how to turn vibes into a cohesive story (write with theme)
If you want your story to actually live in your reader’s brains rent free, you might have to ask yourself a few questions and figure out what it’s about on the most fundamental level.
How would you explain what your story is about without relying on “x happens, and then character does y” or resorting to a series of tropes? What is the heart of the story? What central idea (it doesn’t have to be just one) are you trying to explore through your writing?
There doesn’t have to be an obvious message or allegory (nobody likes being preached to)
If you think about this for a while, you might come up with a few answers that sort of suffice. Maybe it’s a story about a man on a quest for revenge. Maybe it’s a story about love, or grief. This is a great starting point, but getting specific about it is what will really help guide your writing.
Instead of just revenge, perhaps you’re writing about the lengths one might go to to justify a personal vendetta. What happens when you become a bigger monster than the one you set out to vanquish?
If you’re writing about love, maybe it’s about how it isn’t about finding the right person, but about becoming someone capable of sustaining love. Or explore how sacrifice in love can get warped and turn controlling. How one might build a cage for oneself.
If you’re writing about found family, then you might explore how fitting in often requires abandoning something essential, or the choice between conditional belonging and honest isolation.
When your theme is clear (even if it’s only clear to you), it becomes a filter for every choice in the story. Not in a rigid, preachy way, but in a way that creates cohesion. The goal is to never state the theme outright but interrogate the idea from multiple angles. Your characters, plot, and even setting all work together in service of this idea.
So how do you figure out what your theme is? As I said, it’s common to explore different ideas, and your story might have multiple themes. The goal is to distill abstract/theme ideas into story questions. Asking yourself these questions and being intentional about them will ensure that they complement each other.
1. Start with your protagonist
What belief(s) do they start with, either true or false, and how will it change by the end of the story? What do they believe that might be either wrong or incomplete?
What do they really want, and why? Why might this not be good for them?
What do they refuse to change their mind about, or what are they in denial about?
2. Next, find the tension/thematic conflict
A great way to do this is to focus on two paths the protagonist might take (either literal, or metaphorical)
What two ideas are in opposition in this story?
What is the “cost” of each choice?
If your protagonist is right, what’s the downside?
If they’re wrong, why is it so tempting to believe it anyway?
Go through your story scene by scene and try to figure out how each scene serves your story’s central idea. It doesn’t have to be every single moment, but it’s helpful to train yourself to think in this way.
Which scenes feel emotionally charged? Why?
Where does your protagonist make a choice that feels uncomfortable or costly?
4. What about the secondary characters?
How does each character provide a different perspective to this theme/idea?
Who pays the price for their choices, and how? Who wins?
5. Once you understand what your story is about more clearly, let’s refine that idea further.
Try and phrase it as a question, so you find yourself trying to answer it with your writing.
Instead of “love is complicated” try “is love enough to sustain a relationship when trust is broken?” Be hyper specific, that is the soul of your story!
Can this question be answered in different ways?
6. Use this structure to get you going:
Is it possible to ___ without ___?
(example: is it possible to tell the truth without hurting the people you care about?)
How much should someone sacrifice for ___?
(example: how much should someone sacrifice for family when that family keeps hurting them?)
At what point does ___ become ___?
(example: at what point does loyalty become complicity?)
Can you ___ if you’ve already ___?
(example: can you start over if your past keeps defining how others see you?)
Do people deserve ___ after ___?
(example: do people deserve redemption if they don’t ask for it, even if they feel the guilt?)
There you go! That question is your spine. If you’re writing the story for the first time, let it guide you. If you’ve already written it, let that question influence how you edit. <3
