Hi Vivienne,

That’s a valid question, and the answer is that our stories contain messages whether we intend them or not.

For example, if our characters learn about themselves (such as their false beliefs, fears, or values) or about the world, readers learn right along with them. That lesson is a theme.

In other words, themes usually aren’t–and shouldn’t be–as spoonfed as “the moral of the story is…” Instead, they exist only in the subtext, as the storytelling itself makes readers subconsciously think about things like: what to value, what to believe, what to hope for, what to aim for, what’s worth fighting for, etc.

The goal here is: As our story will include messages no matter what, we may as well make sure they’re the messages we want. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!

Hope it helps, Elias! 🙂

Awesome! You rock, Jami! I love how you are always willing to go into more detail on an aspect of a post based on conversations in the comment section–thank you!

For Marina (or anyone else interested),

I wrote a follow-up post about creating positive themes from bittersweet endings: https://jamigold.com/2018/03/creating-a-positive-theme-with-bittersweet-endings/

Hi Marina,

I think the idea that we can’t control everything is realistic. That said, if you don’t want your theme to feel like “nothing we do matters” (which IS a valid theme as well–it just might not be what you want if you like a happy-ish ending), you might be able to expand what is considered “punishment”.

For example, does the villain get kicked out of that town and have to set up shop somewhere else? Are they reduced in power because they need all new minions? Is there at least a message of “we’re keeping an eye on you, and if you cross this line, we’ll get rid of you for good”?

Any one of those (or similar) outcomes could create a sense that there were consequences for the villain’s actions. That would help make the story events feel like they matter, theme-wise.

Even in the paranormal romance I write, in half my novels, the villain isn’t explicitly killed and might come back to cause more trouble in future books. Part of how we deal with that problem is by setting up the Story Problem in Act One to be something that will be resolved by the end.

In other words, if the Story Problem we establish by the 25% mark isn’t that the villain is destroyed but that X injustice is stopped, we can make that happen by the resolution. That will be a happy ending because the Story Goal isn’t to destroy the villain but to solve X problem. Does that make sense?

(This sounds like a good idea for a blog post, so I’m happy to explain more. LOL! And thanks for the question and idea! 🙂 )