How to Write a Screenplay

SUBPLOTS AND THEME

If theme is defined by the action taken by the protagonist in the climax of the film, then there are other ways to help clarify what you want to say about the world?  Yes.  Subplots are one of your strongest tools to communicate and clarify theme.  In deciphering a story’s meaning, viewers will subconsciously look at a subplot and ask, “What does this have in common with the main story?”  Or, “How is the subplot opposite of the main story?” 

A story about the courage to love might have a character in a subplot that is too afraid to love.  Another character might have the courage to engage in a slightly different kind of love.  By rhyming and echoing or contradicting the ideas in the main plot, your subplot bolsters the story’s theme.  This process explores different permutations of the positive attributes of the protagonist, and heightens the negative attributes of the antagonist to create a coherent meaning. 

Remember, we said that stories will have one protagonist.  Does the existence of subplots break that rule?  No.  Subplots that involve other characters still ultimately contribute to the main story.  They are not separate stories or tangents.  These storylines are foils and doubles to the main story and their purpose is to shed light on the main story’s meaning.  Ultimately, theme is the unity that binds a story and its subplots.

USING THEME

Most screenwriting paradigms relegate theme to a footnote.  The belief is that attention to theme will cause writers to become obsessed with ideas when their first duty is to focus on the emotionally engaging action at the core of the story.  While it’s true that writers should not be didactic or become too preachy, it’s also true that an undeniable motivation for writers to sit in a chair and pour their hearts and minds onto a piece of paper or into a Final Draft file is that they have something to say about the world.

Arthur Miller used to put one word on his typewriter when working on a play and everything he wrote would filter through that one word.   You might not be Arthur Miller, but if you can sum up your theme in a sentence or two, a phrase or even a word, it can offer you clarity as you create scenes and story details.  Essentially, if you say, “my story is about accountability,” without bogging your creativity down, you can ask yourself the same question about every new scene, new character or new subplot: “What does this have to do with accountability?” 

One of the few educational products on the market that covers theme for the screenwriter is my DVD, “The T-Word: Theme.”  The presentation goes into more detail about how everything—structure, subplots, characters and even dialogue—contribute to meaning and theme.

Congratulations on being patient so far.  Now that you understand the essential elements of a screenplay are and how they communicate with an audience, grab a pen, pencil or keyboard, because it’s time to start writing.

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