The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #320 -- Worldview

Do you write with a theme in mind, or do you just have a worldview 

that writes itself into your work through you? Or do you work hard
to keep anything that "meta" out of your work? How so?

It's different each time I put my fingers to the keyboard and begin to write a story. Sometimes I begin with a theme and a tone. I know that can come across as a rather heavy-handed way of telling a tale, but it's a line I choose to walk when I have something important to say. Most of the time, however, I simply start telling a story, and I let the chips fall where they may (to use the cliche). I assume that my work will ultimately have a sort of collective theme because I have a worldview and it will seep out of me into my stories in the same way that if I were an apple tree I would produce apples. I don't, and rightly so I feel, try to keep anything "meta" like theme out of my stories. I think those are important elements in a writer's work, whether put there intentionally or grown there organically.