Does Knowing The Theme of My Novel Matter?

[janedoe0018]

TLDR: How important is it to have the theme of your plot (and subplots) nailed down prior to writing?

As I have started down this path to write my first novel I’ve heard a lot of good advice when it comes to the importance of an overarching theme. Most will say having a theme is important, obviously, but do you need to know what it is before you start writing?

Some of the people on the internet that I follow for writing advice will claim that understanding the theme, the why of your story, is a critical step that should happen early on. They say that it helps you craft a story in a way that feels consistent, and that you will be less likely to go off into unnecessary tangents unrelated to the why of your story.

Now to be clear, I don’t disagree with this advice, I simply have an exceptionally hard time implementing it. Being very green in the writing sphere, these words may come back to haunt me, but as my writing process stands right now I am keen on coming up with general plot points and just pantsing the rest, theme be damned. It is most natural for me to focus on writing in a way that feels good both to get onto paper and to read back, and I’m trusting that this process will lead me to a story that has a recognizable message. Placing any kind of non-critical limitation on my ability to write freely earns me a quick ticket to overthinking.

How do you all approach themes in your writing? Is it something you define in outlining or is it more of an exploratory process?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Themes are great. I can tell you that, coming as I do from a Lang and Lit background, you're going to have themes in your work that you don't even know about. True story.

Yes, knowing the themes you want to explore going in does have its pros. But insisting on knowing them before words hit the page is a really great way to have awesome themes and no pages made. I tend to use each book's themes to find their titles. Not everyone does this, it's just part of my process. Your themes will come to you when they come to you. You already have everything you need in your head. All of the why's, all of the conflict, all of the story arcs - we're just not sure how to reach them. It's why we can surprise ourselves when we write.

The art and craft of writing is You Do You: The Master's Class. If you feel an urge to pants, then pants away. That way lies your words. Don't let anyone (even me ) tell you your process is wrong - so long as it works. If it doesn't, obviously you need to fix that, but author brain is also where 'obviously' goes to die.

Welcome to Scribes. You've come to the right place.

 

[Penpilot]

If you have the themes before you start, great. If you don't, it doesn't matter. They will pop up whether you want them to or not.

If I don't know the themes when I start, I find it's usually a good idea after the first draft to pause and think about what I'm trying to say and what the themes are. I think it's a good thing to know at that point because it helps me shape the story in a more deliberate way. Also, there can be themes that you most definitely want to express, and then, there are themes were you go, "OMG! I didn't mean that at all."

 

[pmmg]

What is TLDR?

From my experience, I did have some idea of the themes I wanted in the book, and since I am writing a series, the themes continue through all five of the books. But it is certainly true some themes I did not expect appeared during the course of writing it, and when they do, that is great too. So, I tend to look at some themes are big over-arching themes, and those I want to make sure remained present and guide somewhat the writing, and some themes are smaller sub-type themes, they may last for a single book, or run their course in the story. Since I an not always aware of the themes when I start, but become aware of them during the process, I pretty much go back and hit them harder in the rewrite and really polish them up.

Since, by your own admission, you are very green, the best advice I can give is write ugly, get the experience, and things like theme will start to take care of themselves. While, generally, I hate the phrase 'you do you' on a forum, if you have something that is working, even a little bit, its better than the thing you imagine you should have, yet still dont. So, you have to go with what you got. But the good news is, that journey from Green to 80% there goes really fast....then you can be like the rest of us, languishing for years on that remaining 20%

 

[janedoe0018]

What is TLDR?

From my experience, I did have some idea of the themes I wanted in the book, and since I am writing a series, the themes continue through all five of the books. But it is certainly true some themes I did not expect appeared during the course of writing it, and when they do, that is great too. So, I tend to look at some themes are big over-arching themes, and those I want to make sure remained present and guide somewhat the writing, and some themes are smaller sub-type themes, they may last for a single book, or run their course in the story. Since I an not always aware of the themes when I start, but become aware of them during the process, I pretty much go back and hit them harder in the rewrite and really polish them up.

Since, by your own admission, you are very green, the best advice I can give, is write ugly, get the experience, and things like theme will start to take care of themselves. While, generally, I hate the phrase 'you do you' on a forum, if you have something that is working, even a little bit, its better than the thing you imagine you should have, yet still dont. So, you have to go with what you got. But the good news is, that journey from Green to 80% there goes really fast....then you can be like the rest of us, languishing for years on that remaining 20%

Thanks for the advice! TLDR stands for “Too Long Didn’t Read” which is a shorthand for “here is the summary of everything I’m about to say”. It’s kind of a force of habit for me to include one from my participation on Reddit and in Discord.

 

[pmmg]

I thought it meant that, and I was like, why would you open a post like that, there is nothing presented that is too long that I might skip it. So, it means, lets just skip to the summary...

Got it.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Thanks for the advice! TLDR stands for “Too Long Didn’t Read” which is a shorthand for “here is the summary of everything I’m about to say”. It’s kind of a force of habit for me to include one from my participation on Reddit and in Discord.

We're all writers. Takes more than a wall of text to intimidate us.

Talking, maybe.

 

[Prince of Spires]

For your first novel especially, all that matters is that you get it written. That's hard enough without having to worry about themes or dark secrets of your characters or arcs or the correct pacing or whatever. Just write the thing.

Later on, you can improve your process and see if knowing your theme helps you write and write better. For some people it probably does. Others may find that it stops them from writing at all. And others again will find that even though they set out to write theme X, once they settle down to write, the story changes and they end up writing theme Y. Everyone is different.

For what it's worth, in his book On Writing, Stephen King mentions that he just writes the story (he's a pantser). Then when he goes through the book for his editing pass, he looks for the themes of the book. Once he finds them, he polishes them and edits the story to make them consistent throughout and add them in where they aren't there yet. So you don't have to know them up front.

In general, be wary of any writing advice that states that you must do something. Always treat it as "this is an option, try it to see if it works for you". The only exception here is that you must write. That's the only way to get the book written.

 

[Finchbearer]

to be honest of all the brilliant books I’ve read, all of them have explored deeper or overarching themes. Fantasy is a great genre to use as a ‘veil’ to actually be talking about something deeper behind the prose.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yeah, themes are a funny thing. I don't even think it's necessary to be "consistent," as that can come off as preachy. I explore themes. Kings (in a variety of types, including elected) are part of my exploration, right down to whether it's really the form of government that's important. Was this at all intentional? No. I know I'm going to do things like that whether I plan it or not.

 

[Mad Swede]

My literature teachers at school always said that (almost) by defintion a novel must have a theme and an underlying message conncted with this theme.

With that written, do my novels have a theme? Yes, according to my editor they do. Did I conciously set out to put those themes in the novels? No. I just wrote. My editor says that for me these themes are probably sub-conscious and that I shouldn't worry too much about them when I write. As she says, they turn up as I write.

 

[Karlin]

There's too much Wise Advice for Beginning Writers out there. Here's a fool's advice: Read. Write.

 

[David@2011]

Is this even a question, ove course it helps because it allows you to know what you can and cannot put in the story and it gives you ideas for your story as well.

 

[Alliyus-Arigona]

Currently, knowing a theme of a story is a huge impactful reason that many novels are interested by people. If you have don't have a theme for a novel, people often tend to look away, and not read it.