Themes at the heart of your writing
Unlocking the unconscious threads in your stories
When I started out writing fiction (well when I started again as I always wrote stories when I was younger and stopped when I was 15 and a careers officer told me that being a writer was not a proper job and definitely not one for the likes of me), I didn't really consider what themes I was writing about. I had characters that appeared in my head followed by situations they were finding themselves in and it just went from there.
But now I can see that some themes appear unconsciously in my writing over and over again, no matter the length of the story I'm writing. This is true even when I am writing about a new theme — the unconscious themes seep into that story too.
I believe that this is because I need to write about these things. Writing for me, as well as being something I get great pleasure from, is a way for me to make sense of this human experience. To process what has come before, and what may come next, as well as what's happening now.
Whatever writing is for you, I urge you to tap into those unconscious themes — look back at your stories, essays and poems and read lots of them in one go and I'm positive you'll spot some — and then write from your heart about them. That's the way you make your writing stand out and resonate with readers, as well as it resonating with you. Because when we write from the heart about the things that really matter to us, compassion, empathy and love seep into it automatically. It’s when we write from the head that it becomes something else — something with external goals, judgements of ourselves and others, and it loses the love.
Some of the unconscious themes I have in my writing are familial ties and expectations, fate, memory, self-deception and secrets. Then when I write stories of all word counts, I have other themes I explore depending on what prompted the story and what my current obsessions are. I've just started planning my fourth book and although the main themes I think I am exploring are what true friendship means and how one incident has the power to change the trajectory of many lives, I can already see my unconscious themes emerging as I do the work to get to know my characters and outline my story.
What are your unconscious themes that appear in your stories? Do let me know in the comments.
This is a beautiful contemplation. I believe I have more than an inkling to what my themes are, but I appreciate your sage advice and I'll reread some of my essays to dive deeper and see what I can discover knew.
The theme in my poetry that I didn't realize until pointed out was that I often used snow and ice as imagery to depict depression. Ever since that was pointed out to me, I have begun using ice and water to depict mental health in my writing.