I am seeing more and more authors doing just this. You might be one of these people.
You have these "great ideas" for a story. You have scenes that are begging to be written. You have characters who are haunting you day and night (and for some of you, I am sure they are at your local grocery store shopping for gnocchi!) But every time you sit down to write, the story seems to be going all over the place. You find yourself wanting to add other scenes and characters just to make something work.
And that just makes the problem worse.
So, why is this happening? You don't have a thesis. You have no purpose for telling the story
I fully understand that many of you are thinking that a thesis is only for academic purposes, however, even in fiction writing the concept of a thesis is still important. Remember, a thesis is defined as:
Thesis is the major claim or point made by an author in a work of writing.
For fiction writing, you may not include an actual thesis statement in the writing, but you still need to identify for yourself what the point is you are trying to make with this story. This goes beyond identifying the theme of the story. You are looking for the "big take away". In other words, what is it that you want the reader to walk away with after reading your story.
Once you have identified the message you are wanting to convey to the reader, you will now be able to decide what characters you want in the story and what scenes you need to include. Remember, all of those ideas you were messing around with are not necessary once you identify the thesis.
I have talked to some authors who seem to think they can figure this out AFTER they have written their story. This is a big mistake. At this point, you are trying to force the story into something that it isn't. It would be as if you made tomato soup with basil, biscuits on the side sprinkled with cheese and claiming it is pizza. Ummmm, no!
So. before you go any further on your story, figure out that thesis! You will be much happier.
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