One of my favorite movies is You’ve Got Mail. When Joe Fox attempts to apologize to Kathleen Kelly for forcing her out of business, he says, “It wasn’t … personal.”
She replies, “What is that supposed to mean? … All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me … Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”
The same is true of great fiction. It begins by being personal, meaning your story should embrace universal themes that people will relate to.
The Count of Monte Cristo poses the question, does getting even—revenge and retribution—make one happy and satisfied?
Kristan Higgins’ new release, Pack Up the Moon, is about a grieving widower who receives a letter a month from his late wife for the first year after her death. In spite of the downer premise, the theme is that “life’s greatest joys are often hiding in plain sight.”
A Christmas Carol and Les Miserables pose the question, is redemption possible?
I love stories with themes of perseverance, of never giving up, despite terrible odds. This is why I enjoy Susan May Warren’s adventure thrillers, like her Global Search and Rescue, Montana Marshalls, and Montana Rescue series. The stories are full of danger and intrigue and impossible predicaments, but the protagonists survive. I also like movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and R.E.D. The heroes. Never. Give. Up.
Another book with a theme of perseverance would be A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L′Engle.
The theme of You’ve Got Mail is summed up nicely in its tagline: Someone you pass on the street may already be the love of your life.
That’s intriguing. Even if you’re with the love of your life, there are occasions you may wonder what (or who) might be out there. What if you’d walked to work the day you met your significant other, instead of taking the bus?
The movie Sliding Doors shows this “path not taken,” plot with a lot of heart and creativity. Helen is fired from her job and takes a train home in the middle of the day to find her boyfriend with another woman. Or did she miss the train and arrived home after the other woman left, and stayed in a relationship with the cheater?
I think Sliding Doors’ theme is, will true love always find a way?
The heroine of my work in progress is a young widow. I’ve never lost a spouse, but I’ve lost a parent and other close loved ones. I know the stages of grief (anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). The hero has his own loss that he’s dealing with, so their journeys are each echoed in the other. I’m attempting to show a theme that life and love can be rich again, after loss.
Grief and joy. Regret and eagerness. Doubt and excitement.
Our job is put those emotions on the page in a way the reader relates to and (hopefully) feels them as much as our characters do. Personally.
Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.
You can find her online at:
- Twitter: CarriePadgett
- Instagram: carpadwriter
- Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett
- Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett
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