Stories are theme machines. You reckon?

[Rich.]

Hmm, theme, there's nothing like it for getting writers all worked up, from the slavish adherents to the dismissive free spirits.

One school of thought defines theme like this:

It's dangerous for a fiction writer to say something is absolutely true. That's not what theme is at all. A storyteller should only show what's true in the story they're telling. That truth might not apply to a different story. It's more interesting for fiction to ask questions than to answer them definitively – or so this way of thinking would have it.

Here's a guy. He lives alone. He meets a girl. They get it on but then things turn sour and she ends up taking him for all he's got. The story ends with him alone and destitute. Theme? It's better to be alone.​

​

Here's another guy. He meets a girl. They get it on and she helps him break down his fears, which allows him to set up his dream business. Theme? It's better to be part of a team.​

Neither of those themes represents an ultimate truth. They simply reflect the truth of the story in which they appear. And it's left to our readers to do the philosophizing.

Theme, according to this school, is a question that story examines (dramatizes – from several angles), and then provides an answer to in its final act.

And so it goes.

It may not be true.


What do you think? Is theme a guiding light in the construction of your stories? A pompous indulgence best left to the critics? Or simply a word that when applied to writing confuses the hell out of you?

 

[Rich.]

Oh, I forgot to sign off with the customary smiley (I'm always smiling, even when I'm asleep). Here it is:

 

[Hannah F]

Hmm. I shall ponder . . .

 

[RK Wallis]

Just quickly (4am), I think whether you intend a theme or not, one emerges in the writing of a book Whether the author agrees is another matter, but it's the readers who will decide. My 2 cents (pence).

 

[Hannah F]

I agree that a storyteller should only show what's true in the story they're telling. If you set out with the intention to pass on a moral message, as Aesop did, that's another matter, but the best stories don't try to moralize, and the reader might take something from it that you wouldn't have given them if you were sticking to a theme.

 

[Robert M Derry]

I think theme is very subjective and something that English Lit teachers obsess over, but is probably the last thing for a budding writer to worry about.

Theme often seems to be your readers' interpretation of your story, which is often not what you intended.

For instance, in your example you've said that the theme of:

Here's a guy. He lives alone. He meets a girl. They get it on but then things turn sour and she ends up taking him for all he's got. The story ends with him alone and destitute.

Is:

It's better to be alone.

But this is your interpretation of the story.

My interpretation could be more along the lines of: Love is blind/Ignorance is bliss/Enjoy it whilst it lasts because everyone will burn you in the end. This doesn't mean that it's better to be alone, it just means that to me, good things don't last. This is very much drawn from my own relationship experiences and those of my now divorced parents, hence why my reading of the story may be different to yours.

I'd say that this comment is spot on:

It's dangerous for a fiction writer to say something is absolutely true.

I think it's more important to write something which will allow readers to draw from their own experiences and connect to your story. This meaning may be similar, but it'll be subtly different for everyone. The best stories (and songs) are ones that can touch upon everyone's life experiences without impressing an absolute opinion on those experiences.

That's my view of theme anyway!

 

[CageSage]

And I have a different take. Theme is one of the words I use when planning. Not to shape the story, but to influence the values and motivations of the characters. It doesn't influence the plot archetype, or the character archetype, but it's the baseline of the subtext of the story.
When I wrote Itchy, its shape (the plot archetype) was greed (which req's temptation and self-delusion) and the theme was the attitude toward money (consumer is the word I kept at the back of my planning mind, even though I don't use that word, and there isn't a shop in sight). Putting greed together with consumer makes sense to me because they need each other. I could have chosen another word, but that worked for me and the story because it was me doing it and only I needed to use it like that.
And if someone else reads the story, they are unlikely to see the same theme I used. They'd feel his plight, they'd fear for him and his rationalisation, they'd plead for him to learn and grow ... and that is how I use theme. Subtext, not shape. The underlying current that knocks the plot and character down a wild river.
Oh, the story is about a man who needs to earn the forgiveness of his wife and child and takes on a job in an outback goldfield to get back in their good graces.

 

[Rich.]

I suppose, given that I started this thread, I should nail my colours to the mast. I agree with a lot of what's been said above. Theme for me is another tool in the craft box. It's something we can use if we so choose – a statement or question that can be dramatically analysed from many angles, and situationally answered if the story seems to demand it. It has nothing to do with readers and critics. Whatever themes they might identify in a piece of writing are something quite different.

In summary, theme, for a writer, is a craft tool to be used when required.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Famous apocryphal story, which may or may not be true, but bears reflection, however facetious, Winston Churchill to a waiter, 'take this pudding away. It has no theme.'

 

[Rich.]

*adopts bullfrog voice* – “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” *waggles cigar*

 

[Jonny]

I'm another vote for thinking that theme is often "read into" work by readers and critics etc.

For me I see theme almost as a sibling of subject, and from concentrating on a subject then a theme may well emerge.