All of the great works we know and love were written around some central idea. The Man and the Sea explored concepts of human/fish relations and Pride and Prejudice was based around the idea of Victorian bitches being bitches (Also, the original title of the novel was called "Victorian bitches ain't shit.) What made these books so memorable were the themes on display throughout the work, and in only a few simple steps, you can make your novel up to snuff with all these greats.
- Pick something vague - Try to say something new about an emotion or intangible object. Have an outlook on "love" or "greed" or "grapefruit" you feel like you haven't explored? Even if you don't, you can still create an entire story around it.
- Implementation into the story - Try to give your characters really weird names that will tie them into the theme. If you are writing about love, make a random character named cupid, if about greed, name a character "Scrooge McDuck." When writing about grapefruit, you can always rely on the name "Citrus" and just say that their parents are celebrities. Or you can just jam it into your preexisting short story you wrote on astronauts.
Working the magic - Try to have each of your characters deal with their own ideal of love/greed/grapefruit. If possible, make it as blatant you can. Readers are stupid, and you have to be absolutely sure that they know that your writing is genius.Here is an excerpt from my novella, The Greedy Lovers of the Grapefruit Orchard:
"I love you," said Selfish, as she chased after her lover. "Doesn't that mean anything to you? You can't just hate me because I took all of the grapefruit for myself. It's not only you. it's me, too!
Scrooge McDuck took a long draw off his cigarette.
As you can see, the results are amazing
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