My last term of college, I took a 200-level class on English literary theory to fulfill the final requirement of an English minor. I’d already taken the upper-level English courses I needed—but the first week of class, my professor said something that made me wish I’d taken his class a lot sooner.

The typical thesis statement of a paper (say, written on a high school level especially) is usually insufficient, he said. In fact, to get to a real thesis, you should add the word “Because,” and expand from there. For example:

Lame-o thesis: In The Age of Innocence, Newland Archer is a dilettante, even when social morés no longer prohibit him from acting.

This is especially lame-o because basically all you’d have to do to prove your thesis is quote the line in the opening scene where Newland Archer identifies himself as a dilettante, and then review the final scene of the book. Done.

Better thesis: Because Newland Archer is, “at heart a dilettante,” even when social morés no longer prohibit him from acting, his son Dallas represents the fulfillment of his dilettante desires and the evolution of societal norms.

(Man, I wrote a dang good paper about that book. Waaay better than that example. Wish I could remember the thesis!)

What’s Because got to do with it (writing)

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A couple months ago, I was preparing for a revision and thinking about my book’s theme. I’d really reduced it down to the very core principle—how do you get more crystallized than three short words?

Love is strength.

But realistically, is that a theme? Is that something worthy to be explored in fiction? Is that something you want to read about?

Meh.

Then “Because” popped into my mind.

Because love is strength . . .

I filled in the blank as it pertained to my story, I think, but there’s no one right answer here. That’s not what’s important—what’s important is digging deeper than a belief statement to create an action statement. It may not be enough to have a theme you can state simply—in fact, that might be a detriment.

What do you think? Have you tried the power of “Because”? How would you fill in the blank “Because love is strength . . .”?

Photo by Angel A. Acevedo, via Flickr & CC