THEMES IN NOVELS (In which Bad Girl discovers she's not as flaky as she thought...)

by Melodie Campbell

One of the great discussions in the author world is whether your book should have a theme or not. Of course it’s going to have a plot. (Protagonist with a problem or goal and obstacles to that goal – real obstacles that matter - which are resolved by the end.) But does a book always have a theme?

Usually when we’re talking ‘theme’, we’re putting the story into a more serious category. Margaret Atwood (another Canadian – smile) tells a ripping good story in The Handmaid’s Tale. But readers would agree there is a serious theme underlying it, a warning, in effect.

Now, I write comedies. Crime heists and romantic comedies, most recently. They are meant to be fun and entertaining. So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered recently that all of my books have rather serious themes behind them.

Last Friday, I was interviewed for a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) mini-documentary featuring female Canadian crime writers. During this, the producer got me talking about the background to my most awarded series, The Goddaughter. This crime caper series is about a mob goddaughter who doesn’t want to be one, but keeps getting dragged back to bail out her inept mob family.

I know what it’s like to be a part of an Italian family that may have had ties to the mob. (In the past. My generation is squeaky clean.) The producer asked me If that informed my writing. Of course it did. But in our discussion, she stopped me when I said: “You are supposed to love and support your family. But what if your family is *this* one?”

Voila. There it was: a theme. All throughout the Goddaughter series, Gina Gallo grapples with this internal struggle.

So then I decided to look at my other books. The B-team is a spin-off from The Goddaughter series. It’s a funny take on The A-team television series. A group of well-meaning vigilantes set out to do good, but as this is comedy, things go awry. In fact, the tag-line is: “They do wrong for all the right reasons…and sometimes it even works.”

Was there a theme behind this premise? Was there a *question asked*? And yes, to me, it was clear.

In The B-Team, I play with the concept: Is it ever all right to do illegal things to right a wrong?

Back up to the beginning. My first series was fantasy. Humorous fantasy, of course. Rowena Through the Wall basically is a spoof of Outlander type books. Rowena falls through a portal into a dark ages world, and has wild and funny adventures. I wrote it strictly to entertain…didn’t I? And yet, the plot revolves around the fact that women are scarce in this time. They’ve been killed off by war. I got the idea from countries where women were scarce due to one-child policies. So what would happen…I mused…if women were scarce? Would they have more power in their communities? Or would the opposite happen. Would they have even less control of their destinies, as I posited?

A very strong, serious theme underlying a noted “hilarious” book. Most readers would never notice it. But some do, and have commented. That gets this old gal very excited.

I’ve come to the conclusion that writers – even comedy writers – strive to say something about our world. Yes, I write to entertain. But the life questions I grapple with find their way into my novels, by way of underlying themes. I’m not into preaching. That’s for non-fiction. But If I work them in well, a reader may not notice there is an author viewpoint behind the work.

Yes, I write to entertain. But I’ve come to the conclusion that behind every novel is an author with something to say. Apparently, I’m not as flaky as I thought.

What about you? Do you look for a theme in novels? Or if a writer, do you find your work conforms to specific themes?

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Got teen readers in your family? Here's the latest crime comedy, out this month:

On AMAZON

WHY WRITERS DRINK

Below are the 8 stages of birthing a novel, and why fiction writers drink.

 THE STAGE OF:

1  JOY – You are finished your manuscript.  Damn, it’s good!  The best thing you’ve written, and it’s ALL DONE!  Time to open the Glenlivet.

2.  ANGST -  You submit manuscript to your publisher.  Yes, even though they’ve already published 5 of your novels, you still don’t know if they will publish this one.  Will they like it?  Is it as funny as you think it is?  Is it garbage?  Glenlivet is required to get through the next few days/weeks.

3.  RELIEF - They send you a contract – YAY!  You are not a has-been!  Your baby, which was a year in the making (not merely 9 months) will have a life!

Glenlivet is required to celebrate.

4.  ASTONISHMENT – The first round of edits come back.  What do they mean, you have substantive changes to make?  That story was PERFECT, dammit!  This is the 15^th draft, not the 1^st.  Commiserate with other writers over Glenlivet at the Drake. 

5.  CRIPPLING SELF-DOUBT – The changes they require are impossible.  You’ll never be able to keep it funny/full of high tension, by taking out or changing that scene.  What about the integrity?  Motivation? And what’s so darn bad about being ‘too slapstick,’ anyway?  This is comedy! 

Can’t sleep.  Look for Glenlivet.

6.  ACCEPTANCE – Okay, you’re rewriting, and somehow it’s working.  Figured out how to work around their concerns.  New scene is not bad.  Not as good as the original, of course (why couldn’t they see that) but still a good scene.  Phew.  You’re still a professional. 

Professionals drink Glenlivet, right?

 7.  JOY – They accept all your changes!  YAY!  You love your publisher.  All systems go. This baby will have a life. 

Celebrate the pending birth with a wee dram of Glenlivet.

 8.  ANGST -  Are they kidding?  THAT’S the cover? 

WHY IT IS HARD TO GET PUBLISHED

Taking a break from the usual comedy to address a hot topic in my fiction writing classes:

Why it is hard to get published:

I have over 200 publications and won my first fiction award in 1989. In the years since, I’ve talked to several dozen editors. Here are some things they have said:

   
    1.  Your story must be original.

By that I mean, it must be a new fresh idea that publishers haven’t seen before.

This is tougher than you think. I have taught over 30 fiction writing classes since 1992. In almost every class, I have someone writing the ‘harvesting organs’ story. This has been done, I tell them. Every angle has been done, in my experience. I never want to see another one.

         2.  Your story must be extremely well written.

Let’s go beyond the spelling and good grammar. You better know how to open, how to conclude, how to generate conflict (goal/motivation/conflict) and all the other aspects of fiction writing that you learn in a good fiction writing class.  Yes, you had better take a class if you haven’t, otherwise you won’t know what is expected. 
 

      3.  Your story must be what the editor wants to buy.

Two things here:

a-     If your work is a short story, you must make sure that it is the right length and the right genre/subgenre for the market to which you are submitting.  Check their guidelines. Don’t send anything that doesn’t fit! They won’t take it.

b-     If your work is a novel, ditto about checking guidelines. Don’t send anything that the publisher doesn’t publish. They will not open a new line for your debut book.

4.  Your book must fit a hole in the publisher’s lineup.

Yes, this is the sad part. Your novel may be great. But if the publisher doesn’t have a space for it in his Fall 2015 release, he won’t buy.

Most publishers know two years in advance what they will need. So that brings me to point 5. 

5.  You are competing with currently published authors in the publisher’s stable.

Another sad fact.  Most of us published authors hope to have a book out every year or year and a half. We can easily fill our publisher’s slots. So there may not be many spaces for newcomers.

You have to look at it from the publisher’s point of view. In taking a book from an author they currently publish, they are assured of a few things:

a-     The author will make their due dates, and will be professional with respect to required edits.

b-     The author (probably) has a built in group of readers waiting for the next book.

Imagine how good your book is going to have to be to overcome these advantages.

Yet, many new authors get published every year. I’ll talk about that in a later blog.