Hmmm, would the following themes be worth working a longer story around?

[TVC15]

I am trying to figure out what the palette of themes I should work off for my next real attempt at writing fiction.  At the advise of others, I have decided to not start by constructing a detailed plot, but figuring out what my underlying themes are, and developing, well, their ideal development throughout the story.  The theory being that having a well-developed theme is not only impressive and thoughtful, but that the twists and turns the thematic explorations require will lead to developing interesting plots and characters and tools to fit the task.

So, I have decided to start by picking two lofty themes.  You need two to tango.  And since I am a pretentious fuck, I have settled on ressentiment and Sartre's take on "the look."  I was originally going to do bad faith instead of ressentiment, but there are more potential angles to explore with ressentiment.  I will fiddle about if these are too difficult to work with.  I was thinking I might have to potentially downgrade ressentiment because it might be a bit too lofty, but what the fuck, shoot the moon.

Any other writers around have any advice on developing fiction starting with the theme, rather than with the plot and characters?  Anyone have any thoughts or potential ideas to try.  I have a few other gimmicks I would like to try and spin, but I need to wait until I have more actual work done.  I want to try to override my natural style and doing something inspired by psychological mania.

[Eric P]

well the look sounds like it would be easy to adapt because it's basically a plot in an of itself.

man is viewing secretly

man becomes aware that he himself is being viewed

in that moment, his preception is altered. (it's been a while, but i think that's the gist of it)

you could do many different things with this in both "high literary standard" and even in "low genre" forms.

with your prediliction towards unusual individuals and odd psychological states, i'm certain it wouldn't be too difficult to simply craft something rather simple around the basis. 

you just need a man, an object to be viewed, and who or what is viewing this man viewing this object.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Starting with at least a theme is advisable.

[Van Cruncheon]

Starting with at least a theme is advisable.

he's asking WHICH THEME not SHOULD I HAVE A THEME there

foc is this forum's michette

[FlameOfCallandor]

Starting with at least a theme is advisable.

he's asking WHICH THEME not SHOULD I HAVE A THEME there

foc is this forum's michette, could we have him renamed

Any other writers around have any advice on developing fiction starting with the theme

[FlameOfCallandor]

Chill the fuck out drinky, not every thread has to be trolling material.

[Van Cruncheon]

are you incapable of reading?

[FlameOfCallandor]

are you incapable of reading?

Are you incapable of posting without trolling?

[MrAngryFace]

are you incapable of reading?

Are you incapable of posting without trolling?

[Van Cruncheon]

as for writing fiction with theme, i find it DOES in fact help to write up a plot skeleton that demonstrates the overarching reveal of the theme as it relates to the greater plot arc, and to refer to it from time to time, but other than that: just wing it and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

[recursivelyenumerable]

About 95 percent of my psyche is devoted to ressentiment (plain old resentment occupies another 4%), so I'm definitely the go-to guy there.  You need to interview me or even employ me as a consultant.

[TVC15]

Starting with at least a theme is advisable.

as for writing fiction with theme, i find it DOES in fact help to write up a plot skeleton that demonstrates the overarching reveal of the theme as it relates to the greater plot arc, and to refer to it from time to time, but other than that: just wing it and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

I think I may have said something incorrectly.  I am of course familiar with working with themes.  What I am doing now is something a bit more experimental to get over a slump.  I am tinkering with a number of little experiments right now.  I don't think people care about most of that shit, so I'm not mentioning it.

The theme/starting with a theme thing is a bit deeper than, well, picking a theme and doing the deed.  I am trying to figure out my theme, and the arc of the theme, and even the nuances of how the theme would best be developed in detail, before I even begin to allow myself to consider plot, characters, and other devices.  It is my belief that if I take a strong theme, figure out how it's going to dance, and then build my plot and story and characters around the meaning, rather than doing vice versa, I will come out with more interesting, developed material.

Also, it is with this method that I can work with truly complex themes without asking "how the heck will I work the gaze into this plot I thought of?"  If I think of how I want the look to work in detail in the story, beginning to end, in detail, before I even think of Character 1, I think I am on significantly better footing for neato storytelling. I'm not half-assedly hammering a heavy theme into an already baked story.