The first challenge, and the one that derails many writers (okay, most) is the realization that all of these are equally important. They have one or two of these elements, and off they go, writing up a storm without realizing they haven’t finished fleshing out the story.

You can do that work before you write the story, or during the process. Or some combination thereof. Use the power of the one element you have in hand — theme, in your case — and play “what if?” games with it until you arrive at a conceptual heart and a compelling hero. Don’t rush this, don’t short change it, make this the front line of your creative process.

If that doesn’t work, then beging writing the story… but not with the intention of leaving those bases uncovered, but with the urgent need to discover them quickly. And knowing that when you do, you’ll need to go back to square one and rebuild the story in context to the presence of these new elements. Which will be a joy, because now you have what you need to make it fly.

You may be surprised at how quickly this happens. Immerse yourself in the process. I have dozens of posts here that can help, both in terms of process and substance.

Please keep me posted. Just dive in. You’ll swim. Because now you know the game, the criteria, the need. Those who sink don’t even know they’re on the bottom, because they don’t understand what was missing from their story.

You have the tools. Don’t kick yourself for feeling you haven’t mastered them yet… nobody ever really does. We just use them and allow them to work their magic. Which they will. Good luck to you!