The theme of a story, whether it be a novel, film, television show, or any kind of narrative, can be viewed in at least two ways. Most importantly, a theme is the idea that integrates everything in a story &#8212; the nature of its characters, their motivations, and arcs, as well as their conflicts and all the events of the plot, to name just a few key aspects. Novelist and screenwriter Ayn Rand noted that a “theme is the summation of a [story’s] abstract meaning” and “is the general abstraction in relation to which the events serve as the concretes.” We can see big themes in the events of such classic screen stories as The Fountainhead, High Noon, Adventure Story, In the Heat of the Night, and Saving Mr. Banks.
Other screenwriters and creatives view theme more narrowly, as the message or moral that a story expresses. That is, a theme is an idea or lesson that a story conveys about people and life, about how the world works. There is a vast range of message story types, from Aesop Fables to fairy tales, to the plays of Shakespeare and Ibsen, to the latest Spielberg or Coppola film drama.
<div id="attachment_25416" style="width: 411px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25416" class=" wp-image-25416" src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-2-2.jpeg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="401" height="225" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-2-2.jpeg 728w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-2-2-150x84.jpeg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-2-2-250x140.jpeg 250w" sizes="(max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px" />In The Heat Of The Night</div>
The theme or message of a story can operate on many different levels, depending upon the form and genre of a particular story, and on the interests and imagination of the writer. One of the most common themes in literature and on the screen is good versus evil. Witness it, for example, in Star Wars or Marvel epics. And experience the very popular theme of justice in many westerns, detective stories or thrillers such as The Searchers, The Maltese Falcon and Die Hard. Also, observe themes about romantic love in romantic or romantic comedy films such as Casablanca and Pretty Woman or Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Dramas often have more psychological themes, such as those dramatized in The Browning Version, The Natural, and Chariots of Fire.
Whichever way you view theme it is important to tell a story. Following are some key ways a screenwriter can use theme to write a dramatic story:
Integration
A story is not only integrated by its central conflict, but also by its theme. As Rand indicates in her quotes above, the conflicts and events in a story express a thematic idea. Understanding this, a screenwriter, for instance, has an aid to help them concretize their theme in their character motivations and conflicts. A writer knowing their theme also helps them create story events. For example, when developing your story ask yourself, &#8220;What conflicts or events would best express this theme?&#8221;
Consciously working out a theme for a story also allows the writer to create a story where every part of it fits together to make a unified and satisfying dramatic whole. One key way for a screenwriter to integrate his story is to orchestrate his characters so that they all express different aspects of the story’s theme. In the Heat of the Night, for instance, the two lead characters represent two different and clashing ideas and belief systems about race.
Brilliant northern black detective (Virgil Tibbs played by Sidney Poitier) believes that his individual skill and character and not his race are what is essential about him as a person and as a detective. Whereas racist southern sheriff (Chief Gillespie played by Rod Steiger) believes that individual skill and character are secondary to race or even a reflection of race. The plot in In the Heat of the Night is essentially Gillespie learning that he is wrong and so changes his ideas and actions. The other characters in this ideological drama represent different variants of attitudes that are racist or that allow racism to flourish. The theme or central idea or message about race in In the Heat of the Night ties together everything in the film. (One part of the greatness of In the Heat of the Night is that it depicts the solution to racism, especially in the meaning of Chief Gillespie’s character arc and his choices and actions in the climax.)
Director Francis Ford Coppola discussed the importance of theme, especially its significance as an integrator, when he stated: “A director is asked a thousand questions a day, so if you have a single theme unifying your movie you can deal with all the details”. Coppola continued more specifically about some of his films: “In The Conversation, the theme was privacy. In The Godfather movies, it was succession. And in Apocalypse Now, it was morality”.
<div id="attachment_25415" style="width: 448px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25415" class=" wp-image-25415" src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-1024x512.png" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="438" height="219" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-1024x512.png 1024w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-150x75.png 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-250x125.png 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-768x384.png 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1.png 1219w" sizes="(max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px" />Apocalypse Now</div>
Universality
Great stories have universal themes that dramatize value-laden principles of life applicable to everyone, regardless of their race, culture, class or gender. In Adventure Story, for example, playwright and screenwriter Terence Rattigan’s classic story about Alexander the Great, the central concern is self-understanding, a vitally important universal human necessity. Every person faces the struggle to understand his or her emotions, reactions, and hidden premises, that is, his or her subconscious. And like Alexander in Adventure Story every person can potentially have a conflict between their conscious mind and their emotions. An original theme like the struggle for self-understanding is immensely difficult to dramatize but deeply moving for audiences around the world when done well, as it is in Adventure Story.
The universality of a theme influences the resonance of a story. If you want your story to reach a broad audience, it can’t just be pitched to a segment of society, such as political junkies intrigued by the concrete politics of Washington D.C. or Canberra, or young teens fascinated by the evil nature of serial killers, or tragedians engrossed by the travails of a victimized unlikable priest.
Generally, stories attract a broader audience if they are pitched towards the deepest values that all humans share. Examples of such primary values include survival, reason, freedom, justice, friendship, romantic love, self-esteem, dreams, and happiness. Because these values are universal needs, longings and ideals they appeal to people on a visceral level and thus have been the thematic heart of many great stories.
Character Arcs
