Writing From Theme and What It Really Means

 Have you ever heard of writing from theme?

Theme is the part of your story (or novel) that has an overall message. 

Some people get confused between topic/subject and theme.

Topic/subject is what your story is about (freedom), your theme is the message you want to deliver to your readers (freedom is an illusion). Or it could be a story about a haunted house (ghosts) and your theme is that ghosts don't exist, and your story is how you prove your theme, without actually stating it.

There are many ways to deliver a theme through your characters, symbolism, environments, character interactions with others, and many more ways besides.

But either way, as we all know, by the end of the story there must be change for your main character, either emotionally, psychologically or physically.

As the writer, your job is to demonstrate your theme to the reader throughout your character's journey through your story.

If you want to understand writing from theme more, and how to use it, I've written an article about it and you can read it at:

https://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2020/Writing-From-Theme.html

Why I Don’t Enter Writing Competitions

It can be every writer’s dream to win a writing competition and I even know one writer who once won an insignificant competition and then called herself “an award winning writer.” Haha.

Don’t get me wrong, winning a writing competition, or any competition, is a great feeling, and even when I’ve won something really small, I’m still happy to have won.

The problem with most writing competitions though, is that they cost money to enter, and I’ve known writers who spend hundreds every year to enter these comps without winning a thing or even getting on the short list.

And it can be demoralising.

The trouble is, you see, that there are usually thousands of entrants so chances of winning are slim, plus it depends who the judges are and their reading preference.

So this is why I don’t enter writing competitions. 

I’d rather use the money to buy a lottery ticket then at least if I don’t win, it’s just the luck of the draw and not because someone who’s probably never even been a writer or has never achieved anything great from their writing, has judged my work as not good enough in their opinion.

I do, however, love submitting work to paying markets because it’s free, I get paid if accepted, and rejections simply mean it wasn’t right for the market (which I’ve sometimes been told).

AND I’m free to submit my work elsewhere. Which I usually do.

But you do what’s best for you.

Living The Laptop Lifestyle
How To Start & Grow A Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job
https://ruthiswriting.com/books/LLS.html

It’s a Facebooking Time Suck

It’s funny how smart phones can be a waste of time (because of all our time that they waste) yet we daren’t go anywhere without one.

But having a phone always to hand doesn’t mean that we have to use it all the time or have notifications turned on so that every ding or other noise disrupts us.

Likewise, Facebook is a waste of time and it’s mostly anti-social which is the complete opposite of what it’s supposed to be so it can be a dark and depressing place to be - it was for me. And I have it on good authority that these days teenagers prefer Instagram because it’s a much happier place to be.

A couple of years ago, I closed my Facebook account that I’d had for only 3 years, but I’d had enough of just how really sh*tty people could be to each other, and it’s not something that I want to waste my time on.

At first I thought I’d miss it and miss out on keeping up with family and local gossip. But instead, I wish I’d closed it sooner because I had no idea how much time I wasted on it (sometimes I thought it was only minutes but it was actually up to an hour), not to mention the peace of mind it gave me once I no longer had Facebook on my phone or computer.

It was like my mind and my life had been set free. I’d never realised how depressing all the Facebook dramas could be. And it was usually the men who were the most bitchy.

But with my attention free, I had more ideas, wrote more, had more leisure time, and used my new-found time to study marketing which helped improve my book sales.

The problem with getting sucked into the vortex of anti-social media, is that it drags you down, and keeps you away from things that are actually important.

Spending time on Facebook made me forget my real mission in life, but now I’m back on track and loving it.

Mission Critical For Life
Start Living Life On Your Terms By Pursuing Your True Life Mission
https://ruthiswriting.com/books/MCFL.html

Write More While Getting Other Things Done

It’s common to think that you don’t have time to write if you have a lot of other things to do every day. Yet this is how bloggers earn their money from writing while being busy doing other things.

The way they do it is by writing about what they do. And it can be just about anything:

• Exercising 
• Cooking
• Gardening
• Parenting 
• Saving money
• Knitting
• Woodwork
• Reading books
• Your life in general

And there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of things you do in a day that you could write about on a blog, that can be done simply as an online diary or journal. I know of one blogger who blogs daily about how she lives a sedentary life and spends little money.

When you blog about what you do, not only is it a way to earn money, but it also makes you do more so that you have something to write about.

Not only that, but it makes you look at what you do in a different way, more deeply, because you have to have a good understanding of what you do so that you can explain it to other people. You need to tell them not only what you did, but why.

Why did you plant that so deep? Why did you add that herb to your cooking? Why did you use that tool? Why didn’t you like that book?

Blogging about something that you enjoy doing, not only helps you to do more, but can earn you money.

Living The Laptop Lifestyle

How To Start & Grow A Profitable Online Business So You Can Quit Your Job

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/LLS.html