It's that time again! My newest "Ask the Coach" article is live on ScriptMag. I've written this month about a subject that has always intrigued me: Theme. I have found thinking about theme in my own work to be both utterly confounding and quite simple, depending on the day, week, month, or state of my draft.

Debates About Theme?

My writing friends and colleagues run the gamut too, from thinking theme is important to completely ridiculous.

Personally, I think of theme as a tool I can use or not use, as I see fit, especially because my clarity about theme varies with each story I write, though I do have common writer-centric themes I tend to explore.

The Question

Long story short, I was happy to see a question come in about theme, so I'd have the chance to explore it further. The article is called "How Do I Find the Theme For My Script?" and in it, I respond to the following reader question:

“How can I find the theme for my story? It feels complicated and confusing to identify. Maybe even above my pay grade. ;) I know the story I’m writing… but the theme isn’t obvious to me.”

Using Theme

In the article, I talk about ways to discover your theme and about ways to use it as a tool. Most importantly, I believe you can use theme to enhance your story, as well as using your story to discover your theme. (It works both ways.)

Here's an excerpt explaining more about what I mean:

"Stories should be about something, obviously. Examining theme — our underlying intention — can take us into the deeper meaning of a story. Once identified, theme can serve as a guidepost and decision-making tool for key story elements like the title, opening, climax, and resolution, the main character’s arc, and more. And while we can clarify and enhance these elements with our theme (once/if we know it), these story elements can also be used to help us identify our theme."

Finding Theme

If you’re wanting to find the theme in a story, take a deeper look at some of the following aspects of your writing. (You can click through to the article to read the details.)

1. Who are you as a writer?
2. Why are you writing this story?
3. What’s the main character’s journey?
4. What does your title reveal about your theme?
5. What do your opening, climax, and world building point to?

Check out the full article by clicking here ⇣

Plus, here are three fun things:

1. It's nearly my birthday. My formula for a happy birthday is simple: A meal out at a favorite place, a movie in a theater, and a trip to a bookstore. If it's a weekday and my family members are at school and work, I go by myself (and we go out for a separate family birthday dinner later). If my birthday falls on a weekend day, they come with me for the full day of delights. ◡̈ This year, we'll probably see two movies, one on Thanksgiving and one on my birthday, since we're celebrating T-day early. I'm looking forward to seeing the new Knives Out movie (Wake Up Dead Man) and Wicked For Good.
2. I'm still (still!) reading! I finished reading nearly all of Michael Connelly's Bosch-universe books other than his non-fiction Crime Beat* and his newest Mickey Haller book, The Proving Ground, which I'm waiting for from the library or Libby. Now I'm diving into the Old Man's War series, by John Scalzi. I had intended to read The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey (two writers writing as one, fun!) but I seem to be rejecting physical books (we have the whole series in print) in favor of ebooks — which are easier on my wrists and work better with my current love of reading in the dark with the screen dimmed — and Leviathan Wakes was on hold on Libby 4-ever. I'm now up to 57 books since my June 6 counting streak, which is pretty fun but also weird. It feels like a reunion of sorts.
3. I had some adventures in binge watching, too. I had a small reading hiccup between October 24 and November 15 or so whilst waiting for Libby to liberate ebooks for me and banging up against the end of the Bosch universe. I instead got swept up into a little binge-watching. In addition to watching the Bosch and Bosch-related TV series with my husband, and the newest season of the Great British Baking Show with our younger kiddo, I watched the newest season of The Diplomat on Netflix... and then for good measure rewatched the whole series, ha. I also watched the newest season of Upload (didn't rewatch the whole series) and The Peripheral on Amazon Prime Video (I haven't canceled Prime, I know, I know...). The Peripheral is pretty darn cool, I have to say. I'll get around to reading that sometime soon, I'm sure.

Thank you for reading, and happy writing!

In other news:

If you're looking for support making writing happen day in and day out — including regular writing sprints — check out my Called to Write Community, now available at a new lower rate: https://calledtowrite.mn.co

If you're looking for developmental editing support, I'm booked through mid-March, approximately. If you'd like to get onto my editorial calendar, let me know. https://jennaavery.com/for-writers

* All book links herein are affiliate links for Bookshop, which means I earn a small referral fee 
if you purchase from them, and which helps me keep my writing ship afloat. Thank you!