“Oh I’ve been through the desert with a book with no theme . . .”

Frequently my characters are having a conversation. I know exactly what points I want that conversation to touch on and I even know some of the dialog word for word before I write it.

But I don’t know what order the topics have to come up to flow correctly. I have a small scene I have been trying to put together for ages. It doesn’t even seem that important at the time where it falls in the story but it is basically a metaphor for the entire book and, most importantly, states my theme. It is giving me so much trouble. I know exactly what is going in it. I just can’t get the stupid sentences in the right order.

I was trying, for the hundredth time, to talk this scene through with my husband and he says to me, “When I write a book, it isn’t going have a theme.” So then, for reasons I cannot explain, I started singing, to the tune of America’s Horse with No Name:

“Oh I’ve been through the desert with a book with no theme, it felt good to get rid of that theme

In the desert, you can’t remember your theme, cause there ain’t no one to give your book a theme.”

As a midi, this song totally sounds like music from a Zelda game.

No, I’m not getting rid of my theme, though it is very tempting. But now every single time I work on this section (or even a section that reminds me of this section) this song gets stuck in my head.