Let’s start off with my definition of a story:

Today we’re going to focus on this piece of the definition:

I’ll start with the obvious: We live in a vast universe of ideas. There’s no shortage of inspiration or insight available to us, as everything we want to know is just one search away.

The problem with this abundance, however, is that there’s too much to sort through. When we’re looking for the ideas that will become our stories, how do we know where to start? Which ideas have the potential to become a story?

Well, I have a solution to this conundrum. It turns out that every idea you’ve come across has a story embedded in it. But to unearth it, you need to use this wonderful tool:

The Thematic Lens.

You’ve probably heard of a theme before. There’s definitions of it everywhere, but I find most of them to be jargon-filled and needlessly complex.

Here’s how I view a story’s theme:

A theme is a story’s problem and its takeaway.

That’s it. Super simple.

And as it turns out, a theme isn’t just reserved for the story-level. It also goes down to the idea-level as well. But to see it, you have to use the Thematic Lens to break your ideas down into problems and takeaways.

For example, let’s take a look at this quote by Anne Lamott:

What’s the theme that lives within this quote?

Well, if I break it down into a problem and a takeaway, it’ll look something like this:

Now that I have the problem and takeaway separated, I can see the beginning of a story start to unfold. Perhaps I’ll introduce an ambitious character that prioritizes getting stuff done, but is always teetering on the edge of burnout. Or I’ll look for a study where researchers tried to understand the link between ambition and burnout, and see if that’s something I can build a narrative around.

There are many paths this story could take, but it all started because I was able to find the theme that lived within a simple quote.

Pinpoint the problem and the takeaway you want to address in your story. That’s the starting point for everything. But once you do that, make sure you place a majority of your focus on just one of these two components.

More on that soon. But for tomorrow, I'll send you your first workshop assignment to make use of the Thematic Lens.

See you in your inbox then!

-Lawrence

P.S. Enrollment for Thinking In Stories opens up on Monday, February 16th! Seats are limited, and the cohort kicks off on March 9th. Check out the course schedule here.

Almost every cohort has sold out so far, so if you already know that you want to enroll, then hit reply to let me know.