Theme

[rachelmanija]

A funny thing happened while writing Project Blue Rose. Out of everything I've ever written that was something that I chose to write, as opposed to something that I was assigned and had to write because my contract said so, it's the one that was most purely just for fun. No message. No deep themes. No themes at all, really. Just gunfights and hot men and psychic kids and flower symbolism, because those are all things that I enjoy seeing, and I thought other people would too.

I suppose one could argue that it does say that being gay is not only OK, but cool, but honestly I can't imagine anyone who doesn't think being gay is OK ever picking it up in the first place, so it's not likely to impart any lessons about tolerance. And it does alter some shounen-ai tropes that annoy me, but it's much more me jumping into the shounen-ai sandbox than anything really subversive.

And yet once I finished the longer version, the one where I got to do a plot thing that I'd wanted to do all along if I got a contract to write a three-part series, but finally decided to do anyway and leave that plot thread open-ended, I realized that a theme had snuck in under my radar. I'm not going to say what it is, because it might give away the ending. But my little piece of entertainment did turn out to say something about life that I believe is important and true. (You can ask me what the hell I'm talking about after you read it, because I could be the only person who sees it there.)

Which seems to be the way it goes. You can be like Holly Lisle and start your one rewrite by writing out your theme in fifteen words or less, and making damn sure you stick to that theme. That... wow, would that not work for me... but I guess it does for her. Or you can just write your story, and the ideas that you truly believe in will sneak in anyway. Even into the stories that are just for fun.

There's also the issue of ideas you don't believe in sneaking into your story because they're practically written into certain genres-- "violence solves problems," for instance, or "war builds character," or "romantic love solves all problems--" and that's the one time when I might go back with my theme in mind and try to undercut the statements that I don't believe in. But that aside, I prefer to first write the story and then see, as in a mirror, what it is that I believe.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

When I started writing, I was pretty hung up on my stories having to be about things. But then at some point, I realized that just telling a story was so hard, I'd better step back and learn how to do that, and worry about theme later.

And just what you said happened--the themes found their own way in, and the stories wound up being about things, when I wasn't trying and was just focusing on the story itself. In a way they didn't when I consciously tried to put that stuff there.

[larryhammer]

I too find theme to be emergent. I think Lisle's so-called is really more of an argument.

---L.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

When I realized my Big Epic Fanfiction was about coming to terms with the ill health of my father and the knowledge that I would lose him, I stopped writing it dead. Themes can stay in the background now, plzthks. XD

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I've found while it's helpful to have a theme, it's often wrapped up in plot, and it's quite vague. Hell, most of my stories so far seem to revolve around the themes of family, and what it means to create a family of your own (in the sense of adopting people into an inner circle) -- but that's really rather... bland. Then again, I only discovered that by looking at three separate stories, seeing the similarities, and realizing this is a theme towards which I gravitate. There are always other themes that appear after the fact, when the words have settled.

I find metaphor to be far more interesting, like realizing after-the-fact that one character has constant, if subtle, references to water, while another is the story's proverbial mountain. That's the sort of thing I can't put in, on purpose, or it'd end up being ham-handed. The best stories are the kinds where the metaphor weaves its way through, and you never realize it until you're done -- and even then, it may take an objective reader to knock you on the head with it.

As for the written into certain genres, oh, yeah. The fantasy world seems to have the inherent "the other is not all bad, mmkay?" theme way too much. Well, right after the theme of "the ordinary might actually be a long-lost princess!!11!!ones!!" and we just won't go there.

Excuse me, I think need some more Furuba but don't tell any of my friends I'm watching it. *hides*