When Do Writers Inject Theme into Their Stories?

Advice from a TV writer/author

I remember learning about “theme” in 9th grade English class. At the time, I thought theme was just some bullshit authors put into their stories so that high schoolers could write term papers on them. I suspected it was manufactured and unnecessary.

Years later, as a professional writer, I can assure you that’s not the case.

Theme is a recurring message, or big idea, that the author is trying convey. It’s NOT inserted into the work at the last minute.

It IS the work.

In my own stories, I generally boil the theme down to one word: redemption, identity, fear, etc. And the theme just naturally appears in the writing. It has to.

In fact, the theme word naturally pops up so often, that I often do a word search at the end of my first draft, just to replace that theme word with synonyms just so that it won’t be so obvious.