Lemma Soft Forums

Which themes do you include in your story and which category of themes are you comfortable with?

I break themes into these overlapping categories:
Life themes: Following dreams, being yourself, making decisions, depression, revenge, insanity, moving on, independence, friendship, successful relationships
Sci-fi themes: Artificial intelligence, future society, the existence of aliens, the interaction with aliens, space exploration, the end of the world
Social and political themes: Freedom vs. security, democracy, is war justified, tolerating intolerance, privacy, capitalism vs. communism
Philosophical and religious themes: absolute truth, the existence of god, the need of many vs. the rights of few, beauty

I'm best with sci-fi themes and worst with life themes, that's why I'm writing speculative fiction.

I think I'm most drawn to writing stuff in the philosophical/religious category, simply because I find that the ideas discussed in that category lie beneath the ideas in the other categories. I often feel that stories with the themes you mentioned in the "life themes" category are not as interesting to me if they don't get philosophical at some point.

On that note, I really like writing stories with science-fiction themes because they are good at raising philosophical questions.

Social and political themes, by contrast, are usually rather dry and boring to me by comparison. I don't tend to want to write about them unless they seem relevant to the greater philosophical theme that I'm exploring.

Most of what I write tends to have some religious and political themes. When I write a character, I like to know what their political leanings are, and what religion they view themselves as following. Often, when putting these themes into an in-story setting, it is progressive vs conservative, belief vs non-belief, capitalism vs socialism, etc... And though I have very opinionated leanings in real life, sometimes I will mix it up, have the character who blindly follows a cause be righteous, and the skeptic be wrong.

I'm more able to write about personal experiences (slice of life), comedy, and school life themes. I like to incorporate a lot of my personal thoughts and feelings into my stories, and I typically prefer to write in first person as well.

I think my weakness is probably science fiction. Sometimes, all of the possibilities of aliens, end of the world, and future societies make me feel overwhelmed.

I lean more towards writing comedy, friendship and fantasy as those were my main influences. I was always interested in the concept of magic for some reason, it just really appeals to me. I'm not really good with science fiction because it's more scientific and I feel like I'd have to explain everything behind this futuristic concept that I honestly would have no interest in. I can deal with slice of life but I don't really like writing it because I usually run out of plot. I'm also not good with horror because I'm just not into it. It's not like I can't set atmospheres or make some terrifying things, it's just that I'm not interested in that. Same for politics, but I do have a lot of interest in many philosophical things though, and I like making my characters have certain beliefs.

I like meshing everyday reality with fantasy, but that often includes philosophical standpoints as well. Since my style is somewhat sardonic, fantasy was never my strong point, but as I continue to work I realize that working on several themes can be more than just far too confusing.

I tend to write about life themes, like what does it mean to be free, or does the grey line really exist ect.

I tend to write life themes, but I dip into other themes either directly or indirectly.

An entire piece can be social or political commentary without ever bringing up a specific issue, or I might end up in a bipolar soliloquy where I have a philosophical debate between the manic and the depressive side. I may also include some sci-fi or fantasy elements to add some flavor to the setting, but that is pretty rare and even then it is done only to minor effect.

I like Philosophical and religious themes but more than anything I am best at darker Life themes like dealing what scares you about yourself and the like. Can't seem to do fluffy stuff for long

Well, I think money themed story can be categorized as a social and political themes.
I think I'm good with dark themed life themes with the mix of social and political themes.
I tend to create a character that is greedy and manipulative. With a theme of revenge or moving on.
I'm also comfortable with romance since I have a little bit of romantic side in me.
Well, all in all, I'm more confident on life theme.

I think I will never be confident with sci-fi. Dunno why.