When I write I'm never really thinking about themes or the universal.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The problem with themes is that writers don't realise they are themes until someone points them out.
I don't consciously go out looking for themes. They attach themselves to me.
Themes only arise after a novel is written, and people begin to try to talk about it.
Theme is great for people who like to approach stories that way, but it's an organizing principle that helps us write a story that has some weight; it's not something that all readers have to care about.
I never start out with any kind of connecting theme or plan. Everything just falls the way it falls. I don't ever think about what kind of fiction I write or what I am writing about or what I am trying to write about. When I'm writing, what I do is I think about a story that I want to tell.
Whenever I write, I try and approach my stories from some kind of universal theme or idea or emotion.
I really love writing themes and melody.
Maybe a theme that touches all of my work is people reinventing themselves.
I think all artists are only interested in a couple of themes, really. I'm primarily interested in change and connection as being this restorative force. I write about them because that's what I think about in my own life.
That's why I write fiction, because I want to write these stories that people will read and find universal.