I understand the urge! You have a topic you feel deeply about and you want to wallow in the goodness (or sadness, or whatever vibe) that you’re feeling. But don’t do that if you want to convey more powerfully the complexities of your subject matter or character development, and certainly don’t do that if you want others to enjoy reading your story.
So here’s what to do instead: Use Thematic Questions to drive your novel/script.
A thematic question is a powerful tool that can elevate your narrative from milquetoast to unforgettable. But first, let’s level set with an insightful video from The Closer Look on YouTube: "How Themes Make Stories Meaningful". This video concisely dissects the importance of themes in storytelling and how they contribute to the depth and impact of your work.
“Justice”, “Revenge”, and “Love” from the video, are very wallow- and contemplation-worthy, but they’re not very deep. They’re also not very specific. So many stories could be lumped under so large an umbrella, and from a writer’s point of view it can lead to meandering. (Let’s save the meandering for Substack. 😎)
With a solid thematic question, a writer can refer back to it throughout the writing process. It can — and arguably should — be applied to many characters, all embracing a different facet of the answer to the question posed. This will inevitably build in some conflict between different perspectives and the story will write itself. (Conflict is also important, but we can get into it later this week.)
So here’s a little printable for the highlighter-and-three-hole-punch set, and I encourage you to talk to folks about it while you’re drafting it up. Contemplate your question options from different angles, talk to you friends, hmu on IG or here, or even mess around with chatGPT if you don’t have anyone in your life to discuss it with. It won’t provide the most valuable answers, but it will help you at least get started and that’s sometimes the hardest part.
“Thinking is supposed to be a corrective in our life, it’s not supposed to be the center of our life. Living is supposed to be the center of our life.”