What is the significance of theme in story development?
Editing story for resonance
The Short Story
Theme gets at the big-picture human significance of a story—the "so what?" that we always hope sticks with a reader long after plot points fade from memory. It describes the main idea(s) or message(s) underlying or permeating the narrative, mostly in implicit ways if the story is a yarn well spun.
The Real(ist) Story
People can get persnickety about their preferred definition of theme. For instance, it's common in colloquial parlance to identify an abstract noun like love, faith, or hope as a theme in a particular story or poem. Other folks may object that these are potential subjects of a work of prose or verse but that the theme, properly, is what the words seem to say about the subject.
For my part, I reckon it's not a grievous error to declare, "Death is a main theme of The Lord of the Rings." But where does Tolkien's epic differ thematically from Harry Potter on the matter of death? Or from Dune? Any of several plausible, relatively specific statements of theme may shed more light. Tolkien's tale, I could argue, suggests that an honorable death upholding good is a natural part of a virtuous life. And that Rowling's YA epic presents death as a tragedy born of wicked actions by mean and cowardly folk. Frank Herbert's epic imagines death as a necessary catalyst and byproduct of collective survival.
That said, never feel ashamed for framing theme lazily broadly in passing or casual conversation. As an author, maybe you can't rightly pin down themes of your story—and maybe that's for the best.
Truth be told, it's usually a mistake to start with a pointed theme and proceed to build a story around it. From Terry Goodkind's objectivist fantasy to "literary" novels putting on airs, ideologically driven stories are prone to being clunky, patronizing, obnoxiously self-conscious, or otherwise less than genuine. Storytelling tends to go better if themes arise organically from the author's development and exploration of the characters and plot.
For an editor, conversely, clear and specific notions of the themes at play in a story can prove useful arrows in your editorial quiver. Not that it's advisable to aim every element of a story directly at a theme, approaching fiction (or creative nonfiction) like a persuasive essay. But where the opportunity arises, you might prod an author to lean into apparent themes in ways that may resonate with readers.
Now, where to find these themes? To the extent a story is character-driven, you may discover themes tied to truths that the character is learning (or not) in part or full. In a more plot-driven story, themes may emerge from the unfolding of events. (Emphases on character and on plot are not mutually exclusive, of course. We can only hope that the characters get caught up in interesting goings-on.)
Plumbing the depths of meaning in a story, you may also identify generalized themes connected to the human condition or to broad, culturally rooted experiences and aspirations. Such themes tend to speak to readers' personal desires. For example, amid the homogenizing, atomizing forces of twenty-first-century society, readers may latch onto themes of belonging (to a distinct tribe), romantic love, and extraordinary purpose.
Story Time
The child fidgeted with a lock of her dark hair and watched droves of shaggy, hump-backed steppe-beasts drift across the horizon. They were wanderers, like her.
After a spell, she asked her father, “How come we’re always on the move? Can’t we stay put for a while?”
He looked down at her with his kindly eyes, great long beard, and tattooed cheeks. “When our folk had a city, little one, we made our tents of stone and planted them in the ground like trees.”
Her tiny brow furrowed. “What happened to our city? Did we lose it?”
“Indeed,” he said softly. “And then we lost ourselves, too. But we’ll have another city, someday, if we keep looking—”
“Under the rising sun?” she blurted.
Her father nodded with a smile and gave her hair a tousle. “Yes. Then we’ll be lost no longer.”1
In this standalone snippet from my Eastsong Cycle, the simple themes include loss, displacement, hope, and faith.
I'd posit as a specific theme, “What is lost may be regained with faithful persistence.”
And I’d suggest that the generalized, deep-seated theme is yearning for home or a sense of place.
Godspeed and happy rewriting!
Heywood, M. B. “The Lost-Folk.” The Vaporous Realms (web). December 30, 2022.