So in my novel my main theme is 'survival' and that's been pretty simple. Man vs nature man vs man. How far would you go to survive and yet still keeping your humanity and dignity, But my second is 'power'. Which feels a little more open. You have the idea of external powers (magic, technogly, controlling a nation) abusing power, gaining, losing it. Then you have internal power like the power of knowing yourself, power of knowledge, wisdom. So I was thinking one of my main character shows external power and the other internal power. But this theme confusing me the most because power comes in so many forms. I just wanted to ask am I thinking about thei correctly? Is just seems like survival is a simpler theme to understand and explore because there are less options. Thanks for the help
What works best for the contrast between characters? What's going to offer you the most rewarding and challenging conflict? In my WIP I decided to use creative jealousy as my theme because my two characters are a forty some-odd man and a fourteen year old boy. The difference in their ages gives the jealousy more bite. He's witnessing someone one third of his age express more talent than he's ever managed and it eats at him. Think about the power struggle and then think about your characters goals, what angle is going to offer you the most options in plot and conflict? What if your main character's external power is strength but he's not very smart. He's a warrior but his plans are foolhardy. What if the other character's power is planning but he's bit of a coward? Neither would make good leaders but as a team …
Do you define 'power' as the ability to make things happen, to change things? Or do you think it has more to do with gaining control of something or somebody? Maybe even to stop things from happening?
If it is about surviving and you think about dignity, you don't go far. You just die. If you can think about dignity, it's not about surviving but something that look a bit like danger. If something is about surviving it is only about surviving - personal or collective.
An experienced survivor could trade knowledge for anything when people are unable to hunt, filter water or make a fire. Obey the master's rules or die on your own.