so for cailey and i, we'll sit down and think about it for a month in advance. we try to think of words that personally move us as opposed to ones that are maybe easier to write about or for--but we also keep it loose. if we can't write a paragraph of ideas about that word, then it doesn't become a theme cause we can't expect others to write about it, either. our current one was especially fun because we connected it to the last one (issue 6 was hunger, the current open one is feast). so usually they stem from something we feel or would want to write about ourselves, too