So now that I have committed myself to writing this story. This first thing I do is brainstorm a few horses(themes) for this story. The goal is to find its core and then to choose a symbol that this story core could revolve around, and hopefully pull out a few minor themes that can help me build the story cast.
Examples of symbol story cores are:
- The Beehive in The Secret Life of Bees
- Purple Hibiscus in Purple Hibiscus
- the water well in Abraham's Well
- basket weaving in The Spirit of Sweet Grass
- a pair of magic jeans in The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
I am writing a woman's self-discovery/romance story. It is about a hopelessly sad woman who on the brink of killing herself receives a request letter from an old college friend, who's now a soldier deployed to Iraq.
The story core of my story is hope. Both characters are searching for hope. So I need to shape every aspect of this story(the character's action, description, cast, everything) around this core of hope. What does hope look like? Is the question that I am answering through this story.
It is also the answer I seek as I search for a symbol that I can build this story around.
I have been taught a few techniques to help me search and find this symbol. For the next 30 minutes at home. I will apply those techniques and get my symbols.
While I'm away I would like to know from you, how much effort do you put in thinking about your story's theme?
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1 comments:
Have you come up with the sub plots yet? Doing this might really spark any other questions you have. Who else are in your main character's lives that assist in the main character's decision making process? Since this is a sad topic with of course learning of hope, you may want to add a break for the reader using happiness or showing the joyful hope of the main characters through their 'friends' and 'fam' or random people they meet that become those 'happy moments'. Just some seeds.
So excited to read this when you are done!
In His Glory,
Molly G. Shane
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