Sometimes students write stiff, implausible stories with obvious “messages.” But sometimes they get stuck in writing a first draft for the opposite reason: they’ve devised a series of events that are believable but about which they have no (apparent) attitude. A writer’s attitude toward the characters and events in a story leads to a theme, and a theme (whether consciously or unconsciously acknowledged) should be the thing that determines what comes next in the plot. In revising, it’s also the thing that should determine what stays and what goes.
