How to Structure Themes in Your Sci-Fi and Fantasy Series

Gina Kammer Author

Aug 14, 2024 |

The theme is the universal message woven through your series, culminating in your protagonist's transformation. It’s not only important but necessary.

How to Structure Themes in Your Sci-Fi and Fantasy Series

Ah, the joy and madness of writing a whole series. You’ve got your sprawling world, a cast of characters, and plots as tangled as a dragon’s hoard. How do you structure it? What parts should go in which books in the series?

But amidst the chaos, there's one thread you need to keep straight, and it will help you keep your series structure straight too: the theme. It's the universal message you weave through your series, culminating in your protagonist's transformation. It’s not only important but a necessary element for your readers because it’s something they look for subconsciously—a greater depth they can learn from. Brain science says so!

So how do you ensure that this transformation is as epic as your world-building? Let’s dive in.

Understanding Theme and Transformation

In my realm of storytelling, "theme" refers to the universal message your story conveys through the protagonist's journey—not just a subject your story touches on! But an opinion about that subject. (We’re not in high school this time.)

And for a series, it's not just the theme of a single book but a grand narrative arc spanning multiple installments. This journey involves a transformation, which I call the protagonist's "truth" in my Enchant Your Readers book coaching program. Before this transformation, your protagonist is driven by a "corrupted truth"—a flawed belief that leads to conflict and tension. Save the full transformation you want your protagonist to go through for the final book in your series. But then what do you do for the theme in the books prior to the final book in your series? I’ve got you!

First, you need to understand what the theme is for your overall series. This is the most important message you are trying to say through your series. From there, you can break it down, section it out, or explore other aspects of the theme or its sub-themes in the books in your series that occur before the last book. Still, each book needs to have a full internal character arc—even if that character doesn’t fully level up yet. It should feel complete for that particular book, though.

Finding Your Theme for One Book

In one book—no matter whether it’s part of a series, duology, or standalone—you need a guiding theme that will be carried out through your protagonist's journey of transformation. This means that theme is closely tied to that transformation. So whatever you want to say through your story, that should make up the core of your protagonist's internal arc of change.

Here are the exact steps you can take right now to help you discover your theme:

1. Make a list! What kinds of ideas drove you to want to write your manuscript? What subjects or ideas exist in your manuscript? Do you notice any connections or patterns between any of these?
   
2. What message would you like to tell people in general (or... at least the readers of your book)?
   
3. How deep can you take that message? Consider core level desires or fears.
   
4. Does this message relate to your book? Or could it if you plucked at the right strings?
   
5. If yes, skip to the next step! If not, consider what your character overcomes/learns by the end of your novel. That might give you a big clue about what direction your theme is going in!
   
6. Congratulations! You're already on your way to creating a bigger impact on readers.
   
   

Don't worry, when you follow the other keys for writing an enchanting story, none of this will come across as preachy or didactic. What it will do is give your readers some depth and have a greater impact on them instead of only offering entertainment.

So start your protagonist in a place in which she's not yet changed or transformed. Remember, the transformed state is your protagonist's truth—or at least a part of the truth or a step along the path to that truth in a full series. It’s the truth you're trying to speak at a greater level and the truth your character needs to realize at the personal level.

Then we corrupt that truth to create the starting point of that arc. We find out what (usually) pretty terrible truth the protagonist believes at the beginning of the novel so that we can create juicy tension throughout the plot up to the point of change just before the climax. The protagonist leads a life of choices driven by a corrupted motivation to do that.

This corrupted truth is a wrong and unhealthy belief the protagonist holds, twisted from a version of the correct truth. The protagonist's corrupted truth is what creates the tension and consequences throughout the story prior to the protagonist's transformation to believing the truth about themselves and/or the world.

The plot will work to show the protagonist the right path, but the protagonist will only ever see the negative consequences and such of her actions (as motivated by their corrupted truth) as proof that she needs to adhere to her corrupted truth more strongly to get ahead instead of change their ways and what she believes is the truth at a core level. That only happens right before the climax of each book. But it won't comprise the main theme for the whole series until the final book. Up to that point, the previous books will level up the protagonist in a series of transformations that help to lead the protagonist to the final transformation in the final book.

So this is how you can structure that arc and therefore carry your theme throughout your story—the high level at least. But you can learn way more about how to do that entwined with your external plot arc and how everything drives to that goal in the Enchant Your Readers program. So check out more about everything you can access in the program HERE.

Building the Theme Across a Series

Now let’s put this theme into your series perspective. Maybe you found a couple of theme possibilities—that’s good for a series! It might mean you can use some of them for your other books to lead up to your main theme in the final book of your series. They’re likely already related. If not, you can consider the steps your protagonist might need to take in order to arrive at her ultimate transformation. Think of these steps like major milestones along her path. Or perhaps they become sub-theme truths that your protagonist needs to transform to believe before she has any hope of leveling up as far as the most important truth she needs to come around to. Here’s what each route might look like with examples of the “milestone” route:

1. Set the Stage with Corrupted Truth (Book 1):
   Your protagonist's journey begins with a flawed worldview shaped by their corrupted truth. This belief system creates conflict with what your protagonist desires and therefore sets the stakes high. For example, if the theme of your series is that it’s better to love and lose than to never love at all, the first book in the series will establish the corrupted truth that it’s better never to love and therefore never to lose. The protagonist likely desires love greatly but fears it due to the potential (and past experience) of loss. This may make her push everyone away, believing she’s better off on her own. But the transformation of book 1 might be the first stage of her greater transformation toward embracing the theme/truth. By the climax, she’s learned that she isn’t better off completely on her own (even if she hasn’t yet embraced love). Maybe friendship/companionship and trust are her lesson for the book 1 transformation.
   
