A couple weeks ago, my mentor asked me to consider what themes I wanted to come across in my book. After my second batch of pages, she said now was about the time when they should start to emerge. Reading her comments, I nodded my head before realizing that I wasn't quite sure exactly what she meant by 'theme' or how exactly I should be working it into my pages. I mean, I don't want my book coming across as some kind of didactic 'message book' that tells the reader exactly what I want them to think and feel about a certain topic. So during our next conversation, I asked her directly (despite feeling a little dumb), and said, "What exactly do you mean by themes? And how should I bring them out more?"
I don't know if you're like me, but I know that we all understand what a theme is. We've all been through middle school and standardized testing where someone asks us to identify the theme of a passage. But still, when it came to trying to make one in my own writing, or more so, trying to make one stand out within the pages, I felt a little unsure. So this is what my mentor said: A theme is a message I want my reader to take away from my book. Not a didactic lesson, or a judgement on how to live, but more of a human connection created between my characters and my reader. Thinking about it this way, I nodded my head for real. A theme is the connected, shared emotion I want to offer my reader. Yes, it is in some ways a message, but it should be based around emotion and struggle and the truth that sometimes living is hard.
Doing a writing exercise to brainstorm just what I thought my themes could be, I came up with three take-aways for my novel. Sharing them with my mentor, she thought they all fit well within the context of the story, and were good messages for readers to connect with. But while this helped me come to a greater understanding of just what my themes should be, and how a theme or themes fit into my book at all, it left me with the question of how exactly to get these themes across.
I think the answer can be different for each and every theme, and each and every book. For some, it is continually pointing out a significant struggle or lesson your character is dealing with without stating it directly, while for others, a theme might have to be explicitly stated by one of your characters in the book. Regardless, writing with the intention and knowledge of your themes is an essential aspect of getting them across. For example, one of my themes for my current novel is tradition — both the break of, and the discomfort and sometimes negative consequences of doing so, as well as the creation of new traditions that come from following your heart. Although I am not inserting the word tradition in every other sentence, or having the adult characters always talk about it or my protagonist agonize over it either, tradition has become a large part of my plot, and thus affects the action of the story tremendously. So while some might not identify tradition as a theme within my text, because it is intertwined with the plot so heavily, it is something a reader isn't like to miss — whether they can articulate its importance or not.
But regardless of how exactly you work theme into your narratives, I've come to realize that theme — the moment of emotional connectedness that will stay with the reader after the book has come to a close — is an important part of both the writing and reading experience. The trick is to find a theme that seamlessly fits into your novel and is true to the heart of the story you are writing.
Themes need to have an authentic connection to the story itself. Trying to throw in a message that has nothing to do with your actual storyline isn't going to help you at all. If anything, it will stand out as misplaced and perhaps even come across as didactic. So taking some time to stop and think about the messages your story is sending you is a good place to start. After all, while you are the writer, you are also a novel's first and truest reader. So make sure it resonates with you first and is something you care deeply about, for how else with your future readers care and connect with this theme.
Perhaps theme comes across a bit more overtly in texts for children or is even more significant, but it is undoubtedly present within adult novels as well. Theme, as defined by this emotional connection, is what will elevate your story from a good narrative to one that resonates with your reader. It will sharpen your novel and make your story memorable rather than a text defined for only a good plot or characterization. Theme gets at the heart of the story you are telling. And ultimately, it's the hearts of the reader we are targeting, not just their brain. So spend some time thinking about the heart behind your story, and just what you want to convey. It will make your story better, and perhaps connect you even more closely to your characters than before.
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