my theme and me

ieva — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:51:32 +0000

As I was pondering on the real theme of Vega, I realized that the thing I sort of “prove” in the novel, it’s theme/morality is something that I disagree with.
That’s it.
“It is worth it to fool yourself in order to follow your dream.”
“The best you can ever do is be yourself, never more.”
“You have to live the life you were born into, nothing else.”
“If you can’t live as who you are, giving up is fine.”
Yea sure. If somebody said something like this to me, I’d respond rather violently. Or with a condescending sneer if he said something like that about himself.
But that’s the idea in my (revised and approaching-revision) stories. (Funny that I can’t really pinpoint the theme in the stories that haven’t been edited even if they’re finished.)

I’m thinking that maybe I need a theme that is at odds with my convictions and my philosophy as it is, basically because this way, the story keeps nagging at me throughout the editing process and after; I have a feeling that it makes people think (even if it’s just me) and thus that it’s worth reading.

The result is that I disagree with everything I’m writing while I’m writing it, and if there are ever antagonists, they support a philosophy much closer to my own.

the changeling

ieva — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:21:58 +0000

1163 words written in the local bar, and apparently we have a changeling in the scene.
Oh well.
At least she’s not the changeling-that-is-in-fact-shapeshifter.

I was thinking about the theme of my work today. Actually, I was thinking about my mortality, and how everything I write is, in fact, redacted from my life and so I’d want to write something that *matters* while I exist. However:
1) the thing I write now is, on surface (and, as far as I’m concerned, plot- and character wise), a simple, almost simplistic “fantasy”, not The Next Great Novel,
2) it contains a theme that resonates deeply within me, the “OMG how very dangerous *any* emotional commitment is” theme, and on this theme I would want to write The Next Great Novel.

And I realized that the only way for me to get to the Theme is through the story that perhaps isn’t all that remarkable. But see, my changeling emerged not because I thought “oh I need a changeling to expose another facet of my Theme” but because “oh crap the story is getting boring and I hate writing boring even if I can stuff all kinds of clever words there, so let’s throw a child there, in that cave, and see what they say”.

ieva melgalve » theme

my theme and me

the changeling