   

2. Further the Transformation Arc (Middle Books):
   Each subsequent book in your series should introduce a further yet mini-transformation, steering your protagonist closer to their ultimate truth. They cover the next portions of the overall series arc. These smaller arcs explore various facets of the theme, adding depth to the narrative. As your protagonist faces the consequences of their actions, they gain insights that gradually reshape their beliefs. For example, in books 2 and 3, the protagonist might even backslide a bit. Despite her shift in thinking in book 1 that it is better not to be completely on her own, book 2 sees her getting skittish again about the idea—her fear creeps back in. She’s feeling too attached, and that potential loss might hurt too much. (Just don’t backslide too much if you try this route—readers want to feel like they’re making progress! Think only one step back and two steps forward…) So even though she maintains her new friendship/companionship, she becomes rather distant. Then she has to take strides to regain her end-of-book-1 confidence as well as pushing a bit further beyond that. Maybe by book 2’s climax, she not only reaffirms that she’s better with her companion, but needs that companionship despite the potential loss. But she still won’t give herself fully to love yet. She holds back on that point (because that’s for the series finale). And in book 3, she clings a little too hard. She still lets her corrupted truth—shifted a bit though it may be from book 1—and fear of loss drive her. She might even become overbearing in the relationship, trying to control too much lest her companion leave her or get into danger and be killed. Perhaps she even brings about her own fear at the climax—she doesn’t learn that she’s still been wrong (if in a slightly different way) until it’s too late and her companion has left her, feeling too controlled/smothered without a further commitment of love. So at the end of book 3, the protagonist could even follow a (temporary) tragic arc: she is so devastated that she goes all the way back to believing her original corrupted truth and takes it further. She faces her internal fears and doesn’t win. She clings to her corrupted truth as her salvation—if only she never let anyone close at all, none of this would have happened! She might isolate herself and go a bit “villain” at the end.
   
   
   

3. The Climax and Final Transformation (Final Book):
   As your series reaches its climax, your protagonist's belief in their corrupted truth should hit a breaking point, setting the stage for the ultimate conflict. This is where the protagonist finally embraces the truth, completing their transformation. For example, the protagonist has taken her fear to the extreme (book 3 in this example holds the series disaster beat while book 4 covers the series transformation and climax—but note that each book still fulfills all the major plot beats). She’s lost her companion due to her own corrupted truth. She’s taking matters into her own hands, trying to fulfill herself in the completely wrong way, but still going after her external plot goal. She’s telling herself that this is better, and it makes her stronger—so she thinks. And in the plot, she very well may be rather effective to a certain extent. Maybe she’s vicious toward the external enemies because she keeps telling herself she now has nothing to fear. Until, of course, by the end, her companion faces a curse of death. The only way to stop the curse is to embrace her love for her companion. But she’s spent so much time burying those feelings that she doesn’t know if she can come back from them—or if her companion will return the feelings. But ultimately, she faces her deepest fear that she might be abandoned again realizing that it would be better to open herself to that love even if it means she has to lose her companion. So she risks everything (everything to her) to save her companion with true love’s kiss, acting on her ultimate internal transformation in the plot. In a bittersweet series ending, her companion still leaves after being saved, but the protagonist weathers it anyway with the understanding that her companion is at least safe (and perhaps safe from her…). She’s changed internally even if it was too late to succeed in every way externally in the plot. In a positive series arc ending, her companion forgives her, returns her love, and they live happily ever after.

The only difference for the “sub-theme” route is that each book will touch on another aspect of your main theme to act as the stepping stones on the path to the full protagonist transformation. Each book may look at a different facet of the main theme. So if the main theme sends a message about love, the sub-themes may include the different types of love. In one book, the protagonist might learn something about the love of family first—healing it or restoring it. And in another, the protagonist learns about the love of friends or what that bond really means. Until ultimately, the protagonist has learned enough and healed enough regarding love in her life, that the protagonist is able to open herself up to romantic love—or perhaps self-love.

Practical Tips for Writing Series Themes

• Outline with the End in Mind: Begin your series planning with the final transformation in mind. This ensures that each book serves the overarching theme and that the journey feels cohesive and intentional. You can break down the theme into milestones or sub-themes to create fulfilling individual books within the series. Plan the broad theme strokes for each book before getting into the details of each book.
  

• Character Arcs and Plot Integration: Seamlessly integrate character development and plot progression. Every subplot, character interaction, and decision should contribute to the theme/truth, reinforcing the protagonist’s journey. This is what makes a story more than a muddle of events for the sake of having something happen.
  

• Consistency and Foreshadowing: Maintain thematic consistency across books in a series to deliver on the promise you set up from book 1. Use foreshadowing to hint at the final transformation, creating the right expectation for your readers. This is what will make the ending feel awe-inspiring and fulfilling.
  
  
  

Enchant Your Readers throughout Your Series

Writing a series that enchants readers is no small feat. A series multiplies the complexity by as many books as it contains. It requires weaving a theme through to the end that captivates and challenges both your characters and your audience. As you embark on this journey, remember that each book is a stepping stone toward a transformative and fulfilling conclusion. So go forth and enchant your readers with stories that resonate long after the final page is turned.

Ready to craft your epic series? Apply these strategies to your current or upcoming projects, and get further support throughout this process by joining the Enchant Your Readers book coaching program. There, you’ll receive direct feedback and guidance to help you through the complexity of a well-done series. Let's create stories that leave a lasting impact.

Categories: : book coaching, editing, manuscript stages, novel drafting, novel planning, writer mindset