I've been blogging about how to write literary and meaningful pieces. One of the most critical aspects of meaningful writing is the theme, an overarching idea that can help the reader think more deeply about a given topic. Themes are the very backbone of literary and meaningful writing. Storytelling is good, but without themes, it's all just entertainment. Deeper themes have been woven into literature from the earliest days. But beating a reader over the head with themes can turn a reader off faster than anything. It can come off as condescending. It's, therefore, critical to balance those themes without coming off as preachy except where preachiness is expected.
We've all seen those movies or read those books wherein the themes become more important than the story. Disney's original "Pinocchio" feels like this for me. The characters don't feel as important as the theme of "be a good boy or else." A lot of people may disagree with that particular example, but we can all think of at least one story like this. In a story more about themes than character, the characters and plot feel like an afterthought.
Unless the reader specifically picked up a how-to for something or bought the book just to seek those themes, theme-over-character is rarely a compelling story choice. Stories can be used to back up themes in an instructional piece. If a Christian sits down to watch a movie billed as Christian with Christian-heavy themes in order to teach a lesson, it can work for certain audiences. If someone with a political leaning sits down to watch a movie written with that perspective, they may be absorbed. But everyone else may be turned off by those very themes. Even someone within the audience may walk away.
More often, weaving themes and meanings into solid storytelling with compelling characters will open the reader's eyes far more than turning to the audience with a list of thou shalt nots. If the reader/audience sees the main character making choices, some with negative consequences, some with positive, but all of which make the reader think, the story is likely to be more successful.
So, how does one weave meaningful themes into storytelling without turning off readers with preachiness? Think of "Hamlet." The play dwells on themes (young students would say ad nauseam), but he doesn't turn to the audience and tell them what to do and how to do it. He contemplates what HE should do. His philosophizing, pondering, and speechifying are all turned inward. His status as an unreliable narrator, one who makes clearly harmful choices in spite of or possibly because of his deep contemplation, makes the reader think rather than feel preached at.
I recently read a piece wherein characters preached long paragraphs to teach young audiences what to do about anxiety and bullying. Even the character turned to the audience and said, in essence, "Yeah, that." I wasn't the target audience but felt ganged up on, preached at, like a firehose of condescension had been turned on me. The author spoke from the outside, telling me what I should do as if judging me and finding me wanting. I felt talked down to. I would have walked away if not for the fact that I had agreed to critique it.
Meanwhile, for most of that story, I felt like I was that narrator, feeling the feels, riding with the main character as she suffered and made choices, some for the better and some for the worse. When she made a choice that was harmful for herself or someone else, I understood way because I was inside her head. When the meaning was shared with a light touch and a spirit of internalized contemplation inside the narrator preaching from the outside, I was absorbed. I would have loved these parts of this book because it would have helped me understand myself and find ways to cope.
I wrote a master's thesis about the power of fiction to heal. Fiction and nonfiction alike can help a reader heal because writing shows people suffering and finding healing. Reading others' voyages of healing can give the reader hope and some guidance for their own healing. There were certain parts of that story I mentioned with long speeches and preachiness, but the rest of it, with a lighter touch, worked really well as a voyage of healing. Where the meaning was woven in with a light touch instead of a firehose, it helped me think and hope. And that's the point of these themes.
Go through your most recent project. Highlight long or even short parts that touch on major themes. If you can't find any, you may want to give some thought to working on weaving meaning in with a light touch. This blog has been about that since almost the beginning, so you can always go back and peruse topics. If you find long spans of preaching, you may want to tone that down a bit, unless that's your stated purpose. Feel free to leave a comment and tell me how you weave in themes.
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