WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE: THE THIRD SPACE
How do you describe your story?
BY ALYSON HILBOURNE
You know the situation. You are in conversation with someone and let slip you are writing
a novel or short story or even a poem.
“What’s it about?” they ask.
“Well,” you say, taking a deep breath. “It’s about two brothers who grow up
separately…” and five minutes later you are still explaining the outline of your story and
your listener’s eyes have taken on a glazed expression.
This is the point at which you need to know the theme of your story. Can you sum it up
in one word? Is it a story about ‘revenge’? Does one brother have something to pay the
other brother back for?
Is it ‘jealousy’? Does one brother envy the life the other had?
Is it ‘rekindling of family ties’ (sometimes one word won’t do and you need a phrase) or
is it ‘ambition’ or ‘power’?
Knowing and being able to explain the theme of your work is valuable when you want to
sell it to an editor or agent. Whenever I submit my work to magazines, I tell the editor this
is a story about ‘love’, ‘rivalry’, ‘distrust’, or ‘loneliness’. Yes, I then have to go on to give
a brief synopsis as well, but the theme has already given the editor an idea of what sort of
story it is.
Whether you know the theme of your story before you start to write depends on your
style of working. If you are someone who al lows the characters in the book to dictate the
direction it goes in, you may not realise the theme of your work until the end.
I am far more of a plotter (and plodder) when it comes to writing. I have to plan out the
story before I go and I often choose a theme before I begin. That way I can ensure my
central character always acts in accordance with the theme. Is she looking for romance in
a love story? Does he want to kill someone if he is out for revenge?
We know, for instance, that Harry Potter will continue his struggle against Lord
Voldemort whatever the odds. As he grows older he is challenged in many ways, both as
an ordinary teenager in terms of schoolwork, friendships and romantic attachments, and
the emotional struggles of stress and worry, but these are just tests for him on his
inexorable journey to prevent the dark wizard from becoming immortal and subjugating
everyone mortal and magical to his will. It is perhaps simplistic to say the theme in the
26 | November 2016