Thoughts about Writing a Novel - Theme

   

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 The theme of a novel is different to the plot. It is the subject. The plot is action, it shows the reader what happens and answers the questions, Who, What, When, Where and How. The theme is often abstract and drives the plot forward. It might focus on the cause of conflict or a main character’s goals. An effective theme should not overpower the plot. It should be used as a background - the characters’ experience, the author’s individual style and word pictures which tie theme and plot together. The beginning of the novel should indicate the theme.

Some themes can be applied to any time and at any place e.g. conflict between family members, others are specific such as an event that could only take place in a country during a particular time, for example, the London Blitz in the 2^nd World War or an issue such as women’s suffrage. Religious intolerance or another form of intolerance also provide strong themes.

Emotion is a thread which can run through a novel and be employed as a theme that creates conflict, for example, any one of the following, fear, greed, hatred, jealousy, loneliness, love, revenge.

Some authors choose explicit sex as a theme but, although my novels are sensual, it is not one of my chosen ones.

Three of my novels set in the Regency era, heroines born on different days of the week, have been published, the fourth, Wednesday’s Child will be published before the end of 2017 and I am now writing Thursday’s Child.

After I wrote Sunday’s Child, I decided to write six more novels with titles taken from the children’s poem.

Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s Child has far to go, Friday’s Child is loving and giving, Saturday’s Child works hard for a living, And the child that is born on the Sabbath day, is loving and blithe, good and gay.

Themes in my Regency novels

Sunday’s Child Post-traumatic stress syndrome. (At a time when this condition was not recognised.) Monday’s Child The tension in Brussels during the 100 days after Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba and the Battle of Waterloo Tuesday’s Child Divisions between upper, middle and lower classes of society. Wednesday’s Child Coming to terms with death. Thursday’s Child Disinclination to marry in an age when young ladies were expected to make a good match. False Pretences (A Regency Romance). A Search.

Themes in my Early 18^th Century novels

Tangled Love Revenge, Far Beyond Rubies Greed, The Captain and The Countess Injustice.

Theme in my Mediaeval Novel

Yvonne Lady of Cassio. The Lovages of Cassio Book One Relationships

The themes in my romantic historical fact fiction are ones with which modern day readers can identify with. In Tuesday’s Child, the tension mounts as a mother struggles to retain full custody of her child.

Tuesday’s Child - Extract

Harriet looked out of the drawing room window in Clarencieux Abbey – all stone carving, arched windows and hideous gargoyles - now transformed by her father-in-law into a fashionable gothic mansion. On any other occasion, the view would have delighted her. Beneath a cloudless, azure blue sky, from which the sun poured its welcome warmth, the recently scythed lawn stretched down to the still surface of the large man-made lake fringed by graceful weeping willows on its farthest bank.

Alarmed, she watched the Earl of Pennington, who rode a sleek gelding, and her four-year-old son, seated straight-backed on Prince, his strong Exmoor pony, which he doted on. Compared to the eighteen-hand dun with black points his grandfather rode, George looked frighteningly small and vulnerable.

No matter how often the earl assured her well-schooled Prince made an excellent riding pony for a young boy, Harriet could not control her fear of an accident.

Moreover, throughout the last year her resentment of the earl’s high-handedness over his grandson’s upbringing, and his total disregard of her wishes concerning it, had swelled to the point of bitterness. Her jaw tightened when she remembered one of his most unwelcome dictates.

“My child,” his lordship had commenced, shortly after she took up residence with him, “in future, my grandson shall be known by his second name, Arthur

Review

And, for Harriet Stanton, she is grace under pressure. Left widowed during the Napoleon War, which also killed her father, the destitute heroine turns to Georgianne Tarrant for help. Georgianne introduces her to her late husband’s father, the obnoxious Earl of Pennington, who accepts this “mere baronet’s daughter” into his home. His action is far from altruistic for Harriet brings him a precious gift—her son, Arthur. The child gives the old Earl the heir he desires to replaces the detested distant kinsman who currently fills that role. Morris’s knack of creating realistic characters, both likeable and not so much, is again in the forefront of the story. Her heroine is not a member of the haute ton and the hero who is, has a surprising occupation. This third book in the Heroines Born on Different Days of the Week series is the latest in an engaging set of tales that provides readers with an intriguing glimpse into the lives of people with whom they can identify. Even the time-honoured plot of the lost heir has a surprising twist. I highly recommend the book for those of us who need to escape our 21st century lives and catch another peek of a fascinating period of history.

Robbi Perna, PhD – Author and Lecturer.