Learn how to identify the theme of your story before writing and how it shapes the draft and editing process. Explore three essential questions to unveil the theme and discover examples from popular books. Understand the importance of universal themes and how they guide the writer through the initial drafts.
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Theme Is The Story's Meaning
Theme is the overall message readers should take from your story and explains why events matter.
Knowing a theme early strengthens your first draft and guides later edits.
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Pick A Theme Before Drafting
Decide on a general theme before drafting to make writing and editing easier.
Use your theme as a lens to choose which scenes, characters, and subplots to keep or cut.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Start With What You Care About
Ask yourself what you want to say about life, the world, or human nature to find your theme.
List topics you care about (forgiveness, courage, redemption, etc.) and choose what drives your story.
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In today's episode, I'll walk you through three different ways to figure out the theme of your story. Here's a preview of what we'll cover:
[00:50] What is a story's theme? And why do you need one?
[01:30] How identifying your story's theme upfront can help you write a stronger draft.
[02:40] 3 different questions to help you uncover the theme of your story.
[03:00] Question 1: What do you have to say about life? What do you care about?
[05:00] Question 2: How will your protagonist change from the beginning of the story to the end of the story? (+ an example from Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone).
[10:00] How to create a 1-2 sentence theme statement that describes what changes in your story as well as specifically why and how things have changed (+ an example from Pride and Prejudice).
[10:45] What should you do if your theme sounds generic or cliche?
[12:00] Key points and episode recap.
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