One of the most dramatic ways a writer can apply a theme in a story is in the character arcs. In many stories, whether it be an adventure like Star Wars or a drama like Saving Mr. Banks, a lead character often changes during the story. How he or she begins the story is different from how he or she ends it. This change is most often psychological, especially involving a change in the values and premises of the character. In Star Wars, for instance, Luke Skywalker is introduced as a boy with ambitions for adventure but as having low skills and experience. During the story of Star Wars, because of events, the influence of mentors, and especially because of his own thinking and choices, Luke changes so that by the end of the film he is a man who can fight the Empire and destroy the Death Star. Luke has changed his ideas and self-attitude.
The lead character in Saving Mr. Banks is P. L. Travers, the creator of the Mary Poppins books that Walt Disney has promised his daughters he will produce as a movie. But Travers, except for monetary problems, does not want to sell her book rights, especially to an animator. Saving Mr. Banks has two (integrated) main plotlines: The first, set in the present, is Disney struggling to persuade Travers to sell him the rights.
<div id="attachment_25414" style="width: 402px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25414" class=" wp-image-25414" src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1.jpeg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="392" height="261" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1.jpeg 936w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-150x100.jpeg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-250x167.jpeg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-1-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px" />Saving Mr. Banks</div>
This storyline is intercut with a second plot of Travers’ childhood that dramatizes the mystery of why she is emotionally unable to sell her creation. Both plots express the perceptively real and deeply personal theme, that Travers cannot live fully as an adult because she has not dealt with the issues of her childhood relationship with her dreamer and alcoholic father. Until Travers changes her premise about her father, she will never sell her story rights. Spoiler: By the end of the film, Disney finally understands Travers’ motivation and in a last effort to persuade her to sell him the rights he tells Travers about his own childhood relationship with his (at times) brutal father and so teaches Travers to finally confront her past and thus make her big choice to change her premises. Travers’ psychological problem and her substantial personal growth dramatize a universal theme that makes this drama one of the most poignant of recent years.
Theme and Emotion
As indicated in our discussion of Mr. Banks, it is very often the ideas dramatized in a story (especially in its character arcs) that cause the greatest emotional reaction in an audience. This emotional response results when an audience understands and cares about the personal psychological adventure of a character changing his mind about something of vital importance to his life. Or, put more specifically: When a character struggles with a big choice between two big ideas or values. Such a character most commonly makes his final intensely difficult choice (often based on a great insight) in the climax and so forever changes his life, often for the better. Because the audience empathizes with the conflict of values that the character is struggling with, when it witnesses the climax/resolution of this conflict it has a cathartic response, often in the form of a cheer or tears. For example, we experience very strong emotions in Casablanca when Rick learns to trust and love again, in Pretty Woman, when Edward Lewis chooses love. And we cheer in the climax of Saving Mr. Banks when Travers finds resolution with her tragic past and makes her climactic decision to accept Disney’s offer.
A screenwriter can also induce the emotion of suspense in an audience through developing a theme. This feeling of wonder or worry doesn’t only result from viewers empathizing with a character placed in great physical peril but can also result after we ally our selves with a character struggling with a hard choice. When an audience becomes engrossed by a character’s struggle between two big values it enters a state of anxious anticipation about what the character will choose and what will be the consequences of that choice. This feeling of anticipation draws an audience deeply into a story.
The Theme Shot
The first shot (image) in a film is sometimes called a theme shot when the writer or director has created a shot that is emblematic of the theme or meaning of the film. For example, in Pretty Woman, the opening shots are of protagonist Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) driving lost in the Hollywood Hills, taking wrong turns and hitting a dead end. These shots are emblematic of the mind and life of Lewis, who is about to meet Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), who will forever change his thinking about his values and life direction.
<div id="attachment_25417" style="width: 395px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-25417" class=" wp-image-25417" src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-3-1.jpeg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="385" height="259" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-3-1.jpeg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-3-1-150x101.jpeg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/iu-3-1-250x168.jpeg 250w" sizes="(max-width: 385px) 100vw, 385px" />Pretty Woman</div>
Or consider the film genre Westerns. Have you noticed that almost every classic western (1939-1969) opens the same way? A lone rider on a horse heading towards civilization. The world this loner is entering is often morally out of kilter and this individual can set it right. What is the meaning of this first shot in what was once the most popular film and television genre of them all? It is individualism, the view that each person is an independent being who owns his own life can think for himself should take responsibility for his own actions, and must be free to keep any product of his thinking and actions. That is, each person is an end in himself with an inviolable right to his life, liberty, property, and pursuit of his own happiness. This American idea is a central theme in all classic Westerns, their characters and their stories, and it was this theme that helped make Westerns so widely popular around the world.
Dark vs. Benevolent Themes
The above discussion does not mean that all themes must be positive and inspirational. Great art and storytelling can come from dark arenas and have important and dramatic themes to show or teach us. As just one example, consider The Godfather. Although the film in ways glorifies and wants us to sympathize with mafia gangsters, the heart and meaning of the story is a beautifully produced cautionary tale about Michael Corleone allowing himself to be seduced from being a good man and lover to a murderous mafia don and deceitful husband.
When writing a story, theme should not be overlooked. Theme is fundamental to good storytelling. Theme is especially essential to give your characters and events meaning, a meaning that often leads to great spiritual or emotional involvement and release by an audience. Great themes create great drama. To ignore the important meaning of theme is to greatly lessen the chances of your story being the best that it can be and of it finding a good producer or large audience.

