Theme & Allegory

Today I wrote 5k words and thought of a name for the book, so all in all, it’s been a good and productive day. But even though I’ve already written thousands and thousands of words and my eyes long for sleep, my brain won’t shut down. So here I am, writing in a blog I half expect no one will ever read.

The title is “The Underworld Circus,” and the 5k got me to about 20% completion of the book. I’m hoping it will be long enough to be considered a proper novel and not a novella, but I suppose only time will tell on that score. Despite having a propensity for verbosity, I am a habitual underwriter. If you figure that out, please, explain it to me, because I have no clue.

I also have a tendency to start really strong with a story only to falter around 20 or 30% in. I don’t see that happening with this one. Partially because I have a solid plot as a road map, but mostly because I’m really digging the characters. There’s usually at least a spark of life in my characters, otherwise I wouldn’t bother with them, but with these characters it’s much more than a spark. It’s a full-on flame. Maybe not a roaring inferno, sure, but at the very least, a steady lit candle. And I attribute that to my newly implemented brainstorming and plotting process.

I’ve been using Milanote in conjunction with Pinterest and Reedsy, and the combination has been stellar. In addition to being a writer, I am also an artist, so adding a visual element to my brainstorming process really unleashed my creativity. It also really helped me to put actual faces to my character names and bios. They seem more real now. There’s a vitality and purpose in these characters and it’s been a wonderful experience so far.

Also, I’ve been focusing on some literary elements I never have before, including theme. I’ve never trucked with it before, thinking it was better left to bigger brains than mine. Then another author explained theme as “the truth you want to shout from the rooftops.” That really got me thinking. I have truths I want to teach people through my stories, but I never really considered that’s the whole point of theme. Kind of a “duh” moment, really, but for me, it was an epiphany. So my book has a theme. The whole thing is actually an allegory, which I’ve never written before, and I’m quite pleased with so far. I have a feeling it’s going to be a good story, and that feels pretty damn great.

But, that’s all I have for ramblings right now. See you in the next one!