Yes, that may be a loaded question. But as a writer, you have good reason to remember it while crafting your protagonist. Your character’s motivations often evolve into her goal for the story, which then determines the direction of the plot. But did you know that the protagonist’s motivations also indicate some of the story’s literary themes?

Think of it as a chain reaction. Once you decide the protagonist’s motivations, you’ll know what she wants to achieve by The End. You’ll also discover which strengths and weaknesses will help or harm her on her journey, how her motivations will inform her decisions, the obstacles she’ll face, and what’s at stake. And once you’ve figured out those elements and begun writing, the story’s themes will naturally emerge. In other words, once you know the protagonist’s motivations, the rest of the story’s thematic pieces will fall into place.

Sounds daunting, right? Don’t worry. In this edition of Theme: A Story’s Soul, we’ll go over four steps that can help you ensure your protagonist’s motivations will influence the story’s themes.

Step #1: Decide What Your Protagonist Wants and Why

A protagonist’s motivations are twofold: what and why. The what is the desire that the character longs for at the story’s beginning. Typically this desire is tangible and relatable, which will persuade the reader to believe the protagonist can achieve it and to connect with her on an emotional level.

The why unearths the meaning behind this desire. It digs into the character’s backstory and psyche to reveal the need that’s driving her want. (You can use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to help you determine where your character’s motivations fall.) For example, a teenage boy may want to find new friends because his family moved to a new town, and he craves knowing he belongs somewhere. Or the heroine may want to trust a new romantic partner after being abused by another man, and she believes she deserves a healthy, loving relationship.

This layered approach to character motivations isn’t new to literature. Choose any book from your collection, and you’ll find what the protagonist wants and why they want it. Here are three different examples from books on my shelves:

• J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Harry wants to feel like he belongs somewhere. He’s been raised by his uncaring relatives ever since his parents were killed, so he doesn’t know what it’s like to have a loving family.
• Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward: Spensa wants to attend flight school and become a starfighter pilot, just like her father. It’s been her dream since she was little; and even though her father was branded a coward for deserting his team during his final mission, she’s determined to not let anyone stand in her way.
• Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: The unnamed father wants to ensure his son’s survival. With winter on the way in their post-apocalyptic world and few trustworthy people out there, he feels compelled to do everything he can so his child can live.

So as you explore your protagonist’s motivations, take some time to answer these questions:

1. What does the protagonist want?
2. Is this motivation tangible or achievable, given the character’s circumstances and/or the story world? Why or why not?
3. Is this motivation relatable? Will the reader understand and/or sympathize with the protagonist because of this motivation? Why or why not?
4. Why does the protagonist want this goal? What need is driving this yet-to-be-fulfilled desire?
5. What has transpired in the protagonist’s life and led to the lack of fulfillment of this need?

A person’s desires and needs aren’t cut-and-dried. Rather, they’re complex because of that person’s unique blend of values, dreams, attitude, and personal history. So by considering your protagonist’s motivation in layers, you’ll ensure their motivation is as complicated as that of any human being—and make your character seem even more real.

Step #2: Awaken or Threaten This Want with the Inciting Incident

The key to tying the story to the protagonist’s motivations begins with the inciting incident. This first major plot point, which happens during the first couple of chapters, draws the character into the main conflict through a single life-changing moment. So if this scene is going to shake up the character’s world and send her on a (figurative or literal) journey, why not shape that scene so that it plays upon—or preys upon—her motivations?

An inciting incident typically impacts the protagonist’s motivations in one of two ways:

1. It Awakens: The protagonist is aware of her goal or desire but hasn’t actively pursued it. Thus, the inciting incident entices the protagonist through an event that introduces the main conflict and increases the protagonist’s awareness of her motivations by giving her a taste of its fulfillment.
2. It Threatens: The protagonist is pursuing her goal/desire or appears to have already fulfilled it. Thus, the inciting incident acts as a threat to the protagonist through an event that introduces the main conflict and attempts to remove what the character holds dear from her life, compelling her to react so she can protect the people or ideals she loves or has been striving for.

To determine which direction your inciting incident should take, ask yourself, “How do I want the reader to feel when the inciting incident scene is over?” The awakening approach works best when the character’s circumstances are already less than ideal. That way, the inciting incident can offer a glimmer of hope, which can make the reader excited about the protagonist’s life changing for the better. 