Storytelling And The Importance of Theme

I was recently asked for advice on how screenwriters can break into the entertainment industry. My experience has mostly been in Los Angeles, but I believe that the following tips can be applied to wherever you are located.  The notes will especially focus on screenwriting and producing, which are my background and experience.
Firstly and important to any endeavor in life: Know what you want. 
Writer, producer, actor, director, etc. Then work out a path towards that. Ignore the doubters and naysayers. They know less than they think. And especially ignore any dark whispers within yourself.  Embrace the uncertainty because all you know is that you&#8217;ll never reach your career destination in a straight line
Understand that you are at the bottom. 
People don’t need you. You haven’t developed any great skills, have little experience. Most people in the industry will be nice to you, but you have to prove yourself and give good service and value to players in the business. Make them like, respect and need you. Earn it. But first, you need to get in the door to get experience, to prove yourself and to make contacts.
Get into the film biz. 
At the bottom is often the best place to start because you can learn so much. Be a script reader, runner, assistant, PA, coffee maker, driver; whatever it takes to get in and that can lead to where you want to go. Perhaps you’ve done a course in the field you want to enter. Say, a course on script analysis, so that when you apply for work as a screenplay reader you will have script coverage samples to show and “experience” to brag of.
Hit on all your friends, family, and contacts to get in the door. 
Cold call or write to production companies. To develop contacts in the biz, a good way is to ask players for advice. Help the people in the film and TV biz who you want to help you. Offer your services before you ask them for theirs.
Work for free. 
Yes, working for free at the start is fine and a great way to get work that will teach you skills and maybe even get you credits. Look for and do internships. If you are good, you will be noticed and may earn a full-time job. I stress: Internships are a great way to get in, perhaps the best after a personal recommendation from a player. When you get in, make contacts, impress people, work damn hard, do the hard or boring jobs, ask people how you can help them. Be a mensch. Don’t talk politics or trash. Always be positive about the product you are helping to create. Be passionate.
Learn all aspects of the biz. 
Knowledge is confidence, power and skill building, and it will make you look a pro who can be trusted. You have to learn the talk, know your stuff. *Study thy craft. There are books and articles to read, old timers to quiz. Shoots to watch.
Write knock out stories. 
As a writer, read classic plays and novels. Classic storytellers are so much better writers than the screenwriters of today. Study the true classics. Have you read Hugo, Ibsen, Rattigan, Dumas, Sabatini, Fleming, and other master storytellers? I think the best book on fiction writing is Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction, especially the chapter on Plot-Theme.
<img class="wp-image-19693 alignleft" src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/iu-4-250x142.jpeg" alt="Creative Screenwriting Magazine" width="415" height="236" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/iu-4-250x142.jpeg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/iu-4-150x85.jpeg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/iu-4-768x436.jpeg 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/iu-4-500x284.jpeg 500w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/iu-4.jpeg 845w" sizes="(max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px" />Get a great editor to story edit your movie scripts. 
No new writer can be objective; get help from a pro.
Selling your scripts, you have two main options: 
Get an agent, manager or lawyer to represent you and your work or go directly to companies/broadcasters and pitch yourself. It’s hard, but you will have to learn the business end of things. But first, get the story/script finished! Then develop your pitching materials such as your bio, pitch letter, one-page synopsis, and a brilliant logline (1-2 sentences only) and go at it to production companies, etc. But do NOT submit unless your script is FINISHED, as judged by experts, not yourself. (I repeat: It’s very hard to be objective about your own writing!)
For who to pitch your scripts to, search IMDB pro and the internet for the best companies for your type of stories. 
Then send them a knockout pitch letter (never the script itself). Be patient in silence, gracious in failure, thankful in success. (You can often find agents online, to get their email addresses, but the best way to get an agent is by a referral from a pro or through some success like a possible sale or contest win.)
Get credits. 
Build a resume. Have a page on IMDB. Look out for amateurs and bs artists. Check their credits or writings. And beware of some “experts.” Develop your own philosophy and style but keep an open (active) mind to the ideas of others.
Don’t forget the people who helped you and build a network of good people. 
Stay in touch. Don’t just hit on people then run if they don’t help you. If you say you are gonna do something, do it. Be trustworthy and respectful. Good people notice good people. And always remember that pros are very busy.
Good luck. 
It’s a tough biz but a great one that respects and wants talent. Believe in yourself and that your work and life are important. Take pride in your work and character. Most people won’t care but you must! Reputation counts. When discouraged, read a good story and study Kipling’s poem If. When successful, remember that once you weren’t but do enjoy your work and achievement. May you have a long, satisfying and productive career in the film and TV business.

