This speaks so readily to me. The stories never quite flow right if I haven’t really gotten theme locked in. And it absolutely was an evolution in my writing life (alongside a brilliant course I got to take on theme with Jess Wells.)
A writer and teacher I greatly admire once said during a lecture that many writers find themselves revolving around themes. At first it’s a subconscious thing, and then with each book (or story), if you can step back and look at your work, you’ll find you dance around particular issues that mean something to you. Knowing this can deepen your work and make it more meaningful.
I’ve just finished editing a printed draft of my book Spinning Tales, which is out around February. It’s already with my editor, but I always go over it again myself, with old fashioned pen and paper, to see if I can spot areas I’d change/make better. Toward the end of this process, I started thinking about my next book, which I’ll be starting on shortly.
A quick side-step:
Robyn and I are both dealing with family matters right now, and we’re both worried about…
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'Nathan Burgoine 
For me, theme is often something that isn’t there at the beginning, but that emerges as I’m writing or, more likely, rewriting.
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Yes, I’ll often find that with short fiction, too. I know the story I want to tell, but it’s only as I polish it I realize the tone I’m telling it in.
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