One of the most demanding elements of writing is decision-making. Writers are constantly challenged to make decisions. Decisions about the way the story should be written. Decisions about individual characters. Decisions about the color of a vehicle. Decisions about how many fingers someone has (the story might work better for a character if she had seven fingers instead of eight fingers). Decisions about letting the story go its own way after you have planned it to go another way. Decisions about characters changing, or not changing, and/or letting them go the way they want to go instead of the way you want them to go. Decisions, etc.
The key to making good decisions is to have a guide before you begin writing. The guide, as I call it, is the theme. And the theme is found by the writer looking inside of themselves to discover their passion for writing the story they have chosen to write. Sometimes, there is more than one theme, but there should be one dominating theme, throughout the story. The theme for your book (do you want me to tell you what it is, or do you want to tell me what it is?)…. So, focus on your theme to help you make decisions as you evolve with the writing of your story. If a character, or a segment in the story, doesn’t include the theme, then that character, and/or that segment in the story should not be used.
