Writing a Topic: The straightforward approach to weave a thematic message into your story

Are you confused by the concept of "subject"? Having trouble writing a topic or including a topic in your story?

If you said yes, you are not alone. Many authors have difficulty identifying a topic in their book – and many only know what thematic message they are communicating through their story after a second or later draft.

The good news is that there are writing tips that you can use if you have a thematic message (or two) in your story. I would like to introduce three simple ways to do this.

Why Writing a Topic Was Difficult for Me (and How I Overcame It)

I remember those days in high school English class when I was scared of writing essays on books and stories.

There was one particular book that kept coming to mind: Cold Mountain. I didn't understand this book at all, and when asked about the subject, I picked a random phrase that sounded good and called it a thematic statement. It wasn't. It was about rocks.

I have a "D."

As I grew and developed my writing skills, I missed the concept of putting a subject in a story.

After all, a subject is an important element of the story when writing a novel.

It's often abstract and vague, yet it's designed to fit every part of your story and keep everything together.

How can you fit this big, confusing idea into your story and keep it consistent throughout, especially when writing a book?

Believe it or not, there is a way!

It was only in the past few years that I began to finally understand how exactly a topic should fit into a story, and that writing a topic – it turns out – isn't that complicated at all.

Your topic doesn't have to be complicated. It can be a sentence, a simple phrase, or just a word. The simpler and less complicated the subject, the better.

When writing a topic, first ask yourself: "What is a topic?"

A topic can be defined as follows:

One theme is the main idea or underlying meaning that an author investigates in a novel. A story can have multiple topics, but each says something great about the lesson in the story and what readers can get from the book.

Does this seem confusing or ambiguous? Let's make it easier:

One issue is An idea that is repeated in a story.

That makes a little more sense. But let's break it down further.

One issue is on Message you keep recall Your reader, because it's about what the story is really about.

That is, a topic is a message that says, "Hey, by the way, just so you remember, I'm trying to tell you. I want you to read this story and remember This. ”

You sprinkle this message through your story like seasoning a dish, through description, through dialogue, and through choices your characters have made.

But how do you choose the subjects of your story when writing a topic? And even once you've chosen them, how do you weave them into the scenes of your story?

How to choose the subject of your story

Your topic doesn't have to be complicated. It can be a sentence, a simple phrase, or just a word. The simpler and less complicated the subject, the better.

Think of your topic as the only idea you want your readers to keep in mind while and after reading the story.

For example, let's say we're writing a story about an old woman who tells of her long life.

The subject we want to convey is "passage of time".

But what does that mean? What does this say about your character experiencing your story, and how can you get this across to the reader without being overly obvious?

Weave theme in your story

When you write a topic and then include it in your story, first identify the words that are relevant to your topic.

In the example we have chosen, many words are related to the concept of time, e.g.

Clocks
Seasons
day Night
Fast Slow
Before / behind
beginning end
Young / old
Birth / death

Once you identify these words, weave them into your story. This is something that may feel difficult when you first draft your story, but is fairly easy to do in future drafts or while editing.

Let's take a look at how we can incorporate this theme of the passage of time into our story. Imagine this scene:

Doris was sitting on the creaky bench at the bus stop. The shops down on Main Street had changed from what she remembered. The Old McLaren barber shop had grown into a trendy boutique, and the high school her kids attended had been demolished and rebuilt twice since graduating. A cycle path has been added to accommodate the increase in cyclists. Cycling seemed to have made a comeback.

The city bus stopped with a groan. The tired looking driver opened the door and pointed at her.

"Come on, I have a schedule to keep."

Doris got up, winced at her aching bones, and dragged herself onto the bus, where she found a place near the back window and watched the city, which she no longer recognized.

This passage conveys what history is trying to say about time, but something feels weak.

It's loose, like a series of thoughts and descriptions that have a central idea, but not the whole. To change this, let's read our topic-relevant words above and try again.

Let's go:

The old bench creaked under Doris as she put her weight on it. It desperately needed a paint job, but the fast-paced city couldn't bother stopping and renovating every rundown bus stop. But there was time, thought Doris, to dismantle and replace all of their old places. The Old McLaren barber shop had turned into a trendy boutique last fall, and the high school her kids attended had been demolished and rebuilt twice since graduating around the turn of the century. A cycle path has been added to accommodate the increase in cyclists. Cycling was big in the 80s and now the hipsters have brought it back.

The city bus stopped with an exhausted groan. Compared to the bus stop, the old machine looked even worse. The driver with the deep lines above his eyebrows opened the door and pointed at her.

“Tick-tock, lady. I have to keep a schedule. "

Doris got up and winced at her aching bones. Maybe she should lose weight, she thought to herself, but it was more of a flight of imagination than anything – the days when she could step on the treadmill between busy workdays and long nights of partying were way behind her. She dragged herself onto the bus, sat in the first vacant seat, then changed her mind and went to a quieter place near the back window, where she sat down heavily and watched the city she no longer recognized.

Does this passage feel more interesting? More emotional? Paint a clearer picture?

The reason for this is that the subject of time comes into play not only for Doris, but also for the poorly maintained bus stop (old; contrast to the fast-moving city), the passing of seasons and time (autumn, turn of the century). and choice of words (tick-tock).

The bus is an old machine, the driver has lines over his eyebrows, the old cycling trend is closing in and Doris is no longer the young money she once was.

Instead of sitting in the most comfortable seat, she chooses one in the rear, a quiet place that stands out from her previous busy, noisy life of work, fitness and parties.

Each part of this passage now emphasizes the time with words reminiscent of clocks, seasons, fast and slow, old and young. Not only does it bring the subject and message out more strongly, it also makes the story more alive, tighter, and more emotional.

The subject of writing – especially the passage of time – takes on a new meaning in this example, as the context of character, perspective, setting, and conflict of the story all point to the character's relationship with time itself.

The theme becomes more focused because the theme, the passage of time, has a purpose in how the character experiences their surroundings.

WORK OUT

Exercise 1: Pick a topic and list five to ten relevant words. Really think about how to incorporate these words into a story. Share in the comments below.

Exercise 2: Write a blurb communicating the above topic and use the words you listed to put your message in the story.

Take fifteen minutes to write and share the comments below.

J. D. Edwin