THE STORY VAULT BLOG
WHY I DON'T RECOMMEND SCREENWRITING BOOKS
I’ve read at least a dozen books on screenwriting over the years and I can honestly say that the only really useful thing any of them taught me was screenplay formatting. I’m sure there are professional screenwriters who will tell you that screenwriting books were really helpful to them early in their career pursuits. And I’m not telling writers that they shouldn’t read these books. I’m only saying that for me they have not proved beneficial.
There is a major disconnect between the way these manuals teach the craft of screenwriting and the way my brain works. Screenwriting books generally present a script as a collection of parts that must be dealt with separately. Take the matter of theme, for example. The standard representation is that the writer should decide on a theme prior to beginning the story and that character, dialogue and action should be tailored to fit this theme. When I take that approach my writing becomes wooden: it’s functional, but not alive, like a marionette.
My approach is very different. When I begin a story I don’t even think about theme. I’m imagining a character in a situation, taking action. This is story. And theme will naturally emerge from story. Rather than allowing theme to guide story and plot, I allow theme to be discovered organically through the development of story and plot.
In 2024 I become a much better writer due to a decision I made. I discarded everything I thought I’d learned — all the rules and guidelines — deciding they were largely irrelevant. In their place I created four new guidelines for myself:
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Create characters that actors will give their eye teeth to play
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Keep the reader wanting to turn the page
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Play to your strengths
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Have fun
These are my rules for writing fiction.
They won’t work for everyone.
Writers who think very analytically are unlikely to be successful with this approach. But for the synthesist thinker this approach can be incredibly liberating, unleashing a level of creativity that leads to a richness of writing they would not otherwise achieve.
As a side note: when I decided to tackle screenwriting again I thought back to the one screenplay of the many I'd written that I was proud of: Handle With Care. I recalled how it came about. I was a member of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Virtual Studios. Another writer challenged me to a competition: who could write a first draft in the shortest time. The only rule was you had to try to make it good - you couldn't just put anything down on paper to get to Fade Out.
I wrote the first draft of Handle With Care in 11 days. I won the competition by 3 or 4 hours. There was no time for extensive planning. I didn't over-analyze the premise, I didn't engage in my usual obsession with act breaks occurring around a certain page count, I didn't worry about theme, I just wrote. Those 4 rules I posted earlier...I followed those. (When I looked at the script again it ran 113 pages. My first thought: "Why is this 113 pages? It doesn't need to be 113 pages." I set a goal of cutting it down to 105 pages. I brought it down to 99 without losing anything essential. But the story, characters, dialogue, thematically, emotional payoff...that's all the same.)
What About Theme?
There are screenwriting teachers and gurus who recommend establishing your theme before you put the first word of your story on "paper" - and that everything we write should serve the theme. I've tried to write this way. It doesn't work for me. I need theme to develop organically from character and story.
I came across an interview with Sam Boyer (which appears in The Blacklist blog) who wrote the original screenplay “Ojek” which won a 2022 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Here’s what he has to say about theme:
Scott: How about theme? You strike me as someone who, when you are writing the script, think thematically. Like money and morality, and that sort of thing. Is that stuff that’s more upfront, or is that stuff you discover along the way?
Sam: Man, saying I think of it upfront makes me seem smarter, more cerebral than I really am. And I’m not really sure I do think of theme at the very outset.
When I’m sitting down to write something, it’s always…I start with concept, what this story is about in a couple of lines. I do start off the logline. Then, I do try to think of the characters, and what themes they could play with from there. Sometimes, it surprises me.
A lot of theme, at least in my scripts, is one of those things I almost discover in retrospect, but I try to keep the character journeys front of mind.
In an interview professional screenwriter Paul Goyut said:
Every great story has a solid theme. I don't think you need to start with that because I don't. My brain isn't big enough that I can sit down and say I'm going to create a story about redemption or betrayal or, you know, whatever. I come from character first and I'm firmly in the camp that plot doesn't exist without character. For me those always come later.
Paul Goyut acknowledges that their are professional writers who begin with theme and stresses the importance of having something to say.
Interview with Paul Guyot
In an interview Paul Thomas Anderson said:
It's a mistake I think for a filmmaker to pursue themes, you know, this is a mistake I think themes have to emerge from a story that is based in fact, that is entertaining to an audience and that hopefully has comedic and dramatic possibilities. The themes have to grow quite naturally from that...
If I've ever had a theme in mind usually that's just like the worst. Then you're, yeah, you know you feel yourself, you feel yourself writing and there's nothing worse than that feeling of kind of chasing after a theme and that's always writing at it's worst for me, you know, um, the best things kind of become something and you're just happy it's there.
Interview with Paul Thomas Anderson
Many professional writers say listen to your story, listen to your characters - and through them you, and the audience, will discover the theme.
I have no doubt that many amateur writers can benefit from beginning with a theme. I'm not trying to be prescriptive. I'm merely presenting another point of view.
My pragmatic side says “do whatever works.” Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you reach your destination, so long as you get there.
They say there's an exception to every rule. (I have no idea who they are.) Here is my one exception:
Kill the Dog by Paul Guyot.
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