Wheeee! We made it to the weekend....Everybody's workin' for the weekend! I wish I could put little musical emoticons on this...LOL!

Anyhow...We are on another exercise of chapter 32 - Theme. Let's get to it!

Today we continue with Donald Maass' Writing a Breakout Novel. This is a fabulous book and I encourage each of you to buy it. What I'm presenting here is by no means a full lesson and there is a wealth of insight and additional info that will help you.

In case your just joining us...What I am attempting to do here is present truncated versions of each of the lessons in the workbook. We're done with Character Development, now we're moving on to Plot Development! Today's lesson is in Section THREE: Theme.

This is the third and final exercise to this chapter. This one is entitled Same Problem, Other Characters!

Step 1: What is the main problem in the novel?

Step 2: Who else in the story besides your protagonist could have that problem? How would it manifest differently for these other characters?

Step 3: Incorporate the results of the previous step into the story. Make notes!

Note: Theme is not smeared onto your story in the final draft. Like frosting on a cake. Rather, it emerges from the very substance of the story. To make your theme large and resonant, let it work in your story in more ways than one. It doesn't matter that the central problem is different for other characters. Your variations on the theme will only reinforce the themes itself.

Follow-up: Who in your story could have the oppositeproblem? Incorporate that into your novel!

Conclusion: Just as it is advisable to strengthen your theme, it is also no problem to run counter to it. Does your hero rescue his family from the wilderness, struggling against nature? What about the hermit who helps them? He lives at peace with nature, yes? His struggle man be the opposite: to connect again with his fellow man.


And this joke...I got from my homegirl Debra Brand That's D-e-b-r-a...LOL, Hi Deb, just wanted to make sure credit went where credit was due, especially so people don't think my taste for jokes has headed...er, uh...south!

Ok, so a frog walks into a bank and tells the lady at the counter he would like to make a loan of $200,000. He notices her name is Paddy Wack, from her name tag on her blouse.

She says that that's quite a substantial amount and she will have to get authorization for it first, and that it may take a while.

She asks him what his name is and he says "Kermit Jagger, my dad is Mick Jagger so everything should be fine."

The teller lady tells him she will have to go and see the Bank Manager first. Upon which the frog gives her a little pink elephant and says "Here take this with you, give it to your Bank Manager."

She goes to the Bank Manager's office with the pink elephant and when she tells him the story of the frog and shows him the pink elephant she says:"He said I should give you this, but I don't know what it is..?" And the Bank Manager says to her:

"It's a nick nack, Paddy Wack, give the Frog a loan - his old man's a Rolling Stone..."

REMEMBER THIS WASN'T MINE...LOL, but it mad me laugh all the same, because it was so bad!