Stephen King and Narrative Themes

A storytelling lesson from the legendary horror writer.

In his book Supergods, prolific comic book writer Grant Morrison professes his unabashed love for the wild and fantastic stories of superheroes. The wilder and more fantastic, the better. This love is clearly evident when Morrison writes superheroes like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and the X-Men, embracing their more outlandish elements and reintroducing them in a new way to build new mythologies. Conversely, many people consider legendary horror writer Stephen King a technophobe for his many stories like Christine, Maximum Overdrive, Cell and the Lawnmower Man which ask what happens when man's creations turn on him. 

What both of these storytellers have in common in this regard is that there are overarching themes that present themselves in many of their stories. You can find recurring themes in the work of many writers, whether it is Warren Ellis examining the true price of progress in his science fiction stories; or the idea of taking personal responsibility for one's screw-ups and the importance of having/being a good father, which are admittedly themes that show up in the majority of stories I write. I bet that if you take a closer look at the stories you write, you will find overarching themes of your own that creep into your stories. And I believe that knowing the themes you gravitate towards when you write can help strengthen your storytelling.

How can knowing your themes make your story better?

Knowing your own habits and tendencies as a storyteller is always beneficial for your growth and development. But aside from that, your story can directly benefit from pinpointing the themes within. These themes can be accentuated and referenced within the story to emphasize your point, and they might even spawn new subplots or character arcs once you know what your themes are and how they present themselves. You can also do the opposite and tone down the amount of story devoted to your themes if you feel they are overwhelming the core narrative you are trying to craft.

How to find your themes

If you are curious as to what your themes may be, there are a number of ways to find them. Your themes can pop up in anything from your Central plot to your characters' backstories and mannerisms, to the lore behind your settings and how you depict the environment. And often these themes will lurk deeper and have more nuance than just the plot of your story and its usual tropes. In fact, your themes can and will carry over  from story to story regardless of genre, perspective or medium.

When searching for your themes, you will want to take a comprehensive look at the stories you are trying to tell and find threads within them that run similar to each other. If you have outlines of your story plots, you can compare them side by side to see if there are any common thematic elements.

You can also do a thorough examination of your most memorable characters: their backstories, motivations, character arcs, personalities and mannerisms. You might be surprised at how similar some of your characters across disparate stories can be. It was an epiphany for me when I realized that I wrote three distinct characters in three unrelated stories that all had explosive, destructive tempers they struggled to control. So that might be a recurring theme I may end up revisiting and exploring. You might also have pet phrases, passages, metaphors and things you reference that you include in your stories without realizing it. If you find yourself quoting or referencing a certain writer's work or even certain movies or television shows, perhaps you may want to do a deep dive into why those things are significant to you. In my stories, I often mention how things play out "in the movies" in comparison to similar situations in my stories as a way to raise stakes and inform my readers that the simple, idealized solutions presented in movies might not be feasible in a more grounded narrative (i.e. assuming that someone that picks up a gun automatically knows how to shoot it accurately). 

Properly placing your themes in your stories.

Once you've figured out what your themes are, then the questions become whether to purposely include them in your story, and if so, then how. You should take a hard look at your plot and characters, and look for openings where you could incorporate your themes seamlessly. Perhaps a subplot has story beats that are compatible with your themes, or a supporting character's world view might have some details that run parallel to one of your themes. Noticing things like that present ample opportunity to install your themes into your story. On the other hand, if you want to avoid having your go-to themes appear in the story, paying attention to where your story might hint at them will show you where to make alterations.

Don't overdo it!

Now that you know what themes you gravitate towards from story to story, the temptation might be to lean into it and really try to drive those themes home in your narrative. I advise against hitting readers over the head with your themes without having some nuance. The themes should be enhancing additions to your story; you normally don't want the themes to become the actual story. And unless that is your goal, you don't want the running themes to overshadow the main story you are trying to tell. You'd run a risk of coming off as hamfisted or pushing an agenda, and it may turn off a reader that isn't receptive to your ideas.

Conclusion 

Writers almost always put pieces of themselves into the stories they create, and this most often manifests as themes. Finding your themes and figuring out how to best utilize them can be an integral part of finding your voice as a storyteller. Taking the time to find your theme will be beneficial for you in your growth as a writer, and I strongly recommend you give it a try.

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