Using a theme to create a bare bones synopsis

[crich70]

In one of the books on writing I have here at home the author (Lee Wyndham) mentions a method of coming up with a story via theme that I thought I'd post about. She uses one of her own short stories as an example. The theme was that "understanding and helpfulness overcome suspicion and lead to friendship." She then broke it down into its component parts:

Understanding and helpfulness - characters
Suspicion & distrust - the problem to be overcome & the conflict.
Lead to friendship - the resolution and ending of the story.

Her story was set in a Korean background and dealt with characters having Whooping Cough. She made the point that by a change of location, character & problem could lead to an entirely different story than the one she wrote using the same theme. I think myself that you can take it a step further in that by changing the characters, location and/or problem you could come up with the bare bones synopsis of not just one story but many different ones. I mean different settings are easy to associate with different genre's for example. And all you have to do once you have that basic skeleton down is to flesh it out a bit. i.e. Ask some questions as to why the problem exists and why the characters can't just solve it in 5 minutes. And flesh it out into scenes and/or chapters from there.

[gmw]

The risk with the approach as described is that it makes explicit assumptions, and this may lead to a lack of exploration of the theme. I suggest it is important that you try to pick apart the assumptions of your theme: Does understanding and/or helpfulness always overcome suspicion? When might this not be true? What is friendship? Are understanding and helpfulness an inherent part of friendship? If so, how and why? Are there not instances where understanding and helpfulness may block friendship?

But that's all assuming you want to write a story completely guided by a central theme. I prefer Stephen King's recommendations in "On Writing": (I'm paraphrasing here, too lazy to get the book off the shelf...) Tell your story first. When you read back over it you will notice certain themes, take the time to enhance them.

The risk with spending too much time working around themes is that, ultimately, readers will make their own choices regarding what you book is actually about (unless you hit them over the head with your pet theme, which is rarely a good idea). It seems to me that the most important thing is to be true to the story and your characters. The themes they reveal may surprise even you, the writer.

[crich70]

You have a point, though I imagine going the route that Ms. Wyndham outlined might help in generating potential ideas even though the theme you use might not be the same one that readers find in the story.

[gmw]

Anything that helps you to move forward with your writing is a good thing, so we should use whatever works for us. I do think that generating ideas from a theme has merit, but I also think it has more potential benefit if you actually explore it rather than simply assume it is right. It is often cited that a story must have conflict*, and one way you can create that is to try and contradict your theme(s). This not only helps to add depth to you story and your theme, it can also challenge your characters, and gives the reader a place to stand, a side to pick.

* I sometimes think that "conflict" can be a misleading term. What we're looking for is tension; something to compel the reader forward through the story. Conflict in it's generally accepted use is one way to do that, but conflict comes in many forms. It can be purely internal. Such subtleties are not necessarily obvious in the simple advice that you must have "conflict in your story".

[crich70]

I agree with you about conflict vs. tension. It can be just as intense if the character is fighting a part of themselves than if they are in opposition to another character. I also imagine there are at least as many tools to aid the writer as there are writer's. After all no two people have exactly the same view on what works for them.

[gmw]

A couple of light-hearted comments on another thread suggested the following example:

A writer might decide to write a story with the theme "DRM is evil" (or the opposite, my point remains the same). There's lots of scope here to write a story that "proves" the theme, but where is the tension? Unless you challenge the characters (and, thereby, the readers) with the possibility that the theme is wrong, then the theme has offered much less than it could/should have. At most it will appeal to readers that have put has much thought into the theme as the writer. However, if the writer really explores the theme then the tension is inherent. Done properly, the characters (and readers) should be part-convinced that the theme will be proved wrong. To be really convincing, the writer must genuinely open themselves up to the possibility that their theme is wrong ... it may even be that the final climax will resolve itself in a way that surprises even the writer.

On a more serious note, I find that Richard North Patterson's books make very good examples of exploring a central theme. The stories dig out the various sides and aspects of his chosen theme in often surprising ways, and the more convinced you are that things will not turn out as you think they should the more the tension builds.