"Theme"atics

Having a theme helps the story not feel like uncontrolled meandering across the page. It's like a little safety light blinking that assures you that yes, the writer does know what she's doing, and this is all going someplace, really. It's a good way to keep the reader's trust that you're building toward something.

It can also lead to predictability.

Being the one who started the whole theme thing around here, I thought I'd input.

Themes are great ways to make a story good, but, are they required...well, it depends on the typed of story you're writing. If you're writing a fantasy or action story, where the plot and characters are the most important things, then no.

However, if you're writing an adventure, non-fiction, or other such realistic stories, it may be more required.

ExistencePrecedesEssence: You misspelled the word "lose" in your signature. "Loose" refers to something that is not tight, "lose" is a verb.

I don't think a theme is necessary necessarilly, but it does help me. Plus, I like to know I'm writing about something I feel strongly about, and having a theme in my mind gives me drive and structure to work with. However, I've read and watched plenty of genuinely great, enjoyable stories that no real themes at all to them.

(I would pick a theme over a moral, as morals tend to get tiring if you use them almost extensively as a theme themselves. Instead, I'd like situations to teach life-lessons naturally, organically, instead of being forced or spoon-fed to their audiences...if that makes any sense.)

...and I don't think the title's that awful.

That is an interesting question re: themes. I wonder, if any of the people on this site were asked, what they would say was the theme of Tolkien’s LOTR? I don’t know what I would have said, because I was told before I could answer the question on my own. It was a week or so before Christmas some years ago, and I thought if I turned the TV on it would make wrapping packages a little less boring. I channel surfed to a show on Tolkien and LOTR. The producers had found old photos of Tolkien, had interviewed his son, and had interjected editorial comment. I was somewhat surprised when Tolkien said [as I recall, it was in his own words; it may have been from an interview he taped at some point] the central, most fundamental and connective theme of the entire trilogy was “Death”. He explained why, and it was because he had lost, due to war, illness and other causes, every single significant person in his life by the time he was about twenty. The editorial commentator broke in at that point to mention some other difficult relationship issues Tolkien struggled with.



After seeing that documentary, I finally felt that LOTR made sense. [I was wrapping packages very, VERY slowly by the end! ] Otoh, once again I wonder how many readers of it would have guessed its theme on their own? For many, it’s just an epic adventure of good versus evil. So maybe the moral is that themes are possibly not quite as critical as some imagine?? [Or does this post indicate just the opposite? Inasmuch as Tolkien did have a theme; it just may not be the one most people would immediately associate with LOTR.]


PS: Is anyone else aware that C. S. Lewis was the lone stalwart supporter Tolkien had among the Inklings, the little literary group to which he and Lewis belonged? One of the other members, when it was Tolkien’s turn to read, would actually groan loudly and exclaim, “Heaven help us! Not more elves!” (Talk about discouraging!) But Lewis believed in Tolkien, and encouraged him to stick with it.

I don't consciously add themes to my writing, but they're there nonetheless.