I’ve run across a lot of people lately who say something like, ‘I’m not writing with a message. I just want to write fun stories that entertain people,’ and also, ‘Thinking about the big ideas you’re working with is misguided, it’s not a writer’s job to work with a theme in mind, it’s the job of the critic to think about theme.’ There’s also the old wisdom that says, ‘If you think about theme too much when you’re writing your work will read like an after school special.’ And while I can see where those people are coming from, that is not an approach I can go along with.
First, let’s define our terms. Theme is a big word that gets bandied about a lot, but for me, it’s not something that only belongs in Lit class (a common argument). Themes are the big ideas your work is engaging with. They are more specific than obscure concepts like ‘Justice’ or ‘Love.’ They’re like a thesis statement. ‘Love can’t always save us but it’s worth fighting for, anyway,’ is a theme. ‘People who want power often can’t be trusted with it,’ is a theme. A friend writes YA fantasy, the theme of which is ‘No matter your place in the community, you always belong to yourself.’ Those are themes. Those are big ideas that provide a moral and often narrative framework.
Can you be too didactic about your themes? Absolutely. No one likes a heavy-handed allegory. But this is an issue of skill, not about the appropriateness of engaging with theme at all. You certainly don’t need to have theme front and center in your writing, but it’s good to at least be thinking of the messages your work is sending or reinforcing. You don’t have to set out with a theme in mind when you start writing. It’s best not to. Let the themes emerge as you write. And if you’re writing something with at least a little bit of depth, they will. You might discover what you think about some big issues when you write the story, and this can become your theme.
And here’s the thing, whether or not you do it purposefully, your work will have a theme. The problem comes when your theme is something you did not intend. This is how we get JK Rowling writing an entire book touching on the theme ‘Slavery is good actually, if the slaves are into it!’ Did she mean to say that? Maybe, maybe not (At this point she deserves 0 benefits of the doubt). But that theme was definitely delivered. It’s also how we get book after book populated by nothing but cishet white people because the author ‘Didn’t want to get political.’ It is impossible for a human being to create a written work of fiction that does not have some sort of theme, intentional or not. I’m not asking for people to get preachy, but just to be aware of this and be intentional about it.
Theme is not something I have in mind when I first start envisioning a story, but it does emerge very early in the planning process, and that gives me the freedom to either lean into it or complicate it as I go along. It is something that I can articulate and talk about by the time the book is ready to be published, and knowing the theme helps me make sure those books get into the hands of the right readers. I like that my books are about something real, alongside the worldbuilding, plot shenanigans, and smut.
Now, if all you want is for a story to be fun, that is valid as well. But you’re always making story choices, no matter your intent, and there will be a theme. I mean the Itsy-Bitsy Spider has a theme (Persistence is important. I’m not even kidding.)
So, to summarize, theme is not something that needs to be centered in your writing, but it is something you need to be aware of and intentional with. Get readers to help you suss out your themes if you’re having trouble finding them. It can only help you.