What I hope we agree on: Theme is the main idea or topic of a story. A novel may have many themes, a short story usually just one. It is what the story is about, the message, if you will, summarized to a phrase or a sentence. Here’s where I have seen a wide divergence of opinion – is it best to start with theme or let it develop as you are writing? I tend to start with theme. But there’s a camp of writers who believe that lends itself to preachy writing. I don’t think that’s the case for me, but it’s a valid point. All sorts of themes may make themselves known while you are writing. Where do you lie on the spectrum? - between “always start with theme” and “never start with theme”
I often start with one but remain open to any that might emerge in the writing itself, because often the initial idea is too heavy-handed. It's a conscious idea, and theme is so much better when it emerges unconsciously. In fact this is true for any aspect of the writing. I try not to be closed-off to subtle unconscious ideas.
I have to have some sort of prompt (or theme?) in order to gestate an idea for a story. Open prompts are very hard for me to write to. That is not to say I don't have lots of story ideas...just the opposite, far too many if you ask me. Perhaps if I were to sort of condense an idea down to a theme, and then write to that 'prompt' I would have more success at communicating with my muse on original story ideas. Or perhaps when I've got more writing experience under my belt, like most things once you master them, the creativity becomes more natural in its manifestation. Rather oddly, when I used to write/record music the creative process was always much more natural and organic...I can still sit down with a guitar and write something decent and original without much effort but I've found story-writing is not the same for me and I need that prompt to create.
Here's the how and the why for my approach—the stream of unconscious creativity is always there, bubbling up underneath us. Whatever project you're working on it's supplying ideas aplenty. Well depending on the project I guess, some undoubtldly fail to stimulate it. The way you arrive at a theme from the unconscious is by noticing that a lot of ideas are coming up relating to your project, and there's a good deal of connection between them—hence they suggest a theme. If you go with that flow, then more connected ideas will most likely continue to emerge around it. But if you're working to a consciously-derived theme your unconscious ideas won't connect with it (most likely), instead you'll have to work to make your ideas all connect up, which can feel artificial or forced.
I find, too, that this is usually the case for me. the theme is like a guide - so I stick to what I'm trying to say in the story. I wanted to write a story about the unassailable bond between sisters - and I did - and that theme guided my writing. I wanted to write a story about how shame is destructive. My story about a pathological liar with dissociative identity disorder grew out of that. So, beginning with - "I want to write a story about ..." works for me. if I start a story, and I don't have the theme, I tend to have more difficulty with it.
This is a real risk. It's the common argument against starting with a theme, especially if the theme is of an ideological nature. I think, though, as a writer becomes more experienced, this can be avoided.
New thoughts— What I'm talking about can be said without resorting to conscious and unconscious (I think those words throw a lot of people). It's really just this—in the beginning you come up with an idea of what the theme is, as well as ideas for the characters, plot, etc. At this point, it's before the first draft or any development, so these are rough, first-gen or low resolution ideas. Then you start developing or just launch into writing, and as you go things come into clearer focus. Those early ideas can start to feel pretty crude, but now you can refine them. The story is coming into focus. This applies to every aspect of the writing—characters, ideas, plot, theme. It might happen consciously or through intuition or inspiration, or as you're developing some other aspect of the story something suggests itself, so you can now go through and adjust your original (often rather crude) ideas for every aspect of it, across the board. It's just a matter of remaining open to subtle hints and suggestions that arise (consciously or not) as things develop. Maybe sometimes your initial ideas were good enough and don't need any refining. Usually mine get refined several times along the way. Of course I'm working on long form stories with no deadline, not for contests that require rapid turnaround.
This happens to be the case with the story I am working on now, for the story contest on WF.com site. The prompt was to write it in the style of Edgar Allen Poe and set it at a creepy three-story Victorian home in the darks woods. Okay, so all I know is that I have to have fear and haunting. I start writing, not knowing where I am going. The first creation was really the characters. The story mutates several times and I just figured out the theme today. But when I do have the theme in mind when I begin, I do a lot less meandering while I write.
I have never once gone into a piece of writing thinking about theme. It's not something I think about during or after writing something either. Honestly, it's not something I think about at all.
