So, we all love to talk about plot and characterization when we're talking story. They’re fun and also huge parts of your story that you really do have to nail. Sometime we’ll maybe talk about setting or world-building, but the story element that often gets left out of the equation entirely is theme.
Poor theme—there’s nothing sexy about it. But it’s one of my favourite things to dig into when I’m dev editing for clients because it really knits everything together into a cohesive whole.
So, first, what is theme? I always think of learning Shakespeare in high school, and how teachers reduced theme down to one word—Macbeth is about ambition, Hamlet is about revenge, Othello is about jealousy, etc. And yeah, of course those plays are about those things, but also they’re much more complicated than that. But I think it’s actually a pretty good idea to drill theme down to a word or a concept or a phrase to start. In a bare bones sense, theme is really just what your story is about. If you were going to give the most general response to the question “what’s this story about?” without talking about your characters or the action or the conflict, what would you say? Is it something as simple as “love conquers all” or discovering one’s true self/identity? More political, like “the patriarchy sucks, let’s burn it the fuck down”? Heavier topics like grief, healing from trauma, wrestling with trust after betrayal, etc.?
To go deeper, why do you care about this? Why is this your theme? What’s the theme speaking to or commenting on? Your story doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it’s a product of all of the other story elements like plot, character, setting (time and place), etc., and also of your own worldview and what’s happening in your world. What do you want to communicate to your audience with this story? Are you commenting on the place of women in society, the weight of social/familial/religious expectations, what it means to have power? Theme is what gives your story a deeper meaning than just your characters following a plot line.
One of the ways that I try to make sense of a story when I’m editing is to figure out what the theme is. I look for the main thread going through the story and then point it out to the author to help them focus and guide the action and the reaction to the action. If you’re conscious of theme while you’re writing, it’s much easier to determine what's going to happen next because theme is the idea that everything comes back to—so how does that action relate to the theme? Does it go against theme to disastrous results? Does it support it? The strongest stories have all of the plotlines reflect on theme in some way—the primary plot and the secondary plot(s) are naturally running parallel to each other and commenting on something in a different way, and that something is generally the theme. Essentially, theme is the organizing principle of the story.
Try right now—what’s the theme of your current story, distilled down to one word or phrase? (And yes, you have one, even if you don’t think you do! Sometimes authors are so close to the story that they don’t know that they’re writing thematically. I have said to multiple clients, “So, I think your theme is X,” and they come back with “OMG, it is!”)
Paying attention to theme is such a great way to level up your storytelling. Be conscious of it while you’re writing, and your story will pack an even more meaningful punch!