I Believe in Theme

Theme: a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art.–dictionary.com

I know. <Ugh.>

All those stories we’ve worked so hard on have to have a general message or statement about the world, people, or events, aka ‘theme,’ hidden in them somewhere, right? Right?

That’s how I feel about some of my stories. However, the story I have been working on since November has a definite theme. In fact, it has about two or three, but the major theme is not only important, but purposeful. It has become the crucial thread that holds all the mini stories in this novel together.

Because my story has a plethora of characters and subplots, I need to work that theme to my advantage. I need every scene and every chapter to highlight that theme, and for that theme to giving meaning to the story’s events. This theme needs to illuminate the ramifications of all those character actions and reactions. In short, it needs to be the PB in the PB & J sandwich.

Tonight I watched The Tooth Fairy (movie) and it got me thinking about theme. I suppose that could be because it’s a kids movie and they like to beat the theme over the audience’s head. Which, actually, was kind of handy for me who has been ruminating about theme lately.

The major theme in The Tooth Fairy movie was believe. Yup. You probably could have guessed that one! BUT, it was for all the major characters. Ooh. Tricky.

Here’s the rundown on how the theme played out for all the characters…

Hockey player Thompson dude–needs to believe in his dreams again
Tooth Fairy guy without wings–needs to believe he can overcome the obstacle between him and his dreams
The head Tooth Fairy lady–she believes she can change Thompson and make him believe again
The mother/girlfriend–she believes her son and boyfriend will develop a true relationship
The son–needs to believe in himself
The daughter–she believes in the tooth fairy

Writing this out, I noticed something–all the men in the movie need to believe and all the women already do. Interesting. Is there another theme hiding in there? Maybe. Or maybe I’m just looking too deep. I mean, the movie did dress a professional wrestler in a pink tutu for goodness sake.

So, did this theme work? Did it pull it all together? Did it give the story unity? Yes, yes, and yes. The beliefs that the women had needed to be proved correct and the men needed to start believing. Once that all happened, everyone was able to live happily ever after. Awww.

How about you? Is theme something that happens intentionally in your stories, or is it a byproduct–you hope–that you discover afterwards? Do you think some genres use theme more than others?

Focus, Focus…Theme!

When I wrote one of my stories, I didn’t know what the theme was while I wrote it. Or rewrote it. Or rewrote it again. It lacked focus and it was incredibly frustrating writing my query letter. What the heck was my story about anyway? I had all these great events, but where did they go and why were they there? What was I trying to illustrate? How come I could get it all to pull together?At some point I kind of figured out my theme, but then I had more rewriting to do to make sure I illustrated it. It was a loooong haul. And I had the wrong theme. Yeah, I know. The things we learn on the journey to writing a cohesive story, right?

And then, bang. I got it. I had been looking at each scene in a new way and how they related to each other and suddenly I knew what my theme was. Everything instantly became clearer. I could focus. I could see where things were flawed, not holding up their part of the bargain, where they were right on. And was my query letter ever easier to write after that!

So, if you are looking for a way to focus a manuscript you are editing, or working on a new story, don’t underestimate the power of knowing your theme to pull everything into focus.