The theme of a novel is the heart of the story and will have a universal human appeal. Your theme must not only appeal to the reader, it should animate and inspire you if you are to spend so much time working with it. Examples of themes in my own books are: gratitude in Whispers in the Hearts of Men; the relationship between parents and their children in Feeling the Distance; the relationship between past and present in The Schoenbuch Forest and The Poor Singer of an Empty Day; forgiveness in Lost Property; crime, punishment, guilt and memory in Lights over Bellano. Themes are important because they not only give a book direction but they can also keep the writer from digressing too much.
Last Monday 31 August, I watched and enjoyed Man in an Orange Shirt on BBC2. The very existence of an old painting of a man in an orange shirt was enough to grab my interest and I was not disappointed. A key scene is taken from the writer’s own family history and shows how his mother found a stash of love letters in his father’s desk. Imagine her reaction when she realised they had been written not by a former girlfriend, but by the best man at her wedding. So what are the themes here? Stifled love? Marriage built on lies? Repression? Family secrets? Difficult to say at the moment because part 2 is next Monday and I can’t wait to see it! Look at the pic below, how many themes does this pic suggest to you? To me, it suggests loss and forced travel... What about you?
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