So what's your story ABOUT, anyway?

[Evermore Reality]

Moniquill

Evermore Reality

...I'm just saying that you don't need to pick a theme at all. If it doesn't evolve by itself by the story's end, you don't really have a novel.

I'm also saying this; what I'm asking of the writers on this forum if if they know what theirs is...

Tangentially, I'm also of the belief that there's no such thing as a story that doesn't say something. If you as an author don't know (or plan or analyze) what your story is saying, that's simply because it's saying things that you're not consciously aware of about yourself and your views. People hold up Hemingway as an ideal of 'Books without message!' all the time, since Hemingway declared that he wasn't trying to inject theme or meaning... but even a flip through will tell you tons about what Hemingway regarded as 'Truth', his ideas of good and evil and correct behavior.

Hemingway liked stoic dudes with crapsack lives way too much for my liking.

I understand that, for the most part, we agree.

I still think, however, that you're staking too much importance on choosing a theme.

And incidentally, I think Hemminway understood this better than just about anyone. In writing about the mundane, he made himself a conduit for truth, rather than choosing how to best get his greater message across.

All I'm saying is that the theme is incedental to the story, although I appreciate you asking, because I never really stopped to try and define mine now. ( and I will put money down that, if I ever get this sucker published, it will be at least slightly, if not exponentionally, different).  

[Moniquill]

Evermore Reality

I still think, however, that you're staking too much importance on choosing a theme.

Not so much choosing as knowing what your theme is. You don't actively have to have picked it or put it there, but you should be aware of its existence.

Evermore Reality

And incidentally, I think Hemminway understood this better than just about anyone. In writing about the mundane, he made himself a conduit for truth, rather than choosing how to best get his greater message across.

My issue with Hemingway: His 'truth' never struck me as particularly true - my reality differs so much from his that I was not able to relate to his portrayal of reality.

There's no such thing as objective truth. All things are mediated by perception. Consensus truth is the truth about the function of the world that most of us agree on in order to interact meaningfully with one another, but once you get into the depth of a novel that portrays 'truth' what you're really portraying is 'what the author perceives as truth'... which is often a startlingly different thing.

Evermore Reality

All I'm saying is that the theme is incedental to the story, although I appreciate you asking, because I never really stopped to try and define mine now. ( and I will put money down that, if I ever get this sucker published, it will be at least slightly, if not exponentionally, different).

biggrin I enjoy discussions that pull people in because they're meaty.  

[cre8ive_ovadose]

The story I’m writing at the moment is called Changing Grace. It’s about a girl maybe 16-17 years old living in Ireland who after being taken to hospital for a mysterious supposed suicide attempt begins to change physically, mentally and emotionally. None of the noticeable changes affect her until she is at school one day and she is glowing. When her best friend Ben saves her from the ridiculing student body, he reveals what is happening to her – she is becoming a faery, she is becoming like him.

Over the next few months he teaches her about the faery world, how to cope with the effects her transformation will have on her day to day life and what to expect when the transformation is complete but when she finds out the true cause of her admission to the hospital, her already chaotic life spirals down into catastrophe.

As Grace tries not to let the truth get to her head, Ben begins trying to figure out how to get back to his homeland in hopes of being able to take Grace there and help her find a way to stop what is happening before it is too late.

The themes or rather issues I’m hoping to explore with it are things like ... just because something in your life is hard doesn’t mean you should give up, you’re never too old to believe in fairy tales and just because someone is different doesn’t mean you should ridicule them for it. I’m also touching issues that are becoming more common these days such mental illness and openness about sexuality. I’m sure more themes and issues will come out as I get further into it but this is all for the time being ^L^  

[Evermore Reality]

Moniquill

My issue with Hemingway: His 'truth' never struck me as particularly true - my reality differs so much from his that I was not able to relate to his portrayal of reality.

There's no such thing as objective truth. All things are mediated by perception. Consensus truth is the truth about the function of the world that most of us agree on in order to interact meaningfully with one another, but once you get into the depth of a novel that portrays 'truth' what you're really portraying is 'what the author perceives as truth'... which is often a startlingly different thing.

I can understand that. A lot of my friends don't like Hemmingway, but I think that I like him so much because our realities are so different. It's jarring for me to read his short, succinct sentences and I like it because it makes me pay attention.

I can totally understand your not liking his style.  

[Moniquill]

Evermore Reality

Moniquill

My issue with Hemingway: His 'truth' never struck me as particularly true - my reality differs so much from his that I was not able to relate to his portrayal of reality.

There's no such thing as objective truth. All things are mediated by perception. Consensus truth is the truth about the function of the world that most of us agree on in order to interact meaningfully with one another, but once you get into the depth of a novel that portrays 'truth' what you're really portraying is 'what the author perceives as truth'... which is often a startlingly different thing.

I can understand that. A lot of my friends don't like Hemmingway, but I think that I like him so much because our realities are so different. It's jarring for me to read his short, succinct sentences and I like it because it makes me pay attention.

I can totally understand your not liking his style.

Oh no; it be clear: I LOVE his -style-; I in fact emulate it in my writing. It's his chosen subject matter that bores me to tears on grounds of 'Look! These people are miserable... and continue to be miserable... and suck it up and stand there with a stiff upper lip... and drink. Or think about baseball. They are miserable to one another. Life sucked before therapists and/or Hemingway needed some antidepressants BAD. ::reads his biography:: Ok. That second one.'

