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@sarah-inkdragon I am so sorry. I apologize for that closed tab and all the work you put into making a nice long reply, only to have it vanish from before your eyes… I understand your pain on such a deep level. XD

Oi! Oi! I love what you have to say! I’m glad to see that you’ve thought about theme so much in your stories. That’s great to see. (Side note: if you’re looking for another fictional book that deals with the theme of what true love is and isn’t, I highly recommend Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis. It’s an excellent treatment of that theme (and many other great themes, as well). And it’s just one of my favorite books, anyway… XD )

I am fascinated by your symbolism and how thoroughly your themes seem to impact your stories. It’s something that I hope to do with all of my stuff as well.

Just to dig a little further, how exactly does Kirin’s backstory as an escaped slave tie into his personal arc of coming from greed to selflessness? What is the thematic significance of having been a slave, or at least starting out from that point?

@princess-foo That’s a really good example of how the backstory could tie in directly to the theme of the story (if you did either racism or forgiveness, or both!). Also very, very sad. I mean, even if it was her adoptive father and not biological, seeing him get killed right in front of you would be extremely traumatic…

This is a good example of how good storytelling almost automatically includes themes. A lot of times we won’t even be doing it intentionally. But what’s important is that we do think about it at some point throughout the creative process. And once we’ve identified themes, we should think deeply about ways that we can accentuate and bring out those latent themes even further.

There’s always the danger of hitting people over the head with a theme, so I should put that word of caution in here as well: Don’t preach if you’re trying to tell a story.

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Anyone else have thoughts to add? Questions? Requests?