How To Tell A Great Story

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30 themes you can use to tell your great story.

[Adapted from the e-book How To Tell A Great Story (7^th Edition)]

The thing is this: you have a rough idea for a story you’d like to tell. You love this rough idea and you’ve, no doubt, got all the characters listed down and the place where your story is going to be set. You’ve even jotted down the exact time-frame for your story. Only, there’s no central theme and for the life of you, the words to create that theme just do not flow. You know that you cannot get start telling your story unless your theme has been worked out. Take heart. Sometimes, even the best of writers just can’t get the theme of their tale put into words. Nevertheless, they work at it and in the aim of this piece is to assist you by suggesting thirty different themes you can use to tell your great story.

Love conquers all.
Evil lurks where we least expect it.
No one is beyond redemption.
Power corrupts even a Saint.
Stolen money can only bring misery.
The end never justifies the means.
Gender stereotypes in Fairy tales.
Fairy tales never come true.
It is impossible for men and women to be friends.
Dreams always come true.
Opportunity seldom knocks twice
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction
Every law has a loophole
All good things must come to an end
You cannot please everyone
Nothing is so certain as death/
Two’s a company, three’s a crowd
It’s a small world
Where there’s a will, there’s always a way.
The Mystery of Death
The decline of the American Dream
The blessings of having a family.
The evils of racism and slavery
The hypocrisy of a ‘civilised’ nation
Pride comes before a fall
Honesty is the best policy
Wealth spoils the character
Spare the rod and spoil the child
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
One man’s food is another man’s poison

That should get you started on your story. Good luck.

Aneeta Sundararaj is the editor-in-chief of ‘How To Tell A Great Story’ (www.howtotellagreatstory.com). She has written for many online resources and manages to popular ezine, Great StoryTelling Network!. If you would like to know more about how themes are the universal and fundamental ideas explored in any story, you can find out more by visiting her site, http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com

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