The threat approach, however, can be effective no matter how promising or terrible the protagonist’s circumstances are. If the reader has connected with the character even in a small way when the inciting incident occurs, the reader will feel worried or concerned about whether the protagonist can save what she cares about. Which emotional response would fit your story best?

Let’s see how the inciting incidents in our three examples awaken or threaten each protagonist’s motivations:

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: At the zoo, Harry is talking to a boa constrictor when his cousin, Dudley, and his friend push Harry out of the way. Harry then unknowingly uses magic to release the snake from its glass enclosure and set it after Dudley. This begins a chain of events that sends Harry to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the first place where he feels like he belongs.
• Skyward: On the last day of school, Spensa’s teacher tries to convince Spensa to skip the pilot’s test, implying that she would automatically fail per the flight school admiral’s orders. Later, a disheartened Spensa finds an abandoned starfighter in a nearby cavern. This discovery reignites Spensa’s desire to fulfill her dream, and she resolves to take the pilot’s test no matter what.
• The Road: The father’s motivation is clear from the beginning. His every thought and action revolves around keeping his son alive, including carrying a pistol for protection—which he uses when a stranger tries to abduct his son.

Step #3: Use the Protagonist’s Motivations to Influence Her Choices

Once the inciting incident occurs, the protagonist becomes more aware of her motivations than ever. She may not fully understand how high the stakes are yet, but she knows what’s important to her. She also knows she may have to make difficult decisions to make her goal a reality or to protect what she cares about. So as the story continues and the protagonist is forced to make those tough choices, she’ll fall back on her motivations and let them guide her decisions and actions, for better or worse.

At this point, you’ve already done most of the hard work. In Step #1, you determined your character’s motivations so you could craft an inciting incident that aligns with her goals or desires (or threatens to take them away) in Step #2. Now, for Step #3, keep the protagonist’s motivations in mind as you write each plot point. When it’s time for your character to make a new decision or take action, use these questions to ensure her next move is consistent with what she wants:

1. Which option aligns most with the protagonist’s motivations? If the decision is a choice between “the lesser of two evils,” which option does the character see as being in her best interest? 
2. How does the protagonist feel right now? How does her emotional state help or hinder her decision-making abilities?
3. How do the protagonist’s decision and its outcome raise the stakes even higher?

Will your protagonist always make the right decisions? Of course not. Sometimes emotions will cloud her judgment. Other times, the outcome will turn out differently (and adversely so) than she hoped. But through it all, her motivations should remain consistent throughout the story, and her decisions should hold true to those motivations. And by ensuring that her choices grow more challenging and the costs even higher, you’ll prove to the reader how much the sources of the protagonist’s motivations truly mean to her.

What kinds of decisions have our three example characters made since Step #2? Let’s take a look:

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Harry makes several of his decisions as a result of his desire to belong and be loved. He confirms his acceptance at Hogwarts because he wants to be with other children like him who perform magic. Later, he visits the Mirror of Erised to “see” his deceased parents because he misses the family he’s never known.  
• Skyward: Spensa clings to her dream despite the odds against her. After she’s denied entrance to flight school, she is offered a way in by one of the first-year instructors and accepts it. Toward the end, after Spensa is expelled from flight school, she chooses to join the effort to defend the starfighter base against an alien attack—and to learn more about why she can “hear the stars.”
• The Road: One doesn’t have to read too far to find more evidence of the father’s desire to ensure his son’s survival. He shows it during the story’s most pivotal moments as well as in his everyday actions, from providing the boy with food to choosing their shelter for the night. He also demonstrates it when he speaks to his son by offering advice, telling stories, and apologizing for yelling at him.

Step #4: Discover the Themes That Emerge from These Motivations

Notice what happens as you use Step #3 to craft the rest of the story. When each choice the protagonist makes aligns with her motivations, those motivations will remain consistent from beginning to end. And because you designed the main conflict to tie in with what your character wants (see Steps #1 and #2), the source of her motivation will constantly be on her mind as the story plays out.

This repetition is key to nurturing literary themes in a story, and not just from the protagonist’s motivations. That’s why repetition is part of our working definition of “theme.” In order for an idea to become a theme, it needs to be revisited throughout the story in an artful and nuanced way. Allowing your character’s goals and desires—her driving force since Page 1—to influence some of those themes is one of the most salient ways to achieve this repetition.

