Structuring your novel can be a hard thing to do. For many authors, this is the part that takes the most time while the actual writing takes a fraction of it. Even though many authors may have an idea of what the story will be about and who the characters are, deciding on the themes is perhaps the hardest decision to make. This is because authors are often unaware of what a theme is and how it affects the overall story in their novel.

A theme is an idea that will occur again and again in your story or it will be a prominent part of your story. For example, your novel can have the theme of familial love, alienation or hope. These themes affect the growth of the story and the characters as the story progresses. This is the reason why it is imperative for you to choose the best themes for your story that complement your characters and the plot.

To help you out, here are some tips that can help you decide which themes are the best for you.

•  Start the process by trying to come up with common themes that are recurring in the genre of your novel. Each genre has a set of themes that are common to them and act as a core for the stories, so you need to find the ones that suit your story the best.

•  If your novel belongs to the romance genre, the most common themes include love, power, commitment (or the lack of it), obsession and relationships.

•  Other common themes that are often seen frequently across multiple genres are heroism, power dynamics, friendship and even abilities.

•  Another tip that will help you find the best themes for your story is by seeing how it affects your characters. Try to match the themes with your characters, their personalities and their goals so that you can see if they fit or not. Certain themes such as jealousy can be monumental in the development of a character’s arc, so think out your themes very carefully.

•  Knowing the goals of your characters will be a great way for you to find the best themes for your story. Once you know the goal, you will be able to write down the parallels for the characters and help you decide the sub-themes as well.

•  Look up the novels of other established writers and see what they have done with their stories in similar genres. Every writer has their own approach to a certain theme; while one author may develop a story with the theme of alienation as a primary theme, the other might take the theme of self-love.

•  Always treat your first draft as the beginning of everything. This is the part of your writing where you put everything down on paper so that you can look at it critically and finesse the parts you think are lacking. This is also the point where you can deepen the themes, enhance them and make them what you want them to be.

•  Once you are done with writing the themes down, always take a moment to step back and revisit them with a fresh mind. You never know what more you can come up with!