Thematic analysis--careful, your unresolved issues are showing

They say that every writer has one overarching theme that they visit with each work of fiction they create.  In this way seemingly diverse or divergent stories by one author are held together by this theme.  For example, Jane Austen, who I have grown to appreciate even more after attending the JA festival in Bath last year, was ostensibly a writer of romances.   However her commentary on social mannerisms and hence women's sublimation to the societal strictures of the day are quite apparent in all her works.  But on an even deeper level, much of her work addresses the idea of looking beyond outward appearances to gain a deeper understanding of people.  This thematic backdropping is especially significant in relation to her work, as, unlike many other writers of her time, her stories relied on complex characters and situations rather than obvious plot twists and drama.  Her theme fit her work.

But her theme of looking beyond the surface also fit her life.  It wasn't revealed until after her death that she was the infamous "A Lady" who had written the popular works.  To those outside her immediate circle she was merely a spinster living on the largess and wherewithal of her family, particularly her brothers.

For myself, I think my theme is taking a change--learning to risk in order to find happiness and fulfillment.  In most of my stories, the characters have a chance to play it safe or to leap out of their comfort zones.  They always pick the latter-eventually.  But before they get there, there are false starts and wrong choices.  I, too, would rather have the complexity of my characters' beliefs and motivations provide the conflict in the story rather than artificially created dramas.  

So, by now you are probably wondering why, when this blog is devoted to energy and writing, am I talking about themes.  Well, I believe that our fiction mirrors us in many ways, particularly those things we choose to write about.  Those themes, particularly the less obvious ones we pick, are in all likelihood the very things we need to work on in ourselves.  The deeper we bury them in our stories, the deeper we have buried them in ourselves.

In metaphysical circles there exists the idea of the Shadow Self, the place in our psyches where we bury all those parts of ourselves that we find wanting--all those parts that others have told us are bad or inadequate.  For instance, if as a child you always got in trouble for being too loud, you probably began to try to reign yourself and your undesirable trait in, to stuff it down inside yourself, to bury it.  As an adult, you might to some degree conflate loudness with disobedience or shame or guilt of some kind, even though it is probably not on a conscious level.  But no trait exists in solitude, so when we banish our loudness, we might also steal the power of our ability to communicate or to sing or to express ourselves freely.  Our loud extroverted nature may turn to introversion to avoid confrontation.

But these parts of ourselves still exist in the subconscious.  So, as writers, we try to work out these issues that we repress through our fiction.  Our characters and their conflicts become those scenarios we haven't resolved in our waking life.  

But do we ever really resolve issues we don't consciously take by the horns and wrestle?

How do you know if your own issues are showing in your work?  I didn't really recognize mine until I asked a friend and fellow writer what she thought the underlying theme of my work was.  However, if you examine the internal motivations of your main characters (as opposed to the external motives--tangible things like getting a new job or learning how to dance) and you might get a clue to your own subconscious conflicts.

And just like your characters, the only thing to do is face the Shadow.  More on this next time:  what the shadow self is and how to make it your friend.  In the meantime you can answer these questions:

What is the overarching theme in your work?
How do you think this relates to your own life?