Sunday, November 10, 2013

LIGHT BULB MOMENTS!

This last week, Shadow Wings and Shadow Sky has been haunting me.
Last weekend, I started to read over the first chapter of Shadow Wings, and had to stop because I wasn't supposed to fix things, only make notes, and it was too hard. 
Either way, that's part of the reason why it was haunting me.

Today, during church, it came back to mind.
That is really quite unusual for me as I normally really concentrate on the service, but today it kept coming back to mind.
During Sunday School, it hit me that what I was really missing from the beginning was a 'knot' or problem in my MC, Kallie, that needed to be 'straightened out' or fixed.
I was missing a Theme for my MC.
Then in the middle of the church service, it hit me what the two 'knots' are.

What are they?
Well, I'm not just going to out and out tell you. 
That wouldn't be very fun now, would it.
So, here's how I figured my theme out, hopefully it would help any fellow writers think through their themes. 

Fact 1

Raven
What is going to happen in the story?
Well in Shadow Wings, Kallie is supposed to turn against the Zoic Betterment Program that is either using Zoics or else killing them.
In Shadow Sky, Kallie is supposed to either destroy or change the Zoic Betterment Program (either option is still open right now because I haven't reached that part in the planning/outlining process yet).

Fact 2

Myers-Briggs Personality Types •
What is the MC's character like?
After taking a personality test while 'in character', I found out that Kallie is an ISTJ.
We don't have very much in common, but what we do have, is being Introverts.

All of this was helpful to me, but what does this all have to do with the theme?

To put it simply, the theme in a story is what pushes both the plot, and at least your MC, through to the end.
I had originally stated that Injustice/Justice was the theme.
That could be true in a sense, but that wasn't a strong enough theme to push through to both novels, and that theme was just strong enough to pull through one or the other book.

So, what IS my theme/s?


Let's look at Shadow Wings.
Introvert, making a rather extreme decision, in a relatively short amount of time (unless I change that, which is highly probable).
What do you think would be the theme?
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Answer: Indecisive/Decisive

Let's look at Shadow Sky.
Introvert, taking charge when, as an introvert, she normally wouldn't.
What do you think would be the theme?
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Answer: Unwilling to lead/Leading

Ha.
There you are. 
I hope that this was helpful to at least someone. 
I had never realized before how simple this could be.
Before I had gotten into so much depth into why it could be this or that theme (all of which where/are still plausible), that I was literally over thinking it.

Keep on writing!

God Bless
SDG
Joy

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