Back to Basics: Purpose & Theme

The more I look around the more I realize: everyone has something to say, and something they believe they have to do. In fact I would argue that we all strive to have a purpose one way or another: a grand meaning for which we lead our lives. We’re all living on a giant hunk of spinning rock after all, so why not make the most out of that, right? Nothing’s ever just what it seems, and if it was, well, life would be kind of boring. You can apply that same idea to stories, too. The words on a page aren’t meant to only be taken literally; there’s often a deeper meaning hiding behind them. Let’s unpack all of those little nuances. 

In this Back to Basics course, we’ll talk about an author’s purpose (and also about theme).

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What is the author’s purpose?

Before defining terms, I should preface that an author’s purpose is equally rooted in nonfiction too, so we’ll discuss that context first before we look at it through the lens of fiction. In nonfiction or academic writing, an author’s purpose is typically to inform or convince a reader of something. You do this by using informative or persuasive writing. If you’ve ever had to write essays you’ve probably written both informative and persuasive essays. When your purpose is to be informative, you highlight facts and statistics, and look at things through a very objective manner. If you’re being persuasive, you convince someone of a viewpoint by appealing to a reader's emotions.

But what about the author’s purpose in fiction? That’s a lot more intriguing. An author’s purpose in stories is all about what ideas the author is trying to communicate through their writing. This is authorial intent. Sounds fancy, but all that really means is the author wants to convey a message and they will go to great lengths throughout their story to make their point.

For example:

I'm taking a few liberties here but it’s safe to say that one intention of George Orwell’s 1984 was to show how much harm a world run by mass surveillance and fear-mongering could cause. Orwell's purpose (or, message) was to warn us about the dangers of restrictive governments and the subsequent consequences of oppressive regimes if they had power to spy on everyone and control every facet of information. 

This can sound a little intense in a beginner-friendly course, but if you get excited about breaking down parts of the story then congratulations, you’re in the right place. But how exactly did Orwell communicate this idea in the story? He didn't just write “I freaking hate totalitarianism” for three hundred pages. Well, that’s where the next part comes into play, with a little something called theme.

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What is theme?

Themes are the crux of a story. Throughout these Back to Basics courses, I talk a lot about how writers want to say something, and if the author’s purpose is what they really want to say, using themes is how they convey that message. A theme is an underlying idea: an intricate understanding of something that’s shown through the events of a story. Themes are naturally complex, and it can be really difficult trying to figure out how to handle them. While this B2B isn’t entirely about themes, we’ll talk about them just enough to help you understand the concept as a whole. Let’s do some brainstorming, and this time we don’t need to go back to George Orwell for it.

Let’s say that you went a little overboard in Vegas (trust me, I’m going somewhere with this) and you lost a lot money. To cope with fumbling your parlay, let’s say you now want to bury yourself in your words and write a story about how greed is bad. Showing how greed is bad would be your author’s purpose. But you don’t want to type “greed is bad” for three hundred pages. So what a theme does here is take your purpose and sharpen it into a much finer point. A theme revolving around greed could be that the excessive pursuit of wealth through gambling will ultimately result in you losing everything. You can show how this is real through a specific character, like a scheming criminal who, over the course of the story, keeps going for extravagant and expensive scores only to eventually lose it all in a high-stakes poker game or by falling for a big scam.

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Why are purpose and theme important? 

Author’s purpose and themes are the whole reason a story exists. We start writing stories because we have something we need to share. We want to attract audiences that will find meaning in our words—and in our characters. Our purpose is the message we want to send through our stories, and the themes are the ways that we communicate them. We talk about fundamentals of writing here at WW, but these two concepts really feel like MVPs, because they’re so important and so prevalent throughout stories across all the different mediums. Heck, they’re what make stories worth telling!

So the next time you have the opportunity to work on your writing, consider this:

what do you want to say, and how are you going to say it?

Thanks for joining us for this Back to Basics course! A special thanks to Charlotte for helping me out with the research. Let's talk about purpose and themes on our discord. In December, we'll explore accountability partners!

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About the authors:

Izhan Arif is an English graduate from the University of Illinois, Chicago. His interests tend to revolve around all things superhero, whether it be comics, shows, or movies! He also loves to write (go figure) and when he's not working on Back to Basics, he's also writing videos for WatchMojo!

Charlotte (she/her) is a graduate of Cornell College's Creative Writing program. She's a lover of stories in all forms, whether they come in books or video games. She's especially fond of reading and writing within the fantasy genre, especially alongside her beloved cat, Mimzy.