Theme Matters. Or What Cupcake Wars Taught Me About Theme by Lori Wilde

Theme Matters.

Reality shows are all the rage on TV and one of my

favorites is Cupcake Wars.

 

Cupcakes pull viewers in.

Wars (conflict) keep them hooked.

But unlike what the title suggests, the show isn’t about food fights with miniature, frosted cakes.

Rather, it’s about creating tasty pastries that also follow the theme of a gala event where the winner of the cupcake war will showcase their cupcakes. Such events have included—the Rose Parade, Valentine’s Day, I Love Lucy 60^th anniversary and the Tony Awards.

Here’s how it works. There are four competitors and three rounds of competition. The first round is for taste only. The second round is for taste and decorations 50/50 scores. In the final round the bakers must bake 1000 cakes in two hours and create a floor display—to house the cupcakes—that represents the theme of the event.

Part of the fun of watching Cupcake Wars is trying to guess who is going to win. It’s fairly easy to figure out who will get eliminated first. It’s the baker who forgot an ingredient or burned the caramel or broke down under the pressure. But when it gets down to the last two contestants, I guessed right only 50% of the time until I realized something very important.

It’s not always the best bakers with the tastiest cupcakes that win.

Huh?

That’s right. The best tasting cakes don’t always win. Rather,  it’s the baker who most closely followed the theme who comes out on top.

 

Which leads me to the title of this blog—What Cupcake Wars Taught Me About Theme.

Theme matters. 

      If it’s a Christmas theme… 

Don’t use a Halloween decoration.

Let’s extrapolate the cupcake lesson to writing. Theme matters. Just as much in your books as in Cupcake Wars. Theme unifies the story in a way that nothing else can. It acts like a magnifying glass, showing the reader what central idea the author wishes to impart. Theme enriches, edifies, and electrifies a story. Without the direction of theme, a book will wander and meander, go off on tangents, and leave the reader feeling dissatisfied, even though they might not be able to say why.

A writer might deliver a tasty story, but if they can’t tie it up with a pretty thematic bow, they’ll be beaten every time by the author who can. Ultimately, the writer who knows how to effectively use theme is the writer who will win the war for readers’ attention.

How do you feel about theme? Do you consciously consider it before you write? Or is it something you address during revisions? Have you ever seen Cupcake Wars? If so, can you understand what the heck Florian Bellanger is saying?

About Lori Wilde
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Lori Wilde, has sold sixty-nine works of romantic fiction to four major New York Publishing houses. She holds a bachelors degree in nursing from Texas Christian University and a certificate in forensics. She volunteers as a sexual assault first responder for Freedom House, a shelter for battered women. She has served as the RWA National conference workshop chair and PAN retreat chair. Lori is a two time RITA finalist and has four times been nominated for Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. She’s won numerous other awards and is a popular online instructor and workshop speaker. Her books have been translated into 22 languages and excerpted in: Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Complete Woman, All You and Quick and Simple magazines. She lives in Texas with her husband, Bill.

http://wildelori.blogspot.com  

http://loriwilde.com

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Plotting From Theme

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