Theme and Mesage

Sweeping totally back to a blog about writing now but—surprise!—still a bit about human rights. 

I wanted to write about message and theme a little today. It once frustrated me when people who seemed to know what they were talking about insisted that every story had to have a message. Why not just tell the story? Sure, I understood that stories were a way of teaching back when we warmed our hands around a fire. But did they have to be? Why not just tell a story, maybe one with lots of adventure?

Slooooowly, it became apparent to me that every story had a message, whether you were shooting for one or not. Every story has an action and an outcome. From that, a reader takes away a message. You can’t stop them from doing so, even if you did not intend the message they received. You cannot not communicate.
The message may not be something grand that is weighing on your mind. But the story originates in that gray matter, so it means something to you.

I have written stories with little thought to what their message was, and I have started with a message and written a story around it.

Here is a list of my novels with themes and subthemes listed for each. Did you see the message in each? Did you get some other message from them?

Keeping Private Idaho
Theme: Xenophobia is a cancer
Subtheme: Share it to save it.

Wizard Chase
Theme: Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. (Thanks, Arthur)
Subtheme: A nerd can save a world.

Wizard Girl
Theme: Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.
Subtheme: A girl can save the world.

Wizards’ End
Theme: Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.
Subtheme: The love of a parent is a conquering force.

Anjel (Free today on Kindle, BTW)
Theme: Question your society’s assumptions
Subtheme: Love is not gender specific