the Soul?
For your readers to have an intimate experience with your story, it must press upon their minds and arrest their senses.
To accomplish this, you want your characters intimately involved with the life lesson we call a theme. As the inhabitants of your fiction grow, your readers will gain insights into their own lives. When your characters discover answers to their life questions, the reader will join in their own journey of self-discovery.
For additional thoughts, see: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/single-best-way-write-powerful-themes/#
Try to create moments of private reflection for both your characters and your readers.
Finding a Theme in Your Finished Story
Here are some tricks.
If you don’t know what your theme is, try writing an essay about the undercurrent in the story.
Explore your novel as a literary work. Ponder what principles your characters have struggled with and what valuable lessons they have learned.
Don’t leave your theme up to chance. Talented authors write books that investigate humanity.
Once you have discovered a thematic element, go back and weave it boldly into your story. Use characters, symbols, and vivid images to contribute to your theme. Revise your story with the emotional elements you have discovered.
Your story is the vehicle for exploring your theme.
6 Steps to Create a More Powerful Theme
The following are 6 ways to build a memorable theme.
- Using symbols can help connect your reader to your message. Example: A diamond necklace might represent greed.
- Is there an animal that could emphasize your idea? For example, a grizzly bear could represent power. You could use a puppy to show gentleness.
- Consider all 5 senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell). The senses evoke a reader’s emotions. Use them generously.
- Colors can have an emotional impact on your reader. Example: red can represent anger or passion. Blue may represent peace and calm.
- Choose a setting that will emphasize your theme.
- Even the weather you describe will influence your reader. Example: a dark, stormy night might show impending danger.
Convey your theme with dialog or action, not exposition. Your reader does not want to be preached to.
The Importance of a Powerful Theme
Does your story have A theme? Can you identify it? Have you magnified your theme?
Themes are the magic glue that holds your story together. Great themes make unforgettable stories. Do you have a great theme?
It does not have to be planned, but it does have to be enhanced with a delicate touch. As you rewrite your story, don’t forget to look for opportunities to add power to your theme.
Are you ready to write something meaningful?
Just think how wonderful it will be when people tell you how your book influenced their lives.
If you want to write a story that will cast a lasting spell on your readers and make them anxious to read your next book, you need a powerful theme.
What kind of theme do you think is most appealing to readers? Do you agree that stories need themes?
Tell us in the comments a way you have weaved your theme into your story.
Drop us a note. We’d love to hear from you.
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Happy Writing
John & Patty @writingagreatbook.com 2020