Editing with Theme, and Clearing Remaining Public School Pain

The best thing that can happen is for the theme to be nice and clear from the beginning..." - Paddy Chayefsky

I'm back in public school again, in English class.

My teacher, Ms. Whateverhernamewas, is standing over me.

"What is the theme of the story we're reading?"

Who knows? What's a theme? If it's not a theme park, I don't know. I don't really care. All I care about is where the cute boys are at, and how can I stare at them for the next 30 minutes without being noticed.

But now, back to today, my hormone-induced lack of foresight is coming back to bite me.

Because now, as an adult, I need to know about themes. Because I'm writing them.

My first-draft writing is something of an unconscious process. Pulling out what I see in my mind and putting it down on paper or screen so it doesn't get away from me.

Now it's time to edit the thing. I look at it, and think, "What is the theme?

Heck, I don't even know. And I'm the one who wrote it!!!

Aesop on my Shoulder Makes Me Happy...

If we travel back to Aesop's fables, the theme is easy to find. He gives it to you, at the end of each fable. He's like an obliging teacher, who feels sorry for our struggles, and hands it right to us so we don't have to think too hard. And sad to say, it made me lazy.

So what would Aesop say is the theme of this story I'm writing? I want Aesop whispering in my ear, so I don't have to figure this out on my own. Where is he when I need him?

The Moral of the Story

Authors don't just tell a story. They transmit a message. From the most brilliant to the most inane story, there's something theme-y in every one of them.

I want to know my theme, so I can shape my lump of words into something unified that makes sense, that echoes and reverberates with Truth, like the stories I love reading.

So I've got to find what I 'think' is the theme (with my inner teenager groaning the whole way - I hate English class!) and then make sure nothing goes in my story that doesn't hang somehow on some aspect of that same idea.

And then, suddenly, it changes...which I hope doesn't happen. Hopefully I've planned the story far enough ahead that I've got it, and it's set and planted and growing as it should...

But the subconscious has its own mystic workings, doesn't it? So anything could happen mid-way.

So, to any future students who have to figure out the theme of my story for some essay or paper due way too soon, you have my sympathies. I was right in there with you, but the theme is good to know. You get better grades, and I get better editing capabilities.

If it makes you feel any better, I didn't know the theme either, so whatever you think it is, you're probably right.