Is Beige an Ugly Colour?

I told you I was back. ;)

Today we will be continuing The Method series and discussing, in particular, 'theme'.

Now, I have mixed feelings on writing theme into my novels. There was a time in my writing journey that I would dedicate a lot of time weaving in dramatic and meaningful themes into my every sentence, I had read books like 'Story Genius' by Lisa Cron that made it seem imperative that my novels have a deep (and pretentious) theme else what was the point of someone reading it? But in trying to do this my novels felt flat, boring and, worst of all, preachy. I learned something important doing all of this though:

Sometimes readers read for fun.

Not to learn something about themselves or the world or the universe (although that can be a bonus.) Some readers read to escape the real world, dive into fun plots, meet awesome characters and just enjoy themselves. I am some readers! And by trying to be deep and pretentious, I had lost touch with that part of my writing.

So, is this post just about shitting on theme? Not exactly. While this is all based on my own preferences and experiences as both a reader and a writer (particularly through the lens of YA fiction which I know is very different to the literary genre for instance), I do think theme has a place in two ways.

Firstly, if a meaningful and universal theme (such as love, hate - the Big Stuff, ya know?) arises naturally in your story then more power to you, friend. I 100% believe that stories are the perfect way to explore big themes like this so if they come up while you're writing? Hell yeah! Better yet, your readers pick up on these themes before you yourself have even realised -- own it! My philosophy here is just that forcing a deep topic into your novel is going to come off all wrong and the story will fall flat. And that's something we kinda wanna avoid as writers, no?

So what's the other way we can use theme to our advantage as writers, instead of to our detriment? Well, I call this technique 'The Question.'

I think it's easy to forget a story's "theme" isn't about preaching -- it's just the term for a common through-line in your novel! This could, of course, be Big (like racism, war, etc.) or it can be something fun or a bit more Wacky! Do aliens exist out there? Should we always listen to our parents? Is beige an ugly colour?

Notice that these latter themes are all questions. Hence this technique is called 'The Question.' (Get it? I'm a creative person, I know.)

At this stage in the Method, we're still prewriting -- we're discovering what story we want to tell. The Question is going to help guide us. You're going to pick a question that your story is going to try and answer. Got it? Good. Now your protagonist is going to represent one of these answers. And your antagonist is going to have an opposing answer. And boom! Just like that: conflict.

Here's an example from my current work-in-progress, Agenda:

And, just like that, you can see a plot beginning to form. Your side characters will probably have their own opinions and philosophies and will fit along the spectrum between your protagonist and antagonist -- and these might make up your subplots. If you're writing a series (like me), maybe each book will have a different answer to your question.

Now, in my humble opinion, you can write a great, fun book without having a clear question to answer -- so feel free to skip this step. But if you're struggling to build out your spark into a fully-fledged idea, this could be a good place to start!

I'm also aware that 'The Question' is basically your theme. But I prefer to think of it as a question, and not a thematic statement, to escape that "deep and meaningful" baggage that a theme carries. Remember: your question can be anything -- so get creative!

And, yes, beige is an ugly colour.