As a reader, I just read fanfiction to be entertained, so I don't really care either way if other authors put effort into the theme for their stories or not. A story written without a strong theme in mind is mostly "light" reading for the sake of entertainment, literary fast food, but that's exactly what I'm looking for when I read fanfiction, so a powerful theme really is just a nice extra, nothing necessary. For example, if I a read a story about a bank heist... and if it has a deeper metaphorical allegory about the economy or veiled commentary on the human condition, then great... but if it really is just a simple story about a bank heist and nothing deeper, it's still fine to me as long as it's entertaining. If an author does put in the effort to integrate a strong theme into a story, it does tend to make a deeper and more lasting impression on me than just an entertaining plot alone though.
As an author, however, I generally put more thought into the theme than on the plot. Oneshots aren't really long enough to build complex plot or character development, so I try to put a lot of effort into the theme to make up for it.
So how much effort or thought do you put into the deeper underlying theme of your story? Do you like to start out with a plot idea and have the theme sort of develop out of it? Or do you like to start out with a theme in mind and try to come up with a plot idea that will be best suited to conveying it to the reader? Do you handle plot and theme as something that is inseparable? Or do you just not really think about theme at all and focus instead on plot and character?
And, on the other side of the coin, at what point does a theme in a story just become pretentious or "over-workshopped"?
Edited by digifruit, 11 February 2011 - 12:41 AM.