SJ Longthorne

A theme is a concept that suggests a journey. A tale about grief might be based on the five stages. A tale about coming of age could take its shape from the Dunning-Kruger effect. At minimum, you have two extremes: the immature manifestation of theme and the mature one.

Once you know your theme, consider what those extremes are: naivety and understanding, anger and acceptance, incompetence and mastery, etc. Consider the steps a character would take to move from one to the other. Consider what kind of act(s) would prompt or test that change.

Get more specific. What is the exact message you want to impart? Decide, then move your character from a state of living in opposition to that message to living it out through their actions. What would make them question themselves? What would drive them to try a new way of life?

The road to accomplishment is full of pot-holes, so make it messy. They get too cocky and suffer defeat, but the stakes are so high that they pick themselves back up. Progress is slow for a while, but picks up speed. They're more realistic about the danger next time.

The climax of the story asks them to prove that they have learned the message by asking them to live that message out through their actions when the stakes are highest, when going back to their old ways and attitudes looks most tempting. Finding Nemo executes this perfectly.

Item two: CLASSIC PLOT STRUCTURES. Some hate 'em. Some love 'em. I'm not saying you need 'em. I'm saying, if you're struggling, check them out and see how your story measures up, and whether changes suggested by those structures improve what you have.

Again, not saying adhering to structures is good or bad. They are tried and true recipes, but you are a master chef. You might cross-reference for sanity, but ultimately you'll innovate with the power of your brain-zappingly badass awesomeness.