Review the work you’ve done in Steps #1 through #3. What concepts emerge through the protagonist’s motivations, the inciting incident, and the character’s choices afterward? It’s perfectly fine to list a couple of themes instead of one. As I mentioned earlier, our own motivations are complex, so we can’t expect ourselves to boil down our dreams and goals into one simple idea. Instead, ensure the themes you find align with what your character wants or is fighting for. And if they do, then you’re well on your way to creating a story that will be logically and thematically consistent—and that will make your reader feel endeared to the protagonist and invested in your story.

Below are the themes revealed from each protagonist’s motivations in our three examples. Do you have others to add to this list?

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: friendship, family, home, belonging
• Skyward: courage versus fear, dreams and hopes, coming of age
• The Road: love, mortality, isolation

What are your protagonist’s motivations? How does the story’s inciting incident awaken or threaten them? What themes emerge from the story as a result of those motivations?

Sara Letourneau is a freelance editor and writing coach who lives in Massachusetts. She’s also a poet whose work has appeared in Mass Poetry’s Poem of the Moment, The Aurorean, The Avocet, The Bookends Review, Golden Walkman Magazine, Soul-Lit, and other journals and anthologies. She can often be found performing her poems at local open mic nights, reading good books, roaming the shores of Cape Cod, and enjoying a cup of tea. Learn more about how Sara can help you with your writing at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services. You can also connect with her at her writer website, Twitter, Goodreads, or Instagram.

The post How Your Protagonist’s Motivations Influence Your Story’s Themes appeared first on DIY MFA.

If you missed our previous posts on this theme, why not read those first? Start with our case study on man and the natural world if you’d like an introduction to the theme. Or check out our recommended reading list of books about man and the natural world or our five reasons for why this theme matters. Otherwise, let’s get writing!

Make the Setting Integral to the Plot

Setting is already one of your story’s central elements. So when man and the natural world is one of the themes, the setting becomes an even bigger player in the game–so big, in fact, that it can influence the plot.

Think of stories you’ve read where the plot relies on the setting. How do the unique natural elements of the setting make the story’s events possible? In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, for example, Mary’s transformation from sickly and selfish to healthy and caring happens as a result of her nurturing her uncle’s abandoned garden back to life. The friendships she develops with the other residents of Misselthwaite Manor contribute to this as well. But how would the story change if Mary was sent to live in a downtown orphanage that had no garden? The theme of man and the natural world would probably disappear—and the plot of this classic children’s tale would be drastically different.

So as you determine how the setting influences the plot, consider the following six keys to connecting these two building blocks of storytelling:

1. Location: Where does the story take place? Ensure you think about the macro (country, state, town / city) and micro (neighborhoods, buildings, landmarks) elements of the location.
2. Time: When does the story take place? Consider the time period, season, and (for certain scenes) the time of day. Whether it’s daytime or nighttime can significantly impact how a scene plays out.
3. Natural Elements: What are some of the unique natural elements (e.g., topography, climate, bodies of water, weather conditions, wildlife) of this location at this time?
4. Goals: What is the character’s goal in this story? What conflict is he trying to resolve?
5. Connection: How does the character’s story goal or main conflict connect with the setting? In other words, how do the setting and its unique natural elements make the story possible?
6. Impact: How do the natural elements of the setting affect or influence the character’s ability to achieve his story goal or resolve the main conflict?

If you’re unsure of how to answer the final question, stay tuned for more insights and a related exercise in the next section.

Exercise #1

Choose a setting with natural elements that could play a big role in a story, and write down your answers to the six questions listed above. (This setting can be one you’ve written about before or one that’s brand new.) Then write a scene or short story in which the character’s story-goal pursuit or the main conflict relies on this setting and its natural elements. 

How does the natural world make the character’s struggles or the scene’s events possible? How would the scene / story change—or be rendered impossible—if it occurred in a setting with different natural elements?

Also, check out the writing exercises in our post on using setting to illustrate literary themes.

“Characterize” Nature as Your Character’s Friend or Foe

No story ever goes smoothly for the protagonist. Between the beginning and the end, she’ll run into complications and setbacks as she struggles to reach her goal or resolve the main conflict. And in stories where man and the natural world is a central theme, these complications include natural obstacles that hinder the character’s progress or threaten the safety of herself and others. In this way, nature acts as one of the story’s antagonists. It may not be a human character whose motives and actions oppose the protagonist’s, but the power it holds over the protagonist through changing weather, expected seasonal conditions, and natural disasters can just as easily throw her off course. 

