18: Novel Thoughts, Part 1 - Themes

I find myself talking about my work-in-progress novel a lot more than I am accustomed to. While having conversations about my story, I try not to give too many details, but in doing so I have found myself falling in the habit of using tropes or comparisons from modern storytelling that do not entirely represent what I am writing.

As an individual who enjoys all the different forms of storytelling, my take is that every conflict or situation has been done before, and what matters is the presentation. I find it a little more than ironic that being a person who does not like it when a story is explained by applying generic descriptions finds themselves doing that same thing.

In order to escape that and fix this problem I have subconsciously made for myself, I am attempting to explain elements of my work-in-progress, starting with some themes that I hope will provide a more in-depth look into my novel without giving away the story or sticking to the aforementioned descriptive stereotypes (hopefully).

The State of the Description So Far

Honesty, the description of the novel on my website is abysmal at best. I have to admit that I did not put as much effort into it as I am putting into the story. The lie I told myself at the time was that I was being cryptic intensely because there will be a better description once the manuscript is complete.

A life lesson that I have already learned but decided to ignore for this one thing was never lie to yourself, it will always come back to bite you. So, I have a crummy description of my novel floating around on the internet; that is not all, in the interview with my friend over at krusade.net, I provided another summary that was perhaps not as cryptic but not anywhere near decisive enough.

My plan is to straighten it all out as soon as possible because I think my novel is a story that might not appeal to everyone, but it is a story that deserves to be represented correctly. That being said, I hope that the themes that my novel highlights are things that will get you interested in my work.

Modern Noir

Yes, the title of this section is correct. Noir is mostly considered a film style that began in the 1940s, but plenty of those films were based on novels. Sure, neo-noir is a real film style, but it does not completely fit within storytelling that only uses prose.

Modern Noir has the traditional aspects of its older sibling but adds some elements that have developed within the 21st century to a point where it cannot be ignored. An example of this is highlighted in the effects of and contrast between willful ignorance and general ignorance.

You can argue the semantics of why this does not matter, but there are completely different motivating factors that appear when someone is fatalistic or cynical due to not knowing over not wanting to know. This example is a representation of the current state of the Information Age, and allows for a new take on how the world is viewed through the updated shades of gray that traditional noir offers.

Heroism

This novel at its core exists within the fantasy genre, it does make comparisons to modern as well as science fiction technology, but within the pages of my story are the fantasy elements of a hero’s journey.

Full disclosure, my novel contains heroes that are flawed, but those flaws are not what they appear to be. Their challenges have more to do with motive and reality rather than what is the right thing to do. The heroes in my tale are not anti-heroes or reluctant heroes so much as they are simply people who are dealing with circumstances outside of what they thought was under control.

This story is not Lord of the Rings with guns or anything like that, it has more of a gothic-inspired tone when it comes to what these heroes face. If you have to, you can compare it to the heroes found in grimdark fantasy or sword and sorcery genres, but the story does not exactly fit in that well.

Dark Love

I am not sure why I feel I should be cryptic about this theme, but I am not going to be, it is just that my take on dark love is not entirely what you would find if you searched the internet for literacy examples of dark love.

At the heart of this topic lies an intense devotion that makes nearly anything less important than the feeling the people involved share. This type of love is admittedly desperate but does not always follow a traditional formula of passion-fueled madness and does not have to be preceded by psychological trauma.

For now, the only example I think honestly represents my vision of dark love is in my short story, The Letter. Just remember, like any other type of love there are aspects of it that might not make complete sense to someone on the outside looking in, this happens due to the singular fragile constant that people who are captivated by dark love hold; and that thought is, that life would have no meaning if the one they loved is not with them, other lives do not matter only the one who they love does. Dark love is filled with hidden strengths and weaknesses that no one who has not experienced this type of love has ever dealt with.

Hope

This is a tricky theme because it is used in nearly every scrap of literature anyone has ever written. Every story no matter what genre, the undying theme can be found. It does not matter how desperate the situation gets in fiction or non-fiction; hope is held by the person reading if not by the characters they are reading about.

As long as there is a mind capable of contemplating it there will be an immortal sliver of hope in the world. There is no true way to eliminate it, but there are emotions that can conceal it. You could say that despair is the emotion that can drain the light of hope, but this emotion acts as a shroud that prevents you from seeing or moving beyond pain.

The most profound thing about hope is that it is not an emotion it is a survival instinct that your mind provides so that you can endure beyond a reasonable dough; it pushes a person past the point where normally they would have stopped, and only death might have the power to prevent hope from ever being.

To Conclude

Yes, everything is rough with stereotypes of one kind or another, and this is not a bad thing from a literary standpoint. Stereotypes are a fine place to establish expectations that are meant to be shattered.

A story’s expectations are supposed to be met, and it is the author’s responsibility to do this in an entertaining as well as unexpected way. Here's hoping that I am living up to my own expectations. Until next time, I am Nolan… Ex Tenebris.