Who’d a Thought…
Who knew that what I taught my kiddos in my old job I would employ in my new adventure!
One of the perks of being an indie bookstore owner is getting to read a bunch of books. However, then I get to write reviews of those books to post in various outlets.
Today I literally caught myself going through the same steps to find THEME that I taught my 8th graders:
Start with asking what is a universal truth the writer seems to be sharing with the audience.
Make a list of universal truths that you find and then find the one that seems to be woven throughout the whole story [arc].
At this point you have theme TOPICS more than likely. They are general and very broad like LOVE, ABANDONMENT, BOUNDARIES. Ask yourself— What is the author saying about the topic?
Write that down as a sentence.
Check to see that what you have is specific enough to the novel/story but is also universal. If it’s too specific (you’ve used specific characters in your statement, for example), tweak it until it’s not.
What does that look like in real life?
Take the latest crime novel I’ve read, Bones Under the Ice by Mary Ann Miller.
A universal idea/truth that Miller infuses in her debut novel is about FAMILY. That’s my theme TOPIC because on its own, FAMILY is far too broad. What about FAMILY? What is she trying to tell us about family? I made a list of ideas about family found in the novel: Families are complicated; Family vs. Family; Family members against Family members; and Community as Family. I’m going to go with “Families are complicated” as my preliminary theme statement. Even though it’s too general to leave it as is, it’s specific enough that I can tweak it to make it applicable to Bones Under the Ice. Here’s my final theme statement: Complicated family dynamics can have long-lasting ramifications. To show you how I really got to this point, I’d have to reveal aspects of the plot, and I don’t want to spoil it for you since you might want to read the novel. :-)
Cheers!
Karen
December 12, 2022