Ditto Faulkner.
Ditto MUCH of what's considered The Western Canon of literature.
I'm pretty sure being taught this in school is what drove me to read only Speculative Fiction. Literary Fiction and Realistic fiction always just stuck me as dreadfully, horribly boring - because I was never exposed to any that interested me and thus became soured on the whole concept.

I think it really does owe to MY life experiences and perceptions that I am not able to enjoy stories that don't tell me anything -other- than the personal perceptions of the author. I just do not GET why The Old Man And The Sea deserved a Nobel. s**t's 1. Boring 2. Assumes universality of Christianity 3. Assumes universality of combat/struggle as a positive (or TRUE) analogy of life. (don't get me started on this one or I will be rambling about Carol Gilligan, Western Literature, the history of feminism and gender role assimilation, etc)  

[Nyrihaz]

My themes in writing? I'm pretty much always trying to answer this question: How much do the dead of a loved one affect us? Even if we pretend everything is alright?

It affects me personally, and is always been -since I was ten- my favorite investigation topic.

I have like a million projects but only two major ones.

A) One is a Christian fiction, directed to young adults. Christian because those are my views, but I'm not here to fight about religion or anything in case you don't have my own views.

Is pretty much a boy meets girl. He doesn't like her but for some reason ends up opening to her. She has a tragic past, he has a "prefect" life, and between all the chaos, the tears, and the laughs, the find something important in each other: love, with is bitter-sweet all. Love, when we like to fight God all the time.

B) The other is more like a recopilation of short stories, dealing with diferent questions: How much do we lie? Does it hurts to cry only at night? Is dead the worst pain? Unrequited love, suicide, rape, violence, dead... the ugly of the world, and how the diferent characters face it. They all live in the same building too...

- - -

I do believe we show much of ourselves thru writing, our views, opinions, and likes and dislikes. In the end is like mirror image of our interior, crafted with words.  

[Evermore Reality]

Okey dokey, I've got another one. I'm applying for (yet another) scholarship and this one requires that I submit a "talent." Since I'm basically an amoeba with anything but a keyboard or a discus (which you can hardly put online), I'm submitting a short story. The themes?
Love, Loyalty, Testing/Breaking limits for the sake of someone you care for, The crushing weight of reality.

Or, if you prefer,

A.) The love of a lifelong warrior to his country.
B.) The loyalty of a young, grateful soldier to his superior officer.
C.) The limits trust can take you above and beyond.
D.) The pain of realizing a deam only to simultaneously realize an illusion.

Ideally it will turn out medium length, concise and sad, but hopefully moving.  

[Devlyn Maycry]

I have a lot of different ideas swimming around my head, but my main ones are as follows.

1. The story takes place in the year 2342. The world was almost wiped out in an apocalypse 330 years ago. Technology is on the rise, but the governments are all wrong. America is ruled by a strict power hungry king, and Japan runs on a system similar to what America runs on now. The story follows one girl who looks to be around 18, but it's revealed that she has lived on Earth since the beginning of time and comes from an unknown island named Heaven. Her father is God, and her brother is Yahshua. Her best friend rebelled against god and now is plotting to take over the world. The girl's name is Ayana, and she is of a supreme race called Angels. She is in a race against time itself to find the prophetical siblings that can save the world from a power hungry man. She just hopes her interpatation of the prophecy is right.

The story is basically a twist on religion. It hints at the idea that maybe God isn't truly right all the time, and that no one not even immortals are perfect. It also shows that even races/ people that have sworn to be immortal enemies can come together to fight against, or for, evil.

2. 4 teenagers were rescued from a serial killer/rapist 2 years ago. They were kept in isolation for 2 years to help them get over what happened to them while they were held captive, and nwo they are finally regressing back into society. But with all the hate and discrimination against whites, rape victims, and gays ( 2 of them are gay, one's bi) they can't find any place that will accept them.

This one flips the tables around to try and show white people what it would've been like if they had been the ones that were descriminated against, used as slaves, and basically hated by most everyone. It also touches on the fact that people are hated for things they can't control (ie: being raped, being raised by a racist family, being fat, being gay ) as well the fact that gay people are just like anyone else. They have problems of their own, they feel lonely at times, and they deserve to be treated just like everyone else.  

[Crystalbow]

1. Title: Anthem of the Angels.
It takes place in another world, called Twila. It's a very racist place, where anyone who is different is not accepted. In that world, quite a handful of people have special abilities, and they're hunted and killed for it. A group of refugees, Mizzy, Derek, Sadie, Nick, and LeAnne, all live together in hiding out in the wild where no one can hurt them. However, they're finally found, and one by one, Mizzy's only family (the others) are killed off as she tries to change the world. I won't give away my ending.

I hope for this book to become one where people love the characters, and they laugh when they laugh, cry when they cry, and are moved by my "way with words", as an old friend of mine put it. I myself have actually felt a lot of emotional pain in this world, so I will channel all of that pain through the tragedy that is Anthem of the Angels. It will become my own letter to this world to make people realize how much cruelty and suffering there is in it. But of course, I hope that people will get different messages from it.  

[SaraDiva728]

I'm working on a sci-fi story, though I don't like the genre myself. I love watching it, to some degree, but I don't read it. Anyway, I'm doing this to better understand it myself. Besides, my story seems like it will be fun to write. If I could just start it...