Theme and Variations

[oggbashan]

I submitted my Summer Lovin' story last night. As I worked on it I knew it was a variation on an idea I had used before. Why not?

In classical music, the idea of taking a theme and then writing variations on that theme has a long tradition, and even formal rules (which can, of course, be broken).

In story writing there is also a long tradition of linked stories based around a single premise. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is one. Many Sci-Fi stories based in invented worlds start with the theme of a different environment and what that means to humans.

Thinking about the story theme and variations I realised I had done this a couple of times.

As oggbashan, my 2003 NaNoWriMo exercise ended up as the 12-part Flawed Red Silk based around the unexpected gift of a pair of red silk panties and what the consequences of that gift were. My Shelacta series is another theme and variations on a Sci-Fi basis of a different world, as is Tripletit. My 3-part Brigit stories are also based on the single theme of a Goddess wanting social change for women.

As jeanne_d_artois, my Laundry Tales are variations on the theme of a ghost telling a story and the person listening to the story becoming the principal character in the story.

Have you used a theme and variations for stories? Have you thought about what you could do with it?

 

[lovecraft68]

Lovecraft created the Cthulhu mythos and wrote a bunch of stories related to that pantheon of great old ones and their mythology. He let others use it providing they added their own 'god' and nasty spell book to match his necronimicon therefore spreading the mythos and its still huge in horror today.

I have a series called the Circle; a secret BDSM sect. The main character of SWB was part of the group and that series references other members. There is a main book to the series and several spin offs each featuring a member of the group, but in each one I mention other characters and events and have a continuity going.

So its my attempt at the same thing "The Circle Mythos"

 

[sr71plt]

I have stories running separately here that were linked by theme, characters, plotline (e.g., another character's different perspective of the same events) in their combined published version.

 

[Hypoxia]

My A TASTE OF INCEST - TURKEY (MOM) and (DAD) are gender-swapped variants of the same tale. BLACK & WHITE & RED ALL OVER is a requested relation-shifted variant of AS SIMPLE AS BLACK & WHITE. And RIGHT UNDER HIS EYES and STILL UNDER HIS EYES are true theme-and-variations pieces. So is the requested-sequel series A TASTE OF INCEST - LEMONADE (01) and (02) and (03), all told from different POVs. No problem. When I get back to writing I have a few T&V bits planned.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Lovecraft created the Cthulhu mythos and wrote a bunch of stories related to that pantheon of great old ones and their mythology. He let others use it providing they added their own 'god' and nasty spell book to match his necronimicon therefore spreading the mythos and its still huge in horror today.

And some of the Mythos goes back before HPL to authors like Bierce and Chambers, although HPL was the one who really crystallised it into a shared universe.

George R. R. Martin had a shared-universe series "Wild Cards" where he created the setting and let other authors play, and of course comics and TV do this a lot.