It’s also important to consider how the natural world can help the protagonist. Sometimes it’s more like a friend or ally and assists the character through shelter, sources of food or water, and signals of danger. Elements like these can give the protagonist a sense of hope, relief, joy, and other positive emotions that can, among other things, rekindle their commitment to their story goal. They must also be carefully chosen based on what occurs or is available in the story’s setting.

If you need some examples on how nature can antagonist or assist your character, here are two excellent ones:

• Rae Carson’s Walk on Earth a Stranger: Leah Westfall rides in a covered wagon across the American plains and Rocky Mountains to reach the gold mines of California. Along the way, she braves whitewater rapids, a buffalo stampede, oppressive heat, and other natural elements that act as obstacles to her journey and overall safety. She also witnesses the beauty of natural landmarks and acknowledges her gratitude for off-road hiding spots and other ways that nature protects her.
• Andy Weir’s The Martian: After being left behind on the planet Mars, astronaut Mark Watney must find a way to survive until a rescue mission arrives. The planet’s harsh environment—marked by dust storms, frigid temperatures, dangerous terrain, and lack of oxygen—makes this the biggest challenge of his life. But thanks to his engineering ingenuity, Mark figures out how to grow a crop of potatoes inside his laboratory using technology, Martian soil, and (*ahem*) human waste, which stretches his food supply and increases his odds of living long enough to come home.

Exercise #2A

Create a two-column table on paper or in a word processing document. Label the columns “Antagonize” and “Assist.” Then, in each column, list the ways in which the story’s setting and its natural elements either antagonize or assist the protagonist as she works toward achieving her goal or resolving the main conflict. Don’t worry if you fill one column with more ideas than the other, but make sure you consider how the natural world can both hinder and help the protagonist in her efforts.

Exercise #2B

Return to the scene or short story you wrote for Exercise #1, and write two new scenes: one where the setting and its natural elements antagonize the protagonist, and one where they assist her. Or, if you’re up for a challenge, write a single scene where the natural world does both for the character. How does your character react to these events? How do they complicate or aid her progress? How does it all make her feel? Is it even possible for nature to be both friend and foe in your story? If so, what does the protagonist think about this duality?

Infuse Your Descriptions of Nature with the Character’s Mood

Stories about man and the natural world never skim the setting’s surface. The natural elements must be carefully considered and described appropriately. This doesn’t mean you need to write about every leaf, insect, or drop of water. Rather, focus first on the elements that the character would notice and that best serve the scene, and then phrase those descriptions based on how the character thinks, feels, or reacts at that moment.

Put yourself in your character’s shoes and imagine he’s in a natural setting. What kind of environment is he in? What time of day is it? What’s the weather like? What kinds of wildlife (flora, fauna, etc.) does the character notice? What other unique elements of that setting does he make note of? Then consider the character’s circumstances and emotions at that moment. What just happened or is currently happening in the story? What thoughts or emotions is the character experiencing as a result? How do the setting’s natural elements and current conditions exacerbate his situation and feelings? Or how do they make things more bearable for him?

Remember that the key here is to illustrate the character’s relationship with nature. This is why it’s crucial to frame the description according to his observations, circumstances, and attitude at that moment. Depending on what’s happening, the character might not pay much attention to the dry grass or the chirping of crickets, but he may be exhausted enough to notice the heat and lack of shade. Or maybe he’ll be so distracted by the beauty of the moon that he doesn’t realize how much the temperatures have dropped. By inhabiting your character fully in each scene, you’ll ensure your descriptions of nature are accurate, imaginative, and meaningful.

Exercise #3

Review the last scene you wrote for your story, and notice your character’s state of mind at the end. Then, imagine your character going outside immediately after this scene ends and into the closest natural environment. What is that environment like? How does that environment affect the character’s mood? Or how does the character’s mood influence what he notices about the natural setting? List various scenarios such as daytime versus nighttime, heat versus cold, rain versus sunshine, etc. and determine how the character’s reaction changes in each one. If the story’s next scene were to occur outdoors, which scenario would be most impactful? Why?

