By: Christian Copley
The central idea behind most if not all forms of writing is the theme. Without the theme there is no story, there is no meaning, and there is nothing to take away from a piece of writing. The theme is the backbone of an entire piece of writing. Therefore, without a shadow of a doubt, the most important thing to do before you begin writing is to figure out what the topic of the piece will be.
Start simple. If the topic is easy to remember and straightforward, then the rest of piece is most likely going to come naturally to you as well.
Although simplicity can make things easy, that doesn’t mean you are not allowed to expand on the theme and have multiple topics or ideas spread throughout your piece. While it can sometimes be difficult to have multiple topics in one piece of writing, it is a good way to keep the reader interested.
One of the best examples that shows how topic enhances a story is the original Star Wars trilogy. While these movies are not technically pieces of writing, the ideas behind them are great examples of how the theme affects a story.
The main theme behind these movies was the idea of the Hero’s journey. Throughout the entire trilogy, we see the main character, Luke Skywalker, evolve from some farm boy who lives on a desert world, into a magic wielding samurai who fights an evil empire with nothing but a laser sword.
The entire trilogy explores how Luke grows throughout his adventures; however, the films also explore other topics along the way to enhance the viewer’s experience. The films are called Star Wars, so obviously there is probably some sort of war going on in space. Naturally, the films also explore the war being fought between the Rebel Alliance and the evil Galactic Empire.
One of the greatest things a writer can do with multiple themes, is to answer questions that a viewer might have. Going back to Star Wars, something the viewers might be asking is “well, what are the villains doing?” Something that the movies do well is show certain scenes explaining what the villains are planning to do to stop the Alliance. Having these scenes scattered throughout the films is a great way to give the viewers a sense of scale of the movie’s universe and, as an added bonus, answers some of the viewer’s questions.
There are many ways to expand upon the theme of a piece and knowing where to begin is not always clear. Whether the topic is simple or complicated, the entire piece of writing is dependent upon how well the writer makes the piece connect with the theme. Knowing what you want the topic to be undoubtedly ends up affecting how well the piece of writing resonates with the reader.