The movie critic Roger Ebert, who left us not long ago, wrote the following in his 1992 article, “Reflections After 25 Years at the Movies”:
“I have a colleague who describes his job as 'covering the national dream beat,' because if you pay attention to the movies they will tell you what people desire and fear in their deepest secrets. At least, the good ones will. That's why we go: hoping to be touched in those secret places. Movies are hardly ever about what they seem to be about. Look at a movie that a lot of people love, and you will find something profound, no matter how silly the film may seem."
I don’t agree with the writing teachers who say you need to know the theme of your book or screenplay before you start writing. I just start with a story and/or a character that strikes me as interesting. Usually it’s only after I’ve finished the book or script that I can look back and understand what it’s really about--the meaning, not the plot.
For instance, I’ve just written a short novel about a teen-age boy and his father. The latter is in the witness protection program but the people he testified against are still on his trail. Over the course of the story the boy finds out some important things about his father that he didn’t know.
I think the theme is how little we really know about the people we think we know best. But if I’d started out telling myself that I want to come up with a story with that theme, I doubt I’d have been able to. And if I’d tried to figure out the theme when I was halfway through writing the story it probably would have sounded pretentious to me.
If you write stories that interest you deeply enough to spend weeks and months writing them, the odds are there’s something about that story that goes deeper than the surface. With luck it will speak to the people who read your novel or see your movie, too.
(Want to write a novel or screenplay'? You can get friendly guidance via my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller Why not buy at least some of your books from your local independent book store? If we want them to survive, we have to spend some of our money there.)