Use the Story’s Events to Demonstrate Humanity’s Impact on Nature

We’ve likely read stories where trees are cut down, animals are forced to leave their homes, and pollution dirties the water and air. These and other moments are meant to remind readers of the havoc humanity can wreak on the natural world and the potential consequences if no one takes action to stop it. This also creates the reverse scenario of Exercises #2A and #2B above. Instead of nature acting as an antagonist to a human character, this time the character is antagonizing nature.

When taking this approach to the theme, first consider why the destruction is happening. For example, if characters are razing a forest, what are their reasons for doing so? Do they want the land for farming or development for homes and businesses? Do they need wood and other natural resources for their use or consumption? Are they driving out inhabitants such as birds, animals, and people—or using them to further their goals?

Next, ponder the consequences of this devastation. How would the natural elements of this setting change forever if the antagonist’s plans are carried out to completion? Think about how the terrain, wildlife, climate, and other aspects of nature would be impacted. How would these changes affect the characters living and working there? (Food and water supply, weather conditions, options for shade or cover, and nature’s aesthetic qualities are just some of the things to consider here.) Maybe even the worst-case scenario has already become reality. Jay Kristoff’s Stormdancer is a harrowing example of characters living—and dying—in a country where deforestation and pollution due to industrialization have led to climate change, famine, and disease, among other problems. 

This angle on the theme doesn’t have to be all “gloom and doom,” though. In most cases, one of the characters—your protagonist, for instance—may be determined to fight back or counter the damage that’s been done. If so, then ask yourself why this character cares so much about the world she lives in. What is she willing to do to save what’s left of it? Most importantly, what steps will she take (perhaps with help) to achieve her goal? Once you’ve brainstormed this as well as the reasons for and consequences of the destruction of the natural setting, you’ll have in place the first puzzle pieces for an exciting and emotionally charged story.

Exercise #4

Brainstorm the ways in which the natural world of your story’s setting could be impacted by your characters. If it helps, create a table that lists different “man-made” scenarios, possible reasons for each one occurring, and its impacts on the environment and the characters. Where does your protagonist fit into the picture on any of these scenarios? Would she be assisting with the destruction? Or fighting to stop it? Make note of her motivations for engaging in either side, then write a scene or short story in which the character witnesses or participates in the devastation. What does she or other characters try to do to save the story’s setting?

How have you explored man and the natural world in your own stories? What other writing prompts or exercises would you recommend to nurture this theme?

Sara Letourneau is a freelance editor and writing coach who lives in Massachusetts. She’s also a poet whose work has appeared in Mass Poetry’s Poem of the Moment, The Aurorean, The Avocet, The Bookends Review, Golden Walkman Magazine, Soul-Lit, and other journals and anthologies. She can often be found performing her poems at local open mic nights, reading good books, roaming the shores of Cape Cod, and enjoying a cup of tea. Learn more about how Sara can help you with your writing at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services. You can also connect with her at her writer website, Twitter, Goodreads, or Instagram.

The post Writing Exercises for Exploring the Theme of Man and the Natural World appeared first on DIY MFA.

Writers often confuse the terms “topic” and “theme” and, as a result, use them interchangeably.

The truth is, topic and theme are not the same. Each has a distinct role and function in the craft of writing – and one of them, oddly enough, is a means of infusing the other into our work. So today we’ll learn how to distinguish the differences between theme and topic and what we should keep in mind about both terms when we’re writing.

What Is a Theme? And What Is a Topic?

In our first Theme: A Story’s Soul post, we offered this working definition for “theme”:

An idea, concept, or lesson that appears repeatedly throughout a story, reflects the character’s internal journey through the external plot, and resonates with the reader.

In other words, a story’s themes are part of the story’s central message. Themes allow readers to look at the main conflict from a broader perspective. They reveal the universals that help readers connect with the characters. They raise questions and evoke emotions that cause us to laugh, cry, or say to ourselves, “I know exactly what this character is going through.”

So what, then, are a story’s topics? And how do they differ from themes?

In our recent post on identifying themes in the poetry we write, we introduced topic as the facts that explain what a poem – or a piece of writing in general – is about. It’s another word for “subject matter”; and it tends to be specific and concrete, while theme is more conceptual. As a result, a story’s topics are clearly stated and can be identified more easily than its themes.

