Ciao, SEers. I’m going to round out my posts for the year with a discussion of literary elements and how they interact. There are probably as many opinions of the number of literary elements as there are authors who use them, but I’m going to focus on three in particular that work in tandem to strengthen a story—theme, subject, and symbolism.

Today, we’re going to talk about theme.

I’ve heard a lot of authors say “theme” is for literary fiction, not genre fiction, so they don’t consider it when they write. I’ve heard many others say they wait until they’re done with their story before even looking for their theme.

I maintain all fiction has a theme, and all authors have it in mind when they set out to tell a story (even if they don’t know it).

First, what is theme?

Theme (as it relates to fiction)…