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Q&A Decide on a theme/overarching meaning before writing a short story?

I want my short story to have a specific point, to highlight a certain truth. But I wonder in which order I should proceed: make the plot, characters etc. first and worry about fitting my theme int...

3 answers  ·  posted 14y ago by Qcom‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T00:32:27Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/5
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Qcom‭ · 2019-12-08T00:32:27Z (almost 5 years ago)
I want my short story to have a specific point, to highlight a certain truth. But I wonder in which order I should proceed: make the plot, characters etc. first and worry about fitting my theme into the story later, or start with the point I'm trying to make and build my plot and characters around it?

Of course, the plot needs to be engaging in any case. But my instinct is to build the story around the theme/meaning, and I'm wondering if that is considered a good practice.

A potential downside is that the story will feel more artificial, but the other way around it might feel as if I'm shoehorning in my point into a story that does not support it.

As a response to some of the answers, I might also add that I have a specific theme in mind - so an emerging theme is not what I'm interested in, really.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2010-11-18T20:43:59Z (about 14 years ago)
Original score: 32