Think about the difference between topic and theme in terms of the five Ws and one H (who, what, where, when, why, and how). We’ve already established that a story’s topics answer the question, “What is this story about?” Theme, on the other hand, explores a story’s big picture and universal ideas, which reveal why these struggles matter to the characters and why they might matter to the readers as well. As a result, theme answers the question, “Why is this story important?”

The most important difference between topic and theme, however, might surprise you: Topic is a vehicle for illustrating theme. When you demonstrate the facts of the story in action through the main conflict and character interactions, you don’t simply state those facts. Instead, you infuse deeper meaning into those facts by showing the challenges that your characters face during the story and their reactions and emotions along the way. In this way, the story’s “what” makes the “why” possible. The writer just needs to give it the right amount of attention and nurture throughout the process.

Questions to Ask When Identifying a Story’s Topics

Even though it’s easy to spot a story’s topics, it’s good to know what questions you should ask to help you identify them. So before getting started, here are some questions to keep in mind:

• Who is the story about?
• What is the main character’s story goal?
• What happens to the main character(s) during the story?
• What kinds of struggles, conflicts, or challenges are suggested by the title or jacket copy?
• What does the main character(s) do that’s important to the story’s outcome?
• How does the main character’s ethnicity, geographic location, passions, hardships, and other distinctive aspects influence what the story is about?
•  What words or phrases repeatedly come up in the jacket copy or the story’s text?

Notice anything about these questions? Several of them require information about the characters and the setting, since some of the story’s facts will answer the three remaining Ws: who, where, and when. In this way, these Ws provide additional context for the story’s topics that the “what” can’t always provide on its own.

Distinguishing Topic from Theme Using a Book’s Jacket Copy

Believe it or not, you can identify most (if not all) of a book’s topics by reading a book’s jacket copy. The trick, of course, is knowing what to look for – but that’s where the above list of questions comes in handy. (*wink*) So let’s try it using the jacket copy of this edition of Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray:

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they’ve known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin’s orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously–and at great risk–documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father’s prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives.

Concise as this example may be, it reveals these four topics of Between Shades of Gray:

• The Soviet Union’s genocide of the Baltic peoples of Eastern Europe during World War II, as implied by the year, location, and references to Joseph Stalin, the Soviets, and labor camps
• The separation of families during times of war, which is one of the challenges Lina will endure based on the jacket copy’s contents
• The hardships of life in labor / prison camps, another of the challenges that Lina will face as implied above
•  Art as a means of communication, thanks to Lina using drawings to deliver messages to her father

More topics will emerge as you read Between Shades of Gray. But once boiled down to their essences, these four facts hint at several of the book’s themes: war, morality and integrity, family, the power of art, and survival. They don’t hint at all of the themes (love and sacrifice are also major themes in this story), but that’s to be expected. What is expected is that these topics tell the reader what the story is about – and they do, accurately and effectively.

What to Keep in Mind About Topic and Theme as You Write

The main thing to remember about topic is that it pertains to the story’s “what.” It’s driven by facts and specifics, whereas theme deals with the big picture and overall meaning that reveal why the story matters. So as you determine the topics and themes in your own work, ask yourself the questions that we posed earlier. What are the facts of your story? Who is it about? What kinds of conflicts does the protagonist face? How do the setting, time period, and other defining characteristics influence what happens?

Chances are you’ll identify your story’s topics just by reviewing your pitch, synopsis, or other summary that explains what your story is about. And once you do, you’ll find it easier to dig into the meat of your story – the characters, dialogue, plot points, and so on – and recognize the themes you’ve been cultivating all along.

How do you distinguish the difference between topic and theme? What are the topics of your current story? How do these topics usher in the story’s themes? And, of course, what are your story’s themes?

Sara Letourneau is a freelance editor and writing coach based in Massachusetts. She’s currently taking clients with manuscripts in speculative fiction, literary fiction, or YA, though she’s open to other genres as well. She’s also a poet whose work has appeared in Amethyst Review, Canary, Muddy River Poetry Review, Soul-Lit, and elsewhere. A Massachusetts resident, she can often be found performing her poems at local open mic nights, reading good books, and enjoying a cup of tea. Learn more about how Sara can help you with your writing at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services. You can also connect with her at her writer website, Twitter, Goodreads, or Instagram.

The post The Difference Between Topic and Theme appeared first on DIY MFA.