A Closer Look: Theme
August 13th 2007 01:03
In light of Harry Potter's now-ages-ago release, people have been constantly talking about its theme, which is very clearly the Wizard version of the Holocaust.
You know, Death Eaters/Nazis, Mudbloods/Jews/Undesireables (I have a vague suspicion they were actually called something like the last one in one of the books), Voldemort/Hitler, you know, that whole thing. (Then there's Dumbledore, the reformed Nazi, and Grindelwald, the now-not-as-crazy-evil Nazi)
All this talk about Harry Potter has a purpose to it. Let's examine the themes and metaphors for other popular books, shall we? Namely, let's take a look at the Twilight series.
Twilight has another tolerance theme-vampire/human love. It's a metaphor for any cross-species loving, which is particularly popular at the moment. (They'd probably love Moonshadow's Guardian, but it's about 50 times more out there.) Across race, there will always be difficulties-but in this case, there's the added sense of danger to it, to bring that extra thrill.
See where I'm going with this?
Tantalize, by Cynthia Leitich Smith (google her, her website has tons of good advice), is another cross-species love, human/werewolf.
Examining other people's writing to see what works and what doesn't is always a good idea. (For example, in Harry Potter, the thing that doesn't work as well-and has caused massive uproar-is the epilogue, which seems very tacked-on.) Especially best sellers. Take a look at their theme, their characters, plot, style.
Today I'm posting about theme. Theme is the premise, the main driving force, behind your book/short story/any work of fiction. Most themes come and go and come back, fads that roll in every ten years or so. Anne Rice revolutionized vampires and made them the 'in thing'. JK Rowlings brought tolerance to the forefront of fiction.
All good fiction has a decisive theme. Don't write a theme that will sell, however, solely because it will sell. Write a theme that you care about, that's had a strong influence in your life. Have fun with it. You're not trying to write a best seller here, you're trying to write your book.
Sometimes, you write something and a theme just shows up. Reading through Mena&Matias, my craptastic-now-fully-deleted romance, and Moonshadow's Guardian, shows my theme very clearly to me. It's a repeated theme, too.
What's my theme? Tolerance, anti-racism, and saving/recreating/studying ancient cultures. This is what matters to me.
You don't have to choose your theme before you write your first book-but you should be able to see it by the end, and to weave it into the whole book. A writer takes threads of theme and plot and character as well as others and weaves them into a work of art, a book.
Now take a look at some of your own writing. What's your theme? And don't forget to do some work on your projects-in-progress.
You know, Death Eaters/Nazis, Mudbloods/Jews/Undesireables (I have a vague suspicion they were actually called something like the last one in one of the books), Voldemort/Hitler, you know, that whole thing. (Then there's Dumbledore, the reformed Nazi, and Grindelwald, the now-not-as-crazy-evil Nazi)
All this talk about Harry Potter has a purpose to it. Let's examine the themes and metaphors for other popular books, shall we? Namely, let's take a look at the Twilight series.
Twilight has another tolerance theme-vampire/human love. It's a metaphor for any cross-species loving, which is particularly popular at the moment. (They'd probably love Moonshadow's Guardian, but it's about 50 times more out there.) Across race, there will always be difficulties-but in this case, there's the added sense of danger to it, to bring that extra thrill.
See where I'm going with this?
Tantalize, by Cynthia Leitich Smith (google her, her website has tons of good advice), is another cross-species love, human/werewolf.
Examining other people's writing to see what works and what doesn't is always a good idea. (For example, in Harry Potter, the thing that doesn't work as well-and has caused massive uproar-is the epilogue, which seems very tacked-on.) Especially best sellers. Take a look at their theme, their characters, plot, style.
Today I'm posting about theme. Theme is the premise, the main driving force, behind your book/short story/any work of fiction. Most themes come and go and come back, fads that roll in every ten years or so. Anne Rice revolutionized vampires and made them the 'in thing'. JK Rowlings brought tolerance to the forefront of fiction.
All good fiction has a decisive theme. Don't write a theme that will sell, however, solely because it will sell. Write a theme that you care about, that's had a strong influence in your life. Have fun with it. You're not trying to write a best seller here, you're trying to write your book.
Sometimes, you write something and a theme just shows up. Reading through Mena&Matias, my craptastic-now-fully-deleted romance, and Moonshadow's Guardian, shows my theme very clearly to me. It's a repeated theme, too.
What's my theme? Tolerance, anti-racism, and saving/recreating/studying ancient cultures. This is what matters to me.
You don't have to choose your theme before you write your first book-but you should be able to see it by the end, and to weave it into the whole book. A writer takes threads of theme and plot and character as well as others and weaves them into a work of art, a book.
Now take a look at some of your own writing. What's your theme? And don't forget to do some work on your projects-in-progress.
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Actually, it might've been half or something, but I can't remember exactly because my loserific best friend lost the book for me. -.-