In a guest post on Writers Helping Writers, Jami Gold examines how you can create a more deeply layered story by establishing resonating themes. “Themes that interact on some level create even more depth, as they take a simplistic belief (“love is powerful”) and turn it into a more purposeful idea (“love is powerful when we learn to trust others”),” Gold writes.
Themes can emerge from multiple elements of your story, including your premise, your protagonist’s change arc, your plot, your antagonist’s story, and your hero’s choices. Those messages can align, conflict, echo, resonate, or be completely independent of one another. Regardless of how they intersect, how can you make them work together?
- Option #1: Multiple Independent Themes with No Connection. Your themes can remain independent, provided they don’t contradict each other. A subplot theme doesn’t need to connect directly to the main theme, but shouldn’t send an opposing message, unless that conflict is also part of your message.
- Option #2: Multiple Independent Themes with Some Connection. In this scenario, the lessons your character learns from the development of one theme helps him resolve the story elements in the second theme. “Those overlaps can create echoes adding depth to the story, as the theme’s ideas are revisited in other circumstances, or as they examine the story world from unrelated-but-parallel perspectives,” Gold writes.
- Option #3: Multiple Somewhat-Related Themes. Some themes may run parallel, even though they are distinct. For example, a story about feeling worthy of love may also touch on themes of trust and self-acceptance. The main story may focus on romantic love, while a subplot focuses on a family relationship. Layering themes this way can also create a compound theme, such as Gold’s earlier example, “Love is powerful when we learn to trust others.”
- Option #4: Multiple Explorations of the Same Theme. You might examine a single theme from multiple angles. For example, you might explore trust in the main story and multiple subplots, involving the protagonist’s interactions with supporting characters in distinct scenarios. You might explore love using romance, friendship, family, and the self, all in one story.
None of these approaches is “better” than the others, Gold says. Rather, you should consider which works best for the story you want to write. However, if you want to write a deeply layered story, creating connections and echoes with theme is a good way to start.
