Story Versus Theme
A book about the Cocaine Cowboys’ favorite hotel sheds light on story telling truths
About a month ago I was at the New Yorker Festival listening to a talk with David Grann and Patrick Radden Keefe. The subject was creative nonfiction and these guys are the masters, both with several bestselling books. They introduced a lot of interesting concepts but one point in particular stuck with me.
With a chuckle, they brought up the idea of writing about a theme versus a story.
A theme is a general idea, let’s say the middle ages, while a story is a narrative arc, let’s say Beowulf. Writing about a theme when you think you’re writing a story is where a lot of creative nonfiction authors fail.
This may seem obvious, but the idea really hit a nerve. Recently I’ve had trouble getting through nonfiction books. When I decide what to read, I often tend to shoot from the hip. I go to a local bookstore, Like BookStore One in Sarasota, and peruse the shelf for something that catches my eye.
I tried this approach at Books & Books in Coconut Grove. In the nonfiction section Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami caught my eye for obvious reasons. Living in Miami during the 70s and 80s Cocaine cowboy period seemed really cool. From documentaries to books, I’m down to buy content about this era.
The problem was that the book turned out to sort of suck, but I couldn’t at first tell why. It had all the prerequisites, it’d been thoroughly researched and was chock full of incredible stories. The pages heaved with lust, hedonism, and violence. It also described places that I knew and in an era I could literally speak to my neighbors about.
I was racking my brain, why didn’t I like this book? On airplanes, the sofa, and at my desk I tried to get through it but I just couldn’t, It wasn’t even that long. My goal was to revue the book, but here we are instead.
At the New Yorker Festival it hit me, the book described a theme but had no real story. Yes it had lots of fun anecdotes, but nothing tied them together. There were characters but they floated in and out. I never felt connected. While it had lots of action and violence, I couldn’t make myself care. Like a lot of books these days I put it down without finishing.
Let's contrast this with The Art Thief, by Michael Finkel. Unlike Hotel Scarface, I didn’t have a meet cute moment with this book. I got it on Audible to get me through an extended period of plane travel. Frankly I’m not that interested in art and I had just written a piece for Field Ethos on art theft so I was also sort of burned out on that genre. It was, however, recommended as well as not being too long so I went for it.
This book traces the fascinating exploits of Stéphane Breitwieser, a French art thief who stole more than two hundred artworks worth almost two billion dollars. He never sold anything, just hoarded the art in his room at his mother’s house. This was an individual with deeply unusual motivations and it was fascinating to see his character develop. Along the way, I learned a lot about investigating and prosecuting art crimes. I probably retained more information about art crime because I was so intrigued by the personal story of Breitwieser.
There are lessons for any writer or content creator in this comparison. You can have the best theme and loads of research, but without a great story no one is going to really care. I have struggled with this in my writing.
One newsletter writer who is doing this incredibly well is the anonymous author behind Watches of Espionage. Watch media can be incredibly dull, a circle jerk of industry event coverage and formulaic writing about the same watches over and over. The theme is beaten to death and there’s no story. WOE is different. They tell compelling real life spy stories through the lense of watches. The tale of a Breitling gifted from the King of Jordan is more compelling than another Navitimer review.
There’s also a broader lesson, if you’re interested in something take the time to hear what the best have to say about it. I almost skipped the talk that rainy October morning. The venue’s security annoyed the shit out of me. The only ticket available was for standing room. I almost left even after I was inside.
But, however, I stayed.
Inside I learned valuable insights into a majors interest area that I hope will help me with my writing going forward. When in doubt, go, give it a try and see for yourself. You won’t know if you stay home.