Am I too up my own backside?

[Prole]

Ok, I'm currently writing a novel but when I've tried to explain its themes to a few people, all I've only gotten blank stares so I thought I'd try here before I go much further.

Basically, takes a very poststructuralist view of the world, where all reason and morals are contrived and shift abruptly during the storyline. Two lovers are caught in the midst of a great shift where the majority of people become extremely academically intelligent to the point where it is decided that lower intelligence is a massive stigma, like being gay or mentally ill, and they become outcasts to be confined, treated or exhiled from this new Eutopia. The question of course is who are the real idiots?

That's the central theme, without going into the plot etc.

So basically, is this too much to get anyone to ever, EVER read?

[manolia]

Sounds like a dystopian novel..personally i find it interesting as a theme..i understand that a lot of irony and sarcasm would be involved..;)

[AuntShecky]

One of the fundamental rules about writing is never, NEVER to talk about it! The reason is once one "talks it out" it's already been "released" in a sense, and thus it doesn't get written.

My advice to you is not to worry so much about defining your theme. Start writing the damn thing. You might find that your works begin to take on lives of their own, and thus the "theme" may change.

Once it is written, then you can let others decide whether it is "worth reading" and let them decide what the theme is, as well.

[Walter]

I agree absolutely! By all means write it the way you see it. And ignore remarks of ours which, after all, are based only on our imperfect and probably incorrect thoughts of how it will go or what we think it will be like. You are the one with the idea. Run with it. And good luck!

[tractatus]

Sorry to say, theme is no important now; see your style. If you dont want to spend time for a whole book, write somehow 20-30 page and see your style, describing power, vocabulary etc. You can show it to an editor for ideas.
Remember there are books with no/absurd theme, no plot, no timeline but considered as "monuments", just start, good luck!

[blp]

Aunty's right. To paraphrase advice given to insecure men, it's what you do with your idea that counts. As De Kooning said, 'Content is small'.

[mtpspur]

I agree with the above. If an idea captures your heart and soul and it feels real to you go for it. If it's for the applause of men many a writer has been moldering in the grave before their work has been recognized--H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard for instance. I seem torecall that Moby Dick did not receive an audience right off. A word to the wise. A writer writes--the rest watch TV.

[Prole]

Duly noted everyone. I guess being a preachey little git reflects on the way I write. Of course I have been writing the thing, but along side it I like to structure it out. I can write and write aimlessly but without a theme and a plot its just randomness. Essentially, I feel I have something to say, whether or not anyone ever wants to publish it is another matter.
I'm not writing a story which happens to have a point, I'm making a point that is easiest explained in a story, if you get me.

[Nighteyes5678]

I tend to write the story, then go back through and pull the theme out and, in my revision process, make the theme more apparent. But that's just me.

[Rav Maji]

Anyone who thinks they have something to say or express is living in their own rectum. Just do it.