How to Make Themes Work Together

It’s time for another one of my guest posts over at Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s Writers Helping Writers site. As one of their Resident Writing Coaches, I’ve previously shared:

• insights on how to approach an overwhelming revision
• how to increase the stakes (the consequences for failure) in our story
• 7 ways to indicate time passage in our stories (and 2 issues to watch out for)
• how to translate story beats to any genre
• how and why we should avoid episodic writing
• how to find and fix unintended themes
• how “plot” holes can sneak into our characters and worldbuilding
• how TV shows can help us learn to hook our readers
• what we can learn from stories that successfully break the rules
• how to ensure revisions aren’t creating rips in our story
• how to create strong story goals that won’t slow our pacing
• how to keep readers supportive through our characters’ changes
• how to use bridging conflict to kick off our story’s momentum
• how to create the right pace for our story (and make it strong)
• how to make the “right” first impression for our character
• what options we have if our story doesn’t fit the usual approach to conflict
• 3 ways to improve our use of tropes (because they aren’t all bad)
• knowing when to treat our setting like a character
• how we can make setting details meaningful rather than boring
• how to fix broken stories by delving into story structure
• how a focus on the plot arc vs. the character arc affects our story
• understanding scenes and sequels and figuring out a good balance
• how to create story stakes that matter and give meaning
• how to know when a deeper POV might hurt our story
• how and when we can use foreshadowing
• understanding our character-arc options in shorter stories
• how to define our story by using questions from journalism
• how to use (and not abuse) the “lampshade” technique
• how to portray close relationships (from friends to lovers)
• how to avoid giving readers déjà vu when repeating information in a book series
• the difference between flashbacks and dual timeline (and when to use each)
• how to strengthen our story with tropes

With this turn for another coaching article at WHW, I’m digging into how our story’s various themes can interact. Let’s explore how we can make our themes work together to add depth to our story…

Story Themes Recap: Our Story Has Multiple Themes?

We probably all learned in school that theme is a story’s “message”—the ideas that a reader is supposed to take away from the story. However, one thing that many teachers don’t emphasize is that a story can (and probably will) have multiple themes.

Most themes are revealed through subtext. So we might need to identify the main themes by analyzing the different story elements contributing to the impression of “what our story is about”:

• Story Themes: What’s the premise of the story? Who’s supposed to win or lose—and why?
• Character Themes: How does the protagonist change over the course of the story? What do they learn?
• Plot Themes: During the plot’s turning points, what do the characters attempt? Do they succeed or fail—and why?
• Choices Themes: What choices are the characters making? Do the results match the Story or Character Themes (choices that agree with the themes should succeed and vice versa)?
• Villain Themes: Are the villain’s beliefs reinforced or disproved by plot events?

Themes Can Add Depth to Our Story

Multiple themes will likely emerge from our story, whether we’re conscious of them or not. Our writing determines how those themes interact and thus affect our story:

• We can accidently weaken our story if we create themes that conflict or undermine each other, including unintended themes.
• Alternatively, we can strengthen and deepen our story if our themes add together to create more meaning.

What does it mean to “create more meaning”? Our themes will likely create more meaning for our readers if they:

• provide readers with a deeper understanding of the story and/or characters
• use multiple perspectives or circumstances to prompt readers to more deeply consider ideas
• make the plot, characters, and/or messages of our story more relevant or relatable to readers
• and so on…

All those options rely on our themes working together, rather than undermining each other. So let’s hop over to Writers Helping Writers to see what techniques will help our themes cooperate.

Writers Helping Writers: Resident Writing Coach Program

How Can We Make Themes Work Together?

Come visit my guest post at WHW, linked above, where I’m sharing more (with examples!) about how we can make themes work together, including:

• 5 ways that themes can interact
• how multiple themes can remain independent (and when that might be the right choice for our story)
• how to make unrelated themes connect
• how to make somewhat-related themes resonate
• how to explore the same theme from different perspectives or circumstances
• the benefits of creating thematic echoes and resonances

Then come back here for us to explore another example of thematic echoes, by looking at the Netflix series Arcane…

Case Study: How the Arcane TV Show Uses Thematic Echoes to Add Meaning

The TV show Arcane recently released its season two on Netflix. Based on the videogame League of Legends (which I’ve never played), the show created wonderfully complex characters that anyone—player of the game or not—can enjoy, through inventive animation and storytelling.

Here’s the season one trailer for Arcane:

The primary way the show develops these characters is by thrusting them into several situations and dilemmas where they’re torn and need to make difficult decisions. And as mentioned above, the choices our characters make are a major source of themes in our story. So the show feels even deeper when those Choices Themes resonate—or connect—with the Story Themes, Character Themes, etc.

For example, one character must choose between loyalty to a sibling versus loyalty to a friend/lover. Both of those options are related to a love/relationship theme that’s expressed in every character’s storyline, as the characters and various story elements explore romantic love, sibling love, parental love, friendship love, and so on.

One storyline shows how a character would have turned out very differently if their relationships (and some rejections within those relationships) had followed a different path. Another storyline asks whether parental love can help heal wounds with others. Other storylines explore characters learning to love themselves or choosing to selflessly love all others, as no one is expendable.

In other words, the themes around what someone will do for love, how love will affect their decisions (or how rejection of love will affect them and their decisions), or what they’ll learn from love, etc. all resonate across the various story elements and character arcs. These echoes make the (many) multiple storylines feel more connected, and thus, the entire series feels deeper and more epic.

This depth of themes and characters makes the Arcane show feel “better” than some might think it has any right to be (given its source material). And that’s my point. Themes that echo and resonate help us strengthen our writing, storytelling, characters, and story overall, and if you don’t believe me, check out the Arcane TV series. *smile*

Have you ever noticed multiple themes in your stories or stories you’ve read? If so, have you seen instances where the themes undercut each other? Or where they make the story stronger? Does this post give you ideas for how to make themes work together to create stronger, deeper writing? Have you seen Arcane, and if so, what was your impression? Do you have any questions about this topic? (My WHW posts are limited in word count, but I’m happy to go deeper here if anyone wants more info!)