Themes, reoccurring motifs and morals***
What are themes? Themes are concurrent ideas that are explored in depth throughout your story and are used to shape plot direction. Narratives will have many themes, and I suggest you identify which issues you want to thoroughly explore. Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, for example explores themes of love vs. lust, oppression eventuates to revolt, forbidden love, and many more.
Some ideas for common themes you can work on incorporating into your story are
Ø Change (which can be broken down into ideas such as psychological change, change is inevitable, without change we would not progress as society, resistance to change, change can eventuate to a new perspective, change shapes our lives, etc…)
Ø Love (Oh god – where can I start on this one! Love related themes include love vs. lust, forbidden love, love can cause us to devaluate others, love is all around us, unrequited love, love does not discriminate, etc…)
Ø Individual vs. society (This can really be applied to almost any good story; authority and the individual, individuals’ actions shape actions of society, conforming to society, society must have individual opposition to progress, etc…)
Ø Etcetera…
And that is only a few of many themes you can explore in your story. I would suggest that you choose a few themes to break down in your story and maintain them throughout your story.
Why include reoccurring motifs – hell what are they anyways? Reoccurring motifs are ideas, expressions, or symbols which are purposely repeated throughout the story. For example, in ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the moon is a reoccurring motif as it is present whenever the lovers unite. Reoccurring motifs can create the allusion of inclusiveness, and will make the audience associate certain actions through these symbols. Using reoccurring motifs subtly and appropriately will contribute to your story.
Morals are important to any narrative and can be correlated to the theme. A moral is the life lesson a character has learnt through their experiences throughout the narrative. Incorporating a moral to your story will demonstrate you and your characters development of ideas over time and tie together all elements of your story in the end. ‘Between You and Me’ by Chill2gether (who has regrettably deleted her account) follows the social decline of popular girl, Sophie as she desperately tried to capture the heart of popular boy, Tyler from her best friend, Keira. It was a classic, well-written appropriation of a popular-girl catfight, but eventuated to a moral of appreciating what you have already got, as well as the life lesson to think before you act. If you didn’t read it before it was deleted, you considerably missed out on a fantastic story.
What you guys have to say
I went around and posed the question to some of you guys and this is what you said...
How do you make your plot unique?
Yzabella13:
“Before I make a plot, I usually think up a character. For my current major project, ‘Suicidal Vampire’, I made like a list of attributes of a character. It was made like a MASH list, but I didn't do it MASH style. I make the character, and then I think of a plot. First, I think of all the clichés of the kind of story I'm creating. For example, I thought of all the clichés of a vampire romance. Usually the guys are the vampires. Well, I opposite it, and make a unique situation. That's how I make my plot unique. I think of the clichés and opposite them.”
Yoyopay:
"I say what makes a plot unique is the element of surprise. It's when you lead your readers to believe that they know what's going to happen, but then bam! Something totally unexpected comes up, and you leave your readers in awe, and make them think "Did that really just happen?" Think thinking outside the box. I try to come up with ideas and events that will twist the story in ways that the reader would've most likely not thought about. It's a bit hard really, 'cause I try not to make my stories too clichéd. There's already so many of them out there, and it makes me want to tap deeper into my mind and my soul to look for something else. I am currently working up ideas for two novels-- one is non-teen fiction romance, and the other action/adventure, and I'm pretty excited about those."
This is part one of my plot related segment. Coming up, we have an interview with cashmerepoison on her story ‘I Am Chloe’ and how she developed her brilliant and unique plot. If you have any suggestions for me to add to this section, stick a paragraph in, and I’ll include it (provided it’s relevant, of course). Part 2 will also feature the question for next week for you guys to answer. If you want to answer my question on plot, leave a message and I’ll stick it in.
As you might have noticed, Feed My Thoughts has taken a new direction. I have decided to upload advice for writing a good story, using Wattpad (perhaps a rant/segment or two on non-Wattpad content), along with an interview with a writer that I think has excelled in this element.
*These plots are loose… but at least tell me if you plan on replicating them…
**My short story “The Human Condition” is based off a news article where a socialite murdered his former girlfriend (http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/socialite-charged-with-knife-attack-on-former-girlfriend-20100424-tkho.html). I, of course, superimposed my own Idea of what could have happened.
***This will be further explored in my techniques related segment
YOU ARE READING
Feed My Thoughts
Non-FictionJoin the revolution! Abolish mediocre plots and generic characters. Save our stories! Written by AmbersEatingCake, and co-written by Yzabella_Pen, Feed My Thoughts is our exclusive advice for you; the writers of Wattpad. Every week, we'll upload det...
Edition 2 - Part 1: Feed My Thoughts on Plot Originality
Start from the beginning
