Before you start to write your story you need to think about “What you are trying to say?” or what is the theme of your narrative. Having an entertaining/engaging story is all well and good, but without an overall message it doesn’t really go anywhere.

It is not as powerful as it could be, it is not as thought provoking as it can be, it is not as long lasting to the reader as should be.

During my bachelor’s I somehow found it difficult to grasp what a theme was. I mean how do you describe it when you don’t understand it? It wasn’t until the idea that a theme was an idea or multiple ideas that traveled through a text did it finally click! Now it made sense when a lecturer/tutor asked what are the themes of your story.

As a writer you need to ask yourself, “What do you want your readers to take away from your work?”. Is it resilience, love, friendship or perseverance? What ever it is you need to make sure that you are either shouting it loud and clear or inferring it through sneaky clever writing. You have to have a good enough grasp of words, sentence and narrative structure that you are able to communicate your idea.