Theme is necessary in every memoir. The theme is usually somewhat subtle, requiring the reader to work at discovering it—and that can be a joy of reading your story.

The theme is what you are trying to say—whether banal or sublime—beyond the facts. It is the spirit or the soul of your memoir. It is necessarily implicit.

What is your theme?

Writers are sometimes stumped to answer what their theme is when asked to articulate it. This is not unusual. The theme will become more evident as you write more and more. You will find yourself gravitating to certain ideas, developing your story in a certain way, omitting something and developing something else.

The theme determines what, within the bounds of telling the truth, you include in your memoir. When you accept that your memoir could cover all sorts of material from your life, then it becomes necessary to choose this over that. In this choice, you articulate the theme.

The theme also determines how the narrator of your memoir presents the story. To support your theme, you will select one narrator or another. While you would be correct in saying, “I am the narrator,” you will also need to determine what part of “you” you have chosen to be the narrator. Is it the tolerant persona or the warrior? Is it the critic or the Earth Mother? If you are patient, you will find a certain voice (often referred to as tone). That voice will also suggest to you what your theme is.

The theme is closely aligned to point of view and is influenced by voice and tone.

In conclusion

Spend time to learn what it is you want to imply in your memoir. It is why you are writing and why your reader is spending time with you.

It’s that important.