How to Write a Meaningful Novel?

An enthusiastic novel writer posted a question on Facebook she wishes to see discussed.

“Many suggest knowing your theme and premise before writing the book as they serve as a light along the journey–but sometimes I feel the theme and premise won’t be clear until I finish the first draft. What are your thoughts?”

Writing a meaningful novel and novels with meaning mean exploring what your story is truly about, what all the scenes add up to and probing for reasons why you’re driven to devote so much of your time and emotion. Where meaning reveals itself in your story offers clues about your story’s thematic significance, concept and premise and how to write a meaningful novel.

Thematic Abstractions

Themes convey abstract universal ideas. Rather than concrete, specific objects, courage and compassion are thematic abstractions. Yet you know when someone demonstrates a courageous and compassionate deed. You can’t touch loyalty or betrayal. Yet you can physically feel the sting of betrayal as well as the safety when someone has your back.

A solid grasp of your story themes makes you better able to express the abstraction through concrete actions and in choosing sensory details. Better is when you’re able to pare away everything that is superficial to the deeper meaning of the story enough so that the reader knows and understands the story clearly. Best is when a reader’s grasp of the story allows her to extend the thematic meaning to her own personal world.

Today, more than ever, all of us are being called as world servers, to write and live consciously with intent and integrity. We’re all receptive to meaning in our search for insight. Action for action’s sake is mindless, uninspired and uninspiring. A character bouncing from one thing to the next with no sense of unity or purpose perpetuates unconsciousness, senselessness and helplessness.

It is never too early in the process of writing a novel, memoir screenplay with a plot from beginning to end to begin asking yourself what am I trying to say? Better yet, to ask yourself what is my story attempting to say, to convey, to reveal emotionally, spiritually, intellectually to you, the author, and you, the reader?

Keep notes
Make a list of themes that come up in your story
Prioritize them
Mark the ones that travel from the beginning to the end of the story
Look there for the deeper meaning.
What is your story saying specifically about those themes?

***For more help and in-depth discussion about How to Write a meaningful novel:

The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master and companion Workbook offer specific exercises to help you uncover your themes and unlock the story’s thematic significance.

Writing Deep Scenes: Plotting Your Novel through Action, Emotion and Theme has theme sections throughout the book with lots of examples how to bestselling and Pulitzer Prize winning stories use concrete details to convey meaning.

My newest book, Writing Blockbuster Plots: Step by Step Guide to Mastering Plot, Structure and Scenes incorporates thematic significance as one of the 3 primary plot lines in every great story with examples and support how to plot theme at the overall story level and track theme elements in every single scene.