Every story must have a reason for being written. That is what a theme is. Many themes have emerged in contemporary literature, and others have remained universal. Think of the play Antigone by Sophocles, whereby there are many themes such as power and influence, tyranny, rules and hierarchy, and free will or choice. More common themes in contemporary literature and genre fiction (science fiction is known well for these) include humanity’s destructive compulsiveness, life beyond Earth, and tyranny. These themes have been explored elsewhere, but they appear more frequently in a lot of today’s authorship. The important thing is that if there is a reason for writing something, and there must be, then a theme must be palpable.
How to Develop a Theme
Know what type of writer you are
Different writers will have different methods of developing a theme for their work. Much of it depends on the type of writer you are. Some prefer to select a theme deliberately. That is, they might start with a premise, like:
A young man visits his aunt and uncle to ask if he could stay with them while he completes his dissertation. The longer he stays, the more he understands his estranged family’s twisted heritage and perverted legacy.
This is a fairly vague concept. Almost anything can happen. But a writer who comes up with this premise is in a sense, implicitly acquiring a theme. What might the theme of this story be? This type of writer, who wants to know before he/she starts writing what theme the story will have, will usually have an inkling of what it will be. Rarely will someone start with a theme and then develop a story from it. But it can happen. As an exercise, brainstorm a few themes that you think the premise above might have.
Most writers, at least the ones I’ve known, don’t deliberately think of a theme. It develops naturally from the premise. There are associations we have with certain ideas that evoke certain feelings. And by virtue of combining language and form to create a completed work, the exterior and interior events of the lives of our characters are given significance and meaning. This is what some would call emergent, rather than intentional thematic selection.
Don’t think about it
Following the section above, you don’t often need to think of a theme in advance. Themes will attach themselves to ideas without effort. To demonstrate this, I will list a few extremely vague concepts and as an exercise, think of what theme the story will have or could have:
Woman witnesses a brutal murder
A dying man wins the lottery
John befriends a zombie
Gary finds his wife in bed with his brother
Julie opens her relationship with her girlfriend
This exercise should’ve shown that themes emerge from basic conceptual materials. They are built into our concepts. My advice is to avoid thinking about the theme deliberately until you start revision. At that point, you can step away from the work and evaluate the palpability of your theme and the story’s meaning.
Use beta readers to sharpen your theme
Beta readers are people who read works of fiction before they are published to offer suggestions and critical advice for the author to consider. If you’ve now bought into the argument that theme isn’t to be deliberately sought, then you will understand that a beta reader is an important part of having a strong theme that resonates. A beta reader will offer their perspective on your story. Here are some sample questions you can ask specifically about your theme:
What was the theme?
When did you first recognize the theme?
Was the theme well-developed?
How can the theme be improved?
When you have a first draft, I suggest taking a step back from your work for at least two weeks. This will help you achieve objectivity. You can go back and review the book, make notes, and start editing before you pass your manuscript along to someone else to evaluate. You may have more than one theme. A beta reader will help you think critically about how your story’s theme resonates and can be improved. Use them to your advantage when you have a polished draft that you can confidently pass along to someone else.
Be well-read in your genre
When you submit your manuscript to agents, many of them will ask you to address which books written in the last few years are similar to yours. This helps give them an idea of how your story might fit into the market and if you know enough about your genre. This is why it’s important to keep up with the publishing trends in your genre. Read wide and often. Not only will this help you select apt comparisons for your query letter, but it will help you develop stronger associations between themes and concepts in your specific genre. Consider these common ones for the following genres:
Mystery/crime
Justice/injustice
Good vs evil
Corruption
Science fiction
Tyranny
The search for life beyond Earth
Extinction
Fantasy
Coming of age
Tradition vs change
Quest for knowledge
Why are you writing?
Readers aren’t going to read a book and think “ah, there’s the theme!” There shouldn’t be a moment in which the reader finally sees the theme and understands its significance to the story. It’s something they feel. John Gardner likens fiction to a sort of dream state that the reader enters. You don’t want to awaken them too early. You must know why you have decided to write a particular story. What does it mean to you? Why should you be the one to write it? Your theme should be felt and noticed subconsciously. It should make the reader learn something; you want them to feel a certain way upon implicitly discovering the significance of your story. For that, you must know why you are writing. But that’s about as far as deliberate as you need to go when developing a theme.
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