This week, I'm going to write about creating a novel, beginning with theme -- or what is your novel really about. Theme is not the plot or the idea or the approach. It is the heart of your novel.
Some people confuse theme with story idea. They are not the same. Below is some information on what story idea really means.
The Story Idea
Unless you have a strong, focused idea, you will likely run out of steam around page 30. You have to be excited by the idea. It must matter to you. The old advice is "write what you know" and it holds true. But you know a great deal. Below is a list of sources for ideas, using what you know.
Sources for your basic idea for your novel
- Personal experience
- Actual experience
- What-if personal experience
- Philosophical conclusion based on experience
- Something we heard about
- History
- A friend's suggestion
- Strong feelings against something
- Strong feelings for something
- Current event
- Chance incident
- Desire for adventure
- New inventions
- Social upheavals
- Strong interest in some business
Setting up Basic Conflict
All novels need a basic conflict. To establish this conflict, you need two things:
- A protagonist (or protagonists).
- An environment
The environment can come from:
- Physical setting(s)
- Atmosphere created by the social situation
- Emotional mood
Setting the Stage
You must put the protagonist(s) in conflict with either his or her own environment or the environment of others.
10 principles for placing the protagonist in conflict:
- Something changes in the environment
- Moving the protagonist from one environment to another
- Put the protagonist in an environment that is in conflict with other environments
- Put the protagonist in an environment he or she wants to change
- Give the protagonist an environment to conquer
- Put him or her in a environment he or she wants to escape
- Put the protagonist in an environment where he or she is not wanted
- Put the protagonist in an environment for which he or she is unsuited
- Change the protagonist's status quo in his or her environment
- . Change the status quo of the environment
Give the protagonist a chief motivating force with a tangible object. His or her response to the environment yields a determination to do something about it (the chief motivating force) to achieve some tangible objective. It helps if you exaggerate the protagonist's reaction to the environment.
