Recently, I uploaded my latest screenplay to a screenwriting website for Hollywood producers and studios to view. I was excited to finally have a completed script on this popular screenwriting website.
What I failed to realize was the specifics of the process of getting a script uploaded. Not only were there numerous categories and subcategories and tags to choose to describe my latest WIP, but there are also some specific questions in regards to my script’s purpose.
- Genre
- Setting/locations
- Theme
At first glance, one might think the first and last questions are the same, but they aren’t. Genre is more of a style of storytelling with its unique aspects. Theme is the ultimate message/beliefs/morals of the story expressed through specific genres.
The site has become popular for helping outsiders break into Hollywood circles, not just for getting completed works before the right people, but helping establish the screenwriter’s platform and area of focus in storytelling.
To some degree writers keep similar themes in all of their stories, because stories are simply a means for us writers to express our beliefs and ideologies in the form of the narrative’s theme—what we mean to say!
What You Mean?
The message of your screenplay is what you hope it means to your audience, so you need to understand your purpose for telling this particular story. Once you understand that, its theme will become clear to the audience.
A literary theme is the main idea or underlying meaning a writer explores in a literary work. The plot of the story is how this theme is expressed. A writer’s theme often reveals the narrative, gives the characters a purpose and helps the audience stay tuned.
Keep in mind the theme has to be clear to more than just you. Make your theme evident to give your story more meaning. Most of us writers want to do more than simply entertain a theater of strangers. We want to use this art form to make an impact on society, to enlighten others. And even simply sway them to our ideology. The following list is reflective of common themes writers express in their narratives:
- Beauty of simplicity
- Change of power – necessity
- Change versus tradition
- Chaos and order
- Character – destruction, building up
- Circle of life
- Coming of age
- Communication – verbal and nonverbal
- Darkness and light
- Disillusionment and dreams1
My personal goal as a writer is to inspire change in my audience. I enjoy seeing the spark in the eyes or the excitement when my readers catch on to my story’s theme. (My current screenplay’s theme is humility versus power.)
Each time I start the writing process, I try to determine what I want to say to my audience —what change I’m hoping to cause.
Say What!
Not that I am the best, but the best writers know what they want to say before they began writing. The plot usually develops later in the process, even for outliners like me. Sometimes even the characters reveal themselves by what they really want to say.
Thus, knowing your them or message/message beforehand can help you write a better story in the writing process. One of the beauties of screenwriting is we get to utilize multiple senses, so we have more ways to express our store’s theme. We can say what we want without having to spell it out for our audiences. Below are a few of my favorite movies with clear themes we can see.
What message burns inside of your heart and drives you to write? Our job as storytellers is more than just entertaining. We have an opportunity to make an impact on countless lives when we know what we mean.
Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.
1 https://lah.elearningontario.ca/CMS/public/exported_courses/EWC4U/exported/EWC4UU2/EWC4UU2A1/_teacher/A%20Huge%20List%20of%20Common%20Themes%20-%20Literary%20Devices.pdf
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