A Philosophical Question

I've been wondering... Let's say you have your story together. It's a good story. It has a well-constructed plot, interesting characters that grow and learn and face exciting challenges, strong pacing, conflict, all of that. And let's say it's well-written (or staged, or presented, whatever). The words flow easily and are evocative and concise. A good story. A story well told.

Is that enough?

And those three words lead to two more questions. Enough for what? And, What else is there?

You could ask if it is enough to please a reader or enough to get published. And I would answer "maybe, possibly" to both. But what I'm really asking is whether the work is done. Whether it is the quality bit of whatever that you first set out to write. Or does it still feel like something is missing? Like it doesn't quite add up. Like it doesn't say what you set out to say.

All of which brings us back to the other question. What else is there?

I guess the word I'm grasping for is theme. Beyond the plot and action of the characters, is the story actually about anything? Or is it just an entertaining series of events?

Taken together, my Witch Seasons novels are about the responsibility of power. I don't know if that is because I wrote them in a time when I wasn't terribly happy with the national government -- they don't contain any anti-government sentiment at all -- but the theme was clearly important enough for me to explore over four books. So I hope it resonates with the reader as well.

This whole post may be based on a false premise. If you have written a well-crafted story, one with character and plot and conflict and everything else, it probably already has a theme. I say that because you, the writer, probably had something you wanted to express or you'd never have gotten to that point.

And even if all you wanted to do was tell a story, the kind of story you like, the kind you want to share and see more of -- well, the reader is probably still going to find a theme. Because the reader is still going to ask: What is this story about? And because humans have a knack for finding patterns in things.

My real point is that you might want to think of these things first. Ask yourself what you are saying when you write your next scene. Ask what ideas tie your story together. After all, it's going to be your story, with your name on it. So what do you want it to say?