How Screenwriters Can Work In The Film Business

Structure is one of the most discussed and important words in fiction writing. There are many theories of what exactly structure is. Screenwriting texts and experts, for example, often declare that structure is the proper placement of plot points or the use of sequences and acts. These organizing principles are essential to a script, but they relate, I believe, not to structure but to form. Form is the external shape of a script, of how its content&#8211; its events and scenes&#8211;are molded. Form is not the content of a story. Actual structure, I believe, is the content. And content is always king.
<img class="alignright wp-image-19499 " src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Die-Hard-4996-684x1024.jpg" alt="" width="331" height="496" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Die-Hard-4996-684x1024.jpg 684w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Die-Hard-4996-684x1024-100x150.jpg 100w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Die-Hard-4996-684x1024-200x300.jpg 200w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Die-Hard-4996-684x1024-117x175.jpg 117w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Die-Hard-4996-684x1024-389x583.jpg 389w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Die-Hard-4996-684x1024-150x225.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 331px) 100vw, 331px" />To create a story, a writer must first construct its central conflict, that is, its basic character goals and conflicts and the key problem of the story. Then the writer develops this central conflict into a long series of logically connected events with a beginning, middle and end; that is, with a set-up, the conflict development, and a climax. The storyline grown from a central conflict is the structure. As a simple example, consider the original Die Hard film. Its premise or central conflict is this: A tough and resourceful New York City policeman flies to Los Angeles for Christmas to win back his estranged wife, but just as he meets her, she and her co-workers are kidnapped by terrorists and held hostage in their locked down skyscraper. The policeman must evade the terrorists hunting him to rescue his wife and the other hostages, alone. The plot of Die Hard is the events that are developed from this central conflict. That is, all the murders, fights, escapes, counterattacks and relationships in the film, all the escalating complications, are applications or expansions of this central conflict. A central conflict is the plot seed that logically determines the nature of the plot tree.* The plot itself, this series of logically connected complications, is the structure. Where you place an inciting incident, plot points, act breaks and how you use sequences, the external frame or shape of a story, is only the form of your script. To emphasize the point: the structure is your series of connected events logically grown from and determined by a central conflict. Think: form is the exterior shape of your story, structure is its interior content/events. (This analysis leaves out how a writer can (and should) also organize his plot using important dramatic techniques such as mystery and suspense lines, dramatic irony, surprise and deception.)
 When creating a story, content must be king: plot structure comes before form. That is, a writer (generally) creates the main character conflicts and the logically developed and connected plot events before he solidifies these into sequences and acts. Consider the issue this way: What is more important to a good story: intriguing characters and exciting conflicts organized in a dramatic, logical series of events? Or ordinary characters and clichéd events perfectly organized into sequences and acts? Also ask yourself: do you want your draft to be perfectly shaped gold or mud? I firmly believe that it is best to create the major content/events first, and then worry about how to best shape these. (That is not to say that a writer can’t go back and forth between content and form but content must come first creatively.)
 And please note that I am not saying that form is not important. It is. But today there is way too much discussion of how to properly shape a story (plot points, blah blah) and not enough on how to create original characters and dramatic plots. There are many current movies that are well “structured” (plot points in the perfect places!) but the content of these films is awful.
 The two hardest parts of writing a good story are creating an original, layered and integrated central conflict and then developing this into an exciting series of escalating, logically connected and climaxed events. I believe that a writer should at first focus on these two very difficult fundamentals. Let me help you construct a central conflict so that it is a rich seed that you can develop into a great plot structure.
Article originally posted here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/write-great-script-focus-plot-structure-form-scott?trk=portfolio_article-card_title

Storytelling And The Importance of Theme

How Screenwriters Can Work In The Film Business

To Write a Great Script, Focus On Plot Structure Not Plot Po...

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