Film Courage: How does a writer incorporate theme into stories?
Jeffrey Alan Schechter, Author/Screenwriter/Founder of Writers Room Pro: Carefully, judiciously, possibly even subliminally. To me it’s all these things. It’s kind of like the pre-flight checklist that pilots go through and I think you keep referring back to it, all the principles, everything we’ve talked about over the last hour or so, it’s just stuff to keep in mind as you’re writing so that if you get stuck when you’re writing and inevitably you will, you could look at this list and go Oh yeah, my villains were not emphatic enough about their viewpoint about technology or My hero was was too clear that faith is stronger. You can look at a scene and ponder in terms of Oh, I’m on page 55 and my central questions are not clear yet, well clearly I’ve overshot, let me go back. Everything is kind of a test. For a writer to incorporate the theme it’s like you’ve got to live with these concepts as a holistic piece, as a whole and until that they get inside your soul and it’s like muscle memory that you have to just story muscle memory. To incorporate theme really just should be as simple as you write a scene with a character and you don’t have to chart it out ahead of time and say What’s my thematic arc in this particular scene? Is it being true? Whatever the theme is like Sleepless in Seattle (I know we talked a little bit about that before). Sleepless in Seattle the question it’s the thematic question, can the magic of love happen more than once? That’s the entire thematic question. Tom Hanks kind of wonders, I don’t think it can happen? I’m pretty sure it can’t happen more than once. He’s kind of willing to sell out…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
After moving to Los Angeles, Jeffrey Alan Schechter quickly established himself as a versatile writer, able to work in all genres from action films to family comedies, from pre-school to adult drama, from live action to animation. His writing has earned him a Gemini Award as well as nominations for two Emmy awards, a Writers Guild of America award, a Writer’s Guild of Canada award, and a BAFTA award. Over the years Jeff has worked with dozens of studios and networks including Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, ABC, NBC, The Discovery Channel, Nickelodeon, The Hallmark Channel, the BBC, VH1 Films, RHI, and The Walt Disney Company. Jeff is the author of a book on story structure titled My Story Can Beat Up Your Story! and is a noted speaker and lecturer on screenwriting. Jeff is the founder/creator of WritersRoom Pro software, a digital writers’ room for secure, remote creativity and collaboration.
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