“And the moral of the story is….”
When you read these words at the end of one of Aesop’s fables, it feels right. In “The Fox and the Grapes,” for example, we find the tale of a hungry fox reaching for a bunch of grapes hanging high on a vine. After multiple attempts, he gives up and walks away. Then the narrator chimes in: “And the moral of this story is, ‘There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.’”
The moral of any story is its theme. Thus, like fables, well-written novels also offer their own versions of “And the moral of the story is….” But not in such an obvious way. A moral argument stated at the end of a novel becomes telling, not showing. The same applies to our use of dialogue and narrator speech elsewhere. Open and not-so-subtle statements of our story’s theme in these diminish our writing and make it average. No writer wants that.
Keep reading to discover more about theme statements and moral arguments. And how to write them and show them in your story without becoming an Aesop.
What is a Theme Statement?
A story’s theme is the moral argument tied to a protagonist and his or her pursuit of a story goal. This goal creates dilemmas for your characters. Their dilemmas provide you as a writer with opportunities to show your moral vision. But only one dilemma in your story is central. Your answer to it represents your theme, expressed in your theme statement.
A theme (or thematic) statement declares the moral argument of a story. It is a compact statement of an author’s primary message about how to act in life. It’s meant, however, for showing, not telling.
Example of a Theme Statement
Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol on December 19, 1843. Of course, everyone knows the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy and stingy miscreant confronted on Christmas Eve by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.
If we wrote a theme statement for Dickens’ story, it might look like this:
- True redemption and personal transformation come from embracing compassion, generosity, and the spirit of human connection, rather than clinging to greed and selfishness.
Fewer words are possible and perhaps just as powerful:
- An old man lives a much better life when he learns generosity and connects with others.
Theme Statement Format
Both theme statements from “A Christmas Carol” follow similar conventions you can use to write a theme for your story. The first is:
- [Core idea, value, or universal concept] comes through [actions tied to moral choices].
[True redemption and personal transformation] come from [embracing compassion, generosity, and the spirit of human connection, rather than clinging to greed and selfishness].
The second is:
- A person [benefits or suffers in some fashion] when he or she [actions tied to moral choices].
An old man [lives a much better life] when he [learns generosity and connects with others].
You can re-order the content between brackets if that works better. For example:
- [Actions tied to moral choices] results in [Experiences related to a core idea, value, or universal concept].
[Embracing compassion, generosity, and the spirit of human connection, rather than clinging to greed and selfishness,] results in [true redemption and personal transformation].
Or:
- When a person [takes actions tied to moral choices], he or she [benefits or suffers in some fashion].
When an old man [learns generosity and connects with others], he [lives a better life].
How to Write and Use a Theme Statement Tips
The process of writing a theme statement will not overwhelm you. Even if you’re a pantser, the steps I’m sharing will help you clarify the moral argument of your story. If you’re more of a plotter, like me, you’ll find these steps essential as you lay out your scenes.
Write Your Skeleton Blurb
A skeleton blurb is a sentence about your story that contains three elements: who the main character is, the main character’s story goal, and the consequences of failure.
Here’s the skeleton blurb for a children’s story I wrote ten years ago entitled The Sparrow and the Tortoise:
“A thirsty sparrow flying through the forest at the base of Mt. Fuji must undertake an arduous journey to find a different kind of water; otherwise, it might never overcome the despair of a meaningless life.”
Given this premise, I imagined the actions the sparrow will take on its journey, and the other characters it will encounter. These actions became fertile ground for the moral choices of all my characters. Moral elements exist in every relationship, whether with God, others, self, or the rest of the story world.
Decide on Your Designing Principle
A designing principle represents the strategy you plan to use for writing. Derive this from your story’s skeleton blurb. That’s how I selected the designing principle for The Sparrow and the Tortoise. I chose the metaphor of a journey.
You can also derive your designing principle from one used in another story. For instance, I mined the designing principle from the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers and used it in one of my stories. My main character aspires to a position of importance, but then falls even lower than his current situation. At the end, he rises higher than he ever thought possible.
Evaluate Your Character’s Actions
For instance, in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge acts as a stingy keeper of the coals that his clerk in the outer office might burn to stay warm. He bemoans the clerk’s request to take Christmas day off work. This, after Scrooge refuses his nephew’s kind and generous invitation to Christmas dinner.
Next came his humiliating response to the gentlemen collecting monies for the poor. With every action Scrooge took, Dickens showed the social pariah he had become, and thus his need for change and redemption.
Write Your Draft Theme
The reason this is a “draft” is because you will make adjustments in relation to the last form your story takes.
Now that you’ve written a draft of your theme, here are four questions Matt Bird recommends asking of your theme in The Secrets of Story. I’ve reworded them and improvised for clarity:
- Does a central moral conflict rise between two goods or two evils, and not between good and evil?
Think of your theme’s values as binary. For instance, when you write good vs. evil as a binary value, consider formatting it as good…/…evil or evil…/…good.
Remember to include the ellipses, because they will remind you there is a wide range of actions that stand between absolute good vs. absolute evil. They also point to where highly interesting conflicts exist, on both sides of the forward slash (/) as either good vs. good, or evil vs. evil.
In A Christmas Carol, for instance, Ebenezer Scrooge embraces prudence, thrift, and hard work. Those are virtues, of course. But Dickens pits them against compassion, generosity, and human connection.
Though these win out in Dickens’ story, we can imagine circumstances in the reverse. This is how the themes of our stories become fodder for our audiences to search their own consciences and make real-life moral decisions.
- Do the moral stakes feel authentic and relevant to the audience’s reality?
Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol during a time of vast inequality in London. Poverty, child labor, and harsh working conditions were widespread. The divide between the rich and the poor was stark. Such conditions vexed Dickens, prompting him to write A Christmas Carol.
Matt Bird writes: “You can’t count on your audience to bring their sense of morality with them, but you can count on them to bring their fears, pain, and doubts.”
- Do the actions in the story carry real consequences?
I once heard someone say, “Don’t ask about your story, What happens next? Ask instead, What does what happens next CAUSE to happen after that? When the actions of your characters have real consequences, you will find opportunities to put your theme on display. This applies especially when the consequences fall into the middle ground between two goods or two evils.
- Is the central dilemma rolled out slowly and impossible to fully resolve by the story’s end?
Readers don’t always prefer tidy endings. A bit of theme-ambiguity at the end of your story can be your friend. Besides, none of our stories will explore every circumstance where one type of good or evil is pitted against another.
- BONUS: How are you using dialogue to express your theme?
Until now, I have focused on the moral argument of your story as conveyed through the actions of your characters. What about your use of dialogue?
Avoid using exposition in dialogue to declare your story’s theme. According to Matt Bird, it is better to have a character ask a question early on that points to the theme of your story. Leave that question unanswered and let the rest of the story do its work.
According to other experts, use the dialogue of a friend or foe of your protagonist to find fault in his or her moral decisions. In Jane Austen’s Emma, Mr. Knightley, a friend of Emma, chides her, “Badly done, Emma! Badly done! What moral argument do these words express? A person enjoys authentic relationships when he or she shows empathy and treats others with respect.
Wrap Up
When honing the craft of developing and expressing themes in your stories, don’t be an Aesop and settle for “And the moral of the story is.” You can do better! Well-crafted themes will expand the influence of your moral vision. They not only will attract readers to your stories, they also will move them. The effort you invest from here in developing and expressing them will reward you!
You’ve got this!