Does Your Story Have a Theme?

Having universal appeal means the story you want to tell is attractive to readers because its underlying theme is common to their purposes, conditions, or situations.

You may want to write a memoir about your domestic life in the quiet, rural countryside; or maybe a memoir about your cutthroat career in the bustling, big city. Yes, there are millions of people around the world living in one or the other of those environments who could probably identify with your setting, but that's not enough of a foundation on which to base your memoir. It's a good start, but you must dig deeper.

The best way to ensure universal appeal is to identify the universal theme(s) in your personal story. A universal theme is any state of shared human experience that transcends gender, race, creed, culture, sexual preference, etc. Some common universal themes include: love, loss, friendship, poverty, jealousy, guild, fear, belonging, and freedom.

Here are some examples of universal themes that have been developed in published memoirs:

Coping with loss (Love You, Mean it: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Friendship)

Adjusting to a new life (Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy)

Surviving rape (Lucky: A Memoir)

Coming of age (Her Last Death: A Memoir)

Ethical dilemma (Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Politics)

Social change (Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books)

Like the memoirs in this brief list, your story needs to have a significant and identifiable thematic thread running through it or the memoir will be nothing more than a retelling of personal events in your life. That may be fine if you only want to write your book as a legacy for family and friends, but if you have any intention of writing a memoir that will be interesting to readers who don't know you, then you need to discover how your story relates to a common human experience.

My book, The Break-Up Diet: A Memoir, is the story of a 30-something single mother and aspiring writer who is working as an exotic dancer, searching for Prince Charming, and trying to find the perfect balance between her dreams and her day-to-day life as Supermom.

The universal themes at work in my memoir are: love, loss of love, hope, pursuit of dreams, and balancing single motherhood and self.

Take a look at your story. Can you identify specific universal themes?

Let's go back to my first two examples: the quiet domestic life in the country and the cutthroat, big-city career stories.

If a young country wife feels trapped and longs for a life of travel and adventure she knows she'll never have--that story has universal themes: dissatisfaction and desire for change.

The same themes could work in the other example: a NY literary agent has clawed her way to the top of the publishing food chain, but she longs for a slower, more simple life to start a family and wants to return to her hometown of Big Sky, Montana. Again, dissatisfaction and desire for change.

The circumstances of the stories are polar opposites, but the universal themes are...well, universal. Both stories would evoke the same feelings from a reader who has her own sense of dissatisfaction and desire for change in her life.

By understanding the core of your story--unearthing what it's truly about--you are in a better position to craft a memoir that resonates with readers. They may not be able to relate to your exact circumstances--such as being an exotic dancer and aspiring writer (although, I did meet a reader who could relate!)--but, if your story speaks to their emotions, you've connected with your readers.

And that's the ultimate goal!