Thesis Sentences

[BWFoster78]

Not that I'm not thoroughly enjoying the, hopefully, completely appropriate political thread that is ongoing at the moment, but I had a more technical topic that popped into my mind:

Is it good, bad, or ugly to use thesis statements in fiction?

What is a thesis statement, you ask?

As we were all probably taught in school, when writing an essay, you should: 1. tell them what you're going to tell them, 2. tell them what you're actually telling them, and 3. tell them what you told them.

I think that 2 is entirely appropriate and I rarely see 3. However, 1, I kinda feel is bad. I've advised other writers to ditch them in edits and I try to stomp them out whenever they inevitably creep up in my own work.

Example:

They all had their own reasons for going along with the plan. Character A thinks the plan is good because whatever. Character B pretty much goes along with anything Character A says. Character C...

You get the picture.

The point is that I think, in general, the initial sentence is superfluous and purely a holdover from our training in writing essays. Just starting with "Character A thinks..." is, in the vast majority of cases unless there's a good reason to do otherwise, is the best way to go.

Thoughts?

 

[Chime85]

For story telling, the three stages you pointed out (and I recall from my uni days) is at a broad stroke, bad practice. There is nothing wrong with a build up, or a sense of foreboding, however. but, when it comes to story telling, there is little sense in telling the same tale three times in future, present and past tense.

 

[BWFoster78]

For story telling, the three stages you pointed out (and I recall from my uni days) is at a broad stroke, bad practice. There is nothing wrong with a build up, or a sense of foreboding, however. but, when it comes to story telling, there is little sense in telling the same tale three times in future, present and past tense.

Exactly. It's completely redundant.

But I do see this crop up quite a lot. I think it's important to be aware that we do it and get rid of it.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I'd have to agree. There doesn't seem to be a good reason for step #1.

In my view, this robs discovery for the reader. It's akin to how placing the word "Suddenly" at the beginning of a sentence makes it feel less sudden.

 

[Butterfly]

This..

1. tell them what you're going to tell them, 2. tell them what you're actually telling them, and 3. tell them what you told them.

Is prevalent and focused on in journalism and news paper writing where they have to get the story and facts across clearly and concisely in a limited number of words. It is not that applicable or useful to fiction writing in any great form.

This might be useful for your discussion http://www.multi-story.co.uk/guestspot-archive-writingfiction.html

 

[Penpilot]

Well, it sort of depends on what your purpose is with that sentence. Sometimes, if it's to reinforce something that may be unclear, it's fine. I'd say treat it like an adverb. Use it deliberately and sparingly.

 

[wordwalker]

I especially agree that #1 (the intro) is more wasteful than #3 (summary). At least, I doubt we write literal summaries very often, but we may well look for ways a character can sum up or a description can underline what's happened. But intros are best limited to scene-setting images, if that.

 

[Ayaka Di'rutia]

I've never thought about a thesis statement in fantasy fiction, and thinking about it now, it seems pointless. For me, the entire story is the "thesis statement". It is my hope that as people read my fiction, they understand what the characters are going through, their goals, and what they learned from the outcomes.

 

[HongSar]

which creates intolerance and hate.

 

[HongSar]

But intros are best limited to scene-setting images, if that.

gclub online

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I'm not sure I completely agree with this. My thought is that you don't want to do 1, 2, and 3. You probably want to limit youself to only one of those sorts ofstatements at any one point. But it can be any one of them. And your announcements of what you're going to tell someone can be useful and powerful. And they're also statements people use in their normal speech.

So for example:

[Connor stared at her, angrily. And he thought for a moment before saying anything.

"Ok, you want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened. I'll tell you the worst truth in the world."

Then he proceeded to tell her everything he'd promised to, and watched her face fall.]


You see, the statement can be just as useful as any other. It's all about how you use it and where you place it. What are you trying to say with it. And here I'm simply using it to create a sense of foreboding. If I just used a statement describing what he was telling her - I couldn't impart that emotion. Horror yes, but not foreboding. And if I used the third statement - explaining basically what he had told her, there would be a loss of immediacy for the reader.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Tholepin]

Tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them, and finally tell them what you've told them works fine in the classroom - it's good, sound teaching. When writing, as Mr. Asimov says: show the effect. Let the readers emotions fill in whatever you've shown them. Too much telling; Show your readers.