Main and other topics

[Article originally published in Italian. English translation made by Tobi, with the additional revision of JoSeBach.]

When you write a book, a good strategy is to use the main topic’s strategy (it’s not mandatory, use it only if you are comfortable with it), a.k.a the grand topic of the novel. You should summarize it in a few words and if you can in just one word it’s even better.

But this strategy may seem forced and many newbie writers find challenging to identify a common topic between the characters of the novels they enjoy and they end up find the topics of the single characters instead. This point of view isn’t necessarily wrong, though.

The methods to identify the main topics are:

Neat:

• think about the main theme, something you care about, if possible
• choose the setting, something that makes the theme easier to face for you (e.g.: if the topic is the diversity, choose a multi-ethnic/multi-cultural setting)
• characterize the characters and give a narrative arc to the main ones (the characterization must be aligned with the macrotheme)
• come up with an ending that sticks with it
• revise infinite times
• make sure everything isright

Chaotic:

• choose the setting and look for ideas (eg: a fantasy Middle Age with witch hunts? A nipponicsociety with the oblige to obey?)
• characterize the characters and give them proper narrative arcs
• see where the story brings you (as is often said:“a good book writes itself”)
• revise many times
• choose the macrotheme
• make sure everything is neat and coerent

If you don’t like the macrotheme, keep calm: you just have to choose a different writing style. Always keep in mind that every character needs to have their own theme and defeat their “fatal flaw” or their internal flaw that don’t allow them to reach their final target. If the novel is divided in various parts, they also can correct other flaws.

A useful instrument to make the topic analysis more interesting is the balance. I’ll explain it by making an example about the Worldwar series.

In this bookseries the Earth, during WWII, is invaded by a race of anthropoid reptiles, like reptilians that, for various reasons, evolve much slower than the other species that live on Earth. Their species basically doesn’t evolve in a thousand years.

Although initially this situation seems favorable to humans, the story shows us both sides.

• aliens evolve very slowly because they think about the consequences of all changes and they are mentally stuck to the PAST, which gives them safety and a good plan for all the possible situations. They are scared of sudden changes, but their empire is stable since hundreds of thousands of years.
• humans evolve a lot faster, but some innovations (like the use of the nuclear bomb without any precaution) can be harmful. This proves that any change should happen within certain conditions (humans constantly make mistakes because they don’t think carefully about the consequences of their actions).
• humans corner the aliens with techniques that are new tothe latter.
• the introduction of ginger (that is like a drug to the reptilians that causes them euphoria and changes their entire society altogether by making them discover love) is an innovation.
• at the end of the story I already know that humans will win thank to some revolutionary invention that will not bring other wars but will end them.

So:

-main topic: innovation

-summary sentence: innovations bring great things but you have to think about consequences

-characters’ fatal flaw: about adaptability to innovations and the correct way to bring it (e.g. a hastyscientist makes a huge mistake and ends up killing other scientists).

I’ll use again this book to make other examples, so I hope that you find it interesting!

I’ll make another example: Lorax’s story.

In this story, a traveler goes in a big forest full of trees which can produce a really high-quality cloth. He thenstartscutting down the trees and, even though he promised to himself to don’t cut down too many of them, he brings his family there and gradually expands more.

Here, the theme isn’t just about pollutionneither environment exploitation. Some sentences, like “to live in the past”, suggest that the real theme is progress instead.

This can be seen from the sentence at 10:03, “I think the progress progressed too fast” because nature cannot adapt to such rapid innovations. 

Insane progress changes the resources exploitation but isn’t accompanied by other innovations that could help in making the exploiting sustainable.

At 17:10, the main character loses against his fatal flaw: “If I hadn’t done these things then someone else would have”. He thinks that progress is inevitable, like a wave that you can either watch from the distance, ride… or being drowned by. After he lies to himself, the exploitation completely destroys all the environment, cutting down every single tree that was there. Because of this, the city that was built there depopulates completely. All the progress was temporary, but pollution wasn’t.

He isn’t driven only by money or else he would’ve said “money is more important”; believing that progress is unavoidable gives him a multifaceted characterization.

Progress also brought positive innovations and gave a workplace to many people.

The main character has another chance to stop himself. 20:55 “You speak for the trees, I speak for men” It’s true that he’s driven by his ambition but he uses society and progress to justify his actions.

From this reason we can conclude that progress itself isn’t a bad thing, but it is when it cannot be controlled anymore.

To sum it up:

main topic: progress.

sum-up sentence: progress brings to terrible consequences if not controlled properly.

main character’s fatal flaw: believing that progress is unavoidable and taking advantage of that.

I suggest that you take a book you like, even short (perfect for practice), and focus on important scenes or sentences from which you can extract other main topics, see how they were handled, etc.

If you feel uncomfortable with this method, I’ll say it again: these tips are useful to help you find your own writing style so feel free to try and use other methods as well!

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