Finding the Theme in Your Story

Let’s talk about story themes. 

Stephen King, in his book On Writing (Pocket, 2000) has this to say about theme:

“Writing and literature classes can be annoyingly preoccupied by (and pretentious about) theme, approaching it as the most sacred of sacred cows, but (don’t be shocked) it’s really no big deal.  If you write a novel, spend weeks and then months catching it word by word, you owe it both to the book and to yourself to lean back (or take a long walk) when you’ve finished and ask yourself why you bothered—why you spent all the time, why it seemed so important.  In other words, what’s it all about, Alfie?”

Theme is that part of your story that book groups and stodgy literary types in tweed jackets and toupees will sit around holding very cultured discussions about.  It’s the underlying current that resonates with a reader long after he or she has put down your book and moved on with life in the real world.

Some writers put all their eggs into the basket of theme while others downplay the whole thing and let the theme discover itself.  Some writers begin with a theme in mind and aid its development as the story unfolds; some find the theme when the story is complete and they have time to reflect and see what their subconscious has created; and some stumble upon the theme midway through and uncover it like a rare jewel nestled in a clump of granite.

Whatever your approach or idea about theme, your story will most likely have one.  Your job is either to choose one or discover it after the fact.  But don’t sweat over the task.  In most cases the theme will find you.

Themes usually answer questions or wrestle with issues we, the author, are pondering either consciously or subconsciously.  Here’s some examples:  Is God really in control?  Do we choose our future or is it chosen for us?  Can love really cover a multitude of sins, even those gut-wrenching, heart-tearing, spit-in-the-face ones?  Does our past shape our future?  Does God work today like he did in the Old Testament?  Can we truly bury our ghosts and start life anew?  Is it ever right to do wrong?

Whatever your question or issue, whatever you wrestle with in the solitude of the nighttime, whatever you love or hate, don’t—please oh please don’t—make the story about the theme, make the story about the story and let the theme have its place in the background.  If you make the story about the theme it will most certainly feel forced and come off like you have an agenda to push.  You’ll sound like some loud-mouthed politician on a soapbox.  Is that what you want?  I didn’t think so.  In my opinion, it’s best to write the story God has placed on your heart and in your mind and then sit back afterward and discover what theme He planted in the midst of it.  You may know what it is already, you may have an idea, or you may wind up pleasantly surprised.

For my upcoming novel, The Hunted, I had an idea of one theme that was developing as I wrote the story, but the other themes were discovered after the story was complete and after re-reading it and taking some time to ponder the book and its undercurrents.  It was a satisfying discovery.

Now, all that being said, please understand that the theme you think is so gloriously embedded in your story may not be the same theme the reader finds.  Every reader approaches a story with his or her own baggage and interprets it through his or her own lens of experience and beliefs and fears and ideas about how the world works.  Don’t worry about that.  It’s beautiful and magical and perfectly normal.  Just as no two writers will write the same story exactly the same way, no two readers will read it the same way. 

So we’re back to reading groups and stodgy tweed-clad literary types arguing over what your story is really all about.  And that’s okay.  Really.