Keep
It
Simple
Single
Your story's theme, that is.
Write down the one word that describes the theme of your story. Make sure everything in every scene revolves, resonates, and ricochets off that one theme.
It's elementary, but I'll prove that you'll find brilliance by focusing on one theme.
Yeah, but you say: "What are we in kindergarten?" That's too simplistic. Stories—the ones coming out of Hollywood, even European films—are multifaceted and complex with multiple thematic threads.
True. And they get nominated for Oscars for reasons beyond thematic excellence.
Understanding how story uses theme to harness the narrative drive (central conflict) is classic storytelling. If you apply the KISS the Theme Goodbye writing tool to dream up, outline, or rewrite a story, I recommend you start classic and then modernize.
ANATOMY OF A FALL: Spoiler Alert
One Story Wave screenwriting lesson I curated from the twice Oscar-nominated film for Best Picture and Best Actress (Sandra Hüller) ANATOMY OF A FALL (2023) is this:
"Show the theme. Don't tell the theme."
In the following, I extract ONE of the themes from this multifaceted and beautifully complex film, written by Justine Triet (the 3rd female director to win the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival) and Arthur Harari.
Here's how Triet seamlessly portrays the film's glue through the one-phrased theme: “Love is blind.”
She shows it, never tells it in the dialogue.
The "love is blind" theme is illustrated through the storyline of the blind son.
The opening. Triet blindsides the audience. We see the son washing his dog, telling his pooch to "jump" into the sudsy tub. We don't know the son is blind.
We’re off. Triet threads the theme "love is blind" throughout, and we uncover the painful truth about the certain kind of familial love of a mother, father, and son who live and die in a mountaintop house in France.
Using the son's storyline, Triet's "love is blind" theme begins the arc with the son's childlike adoration as he kneels over a doggy's bath, and then the story arcs to the end with the son taking on the parental position offering his compassionate hand of forgiveness in a beautifully staged scene where he sits above his mother's head, kissing her, exonerating her from the father's suicide.
The film adeptly shows unconditional love through a blind child's eyes as he reenacts the "why" of his father's death, "feeling" his way through the attic, the place where the "fatal fall" happened. This scene shows the child's anatomy of the fall.
It took a child to feel and "embody" the truth of his mother's innocence.
I saw the theme but did not feel it as much as I wanted.
The simple truth is that ANATOMY OF A FALL is too many things.
It's part mystery and who dunnit, not quite a thriller, and a bit of a foreign court murder case about a husband and wife's strained marriage and their son.
The theme "love is blind," though apparent in the son, disappeared for me under it all.
The film is lauded for its betrayal of realistic human emotions, genuine-to-life portrayals of a marriage’s toxic resentment, and authentic truth-be-told dialogue. Yet, we're fed their disjointed oral arguments in scattered snippets, whether in the courtroom or the kitchen.
The love is blind theme is not why ANATOMY OF A FALL has been nominated for two Academy Awards.
There's an elephant in the room that I see. This unseen elephant is the reason Hollywood LOVES this film.
ANATOMY OF A FALL pulls off a story where a wife—not only steals a writing idea from her husband and is successful in doing so—she gets away with murder.
The theme of "getting away with murder" is not stated, but it's clearly shown if you look past blind eyes.
Hollywood exalts the notion of ambition at any cost. ANATOMY OF A FALL delivers A-list writing by twisting the love stakes, where love as marriage and commitment is made possible only through the sacrifice sacrifice of the husband. Possess ambition as a thriving motivation if you aim to stay in the game of the film and TV industry.
I am a member of Stage 32. They offer a $49 webinar, Deconstructing the Oscar-Nominated Script: ANATOMY OF A FALL, hosted by Oscar nominated Alec Sokolow, writer of TOY STORY, for an in-depth look at the nuances of the screenplay—full disclosure: No kickback for me.
You can download the ANATOMY OF A FALL script HERE on Scriptlab.com. Create a profile and download the screenplay.
To garner gobs of attention from your TV pilot or feature spec, write about ambition as it relates to the things we cherish: performance, stardom, writing, filmmaking, and true crime. But whatever you write about, do it under the guise of winning.
BLONDE AMBITION (2016) delivers theme
Take the Blacklist script from 2016, BLONDE AMBITION, written by Elyse Hollander. Back then, it came in hot.
The Blacklist is a platform for writers to showcase their features, pilots, and plays for industry professionals and get high-quality evaluations from vetted readers. This is where you and your scripts get noticed and more.
Elyse and her mad script got big nods. Launching her screenwriting career, Hollander wrote a scathing unauthorized biopic about Madonna clawing her way to the top of the charts and squishing Jellybeans under her feet on the way to becoming the peroxide piranha that Madonna is.
Two words say it all: BLONDE AMBITION
BLONDE AMBITION = title + theme
(narrative drive/central conflict = ambition at any cost creates major problems)
Every scene is drunk with Madonna's blind ambition Kool-Aid. Hollander stuck to that theme throughout, even if it wasn't accurate.
Hollywood went nuts over it.
Download the BLONDE AMBITION script HERE.
As a true-blue Madonna fan, I hated the script at first read. But I must acknowledge the clever title and spot-on thematic rigor that Hollander executed to the nines. Bold writing. She knew what Hollywood runs on—star power.
The BLONDE AMBITION script fed Hollywood's sweet tooth craving:
Do whatever it takes to win in the biz.
Likewise, ANATOMY OF A FALL attracts the industry for many reasons. Still, the underbelly reason is this—everyone who wants their scripts to receive attention knows this one truth: It's not over till you win.
All is fair in love, war, marriage, and the business of writing.
In ANATOMY OF A FALL, I greatly admire the character of Sandra Voyter and the leadership role she takes in commanding her writing business. She can smell a winner; she knows a good story. That's a noble skill writers must have in manifesting successful work. I resonated with that.
She embraces her ingenuity and creative ideas as her own. She acts by prioritizing her intellect and her writing career. She has no internal struggle when it comes to taking time to write. She did what any man would do, whatever it took to win.
Gender power role reversals. That's another theme that Hollywood pants over, and it's not because they swallowed too many aspirins.
"Female forward" and "ambition at any cost" are thematic recipes for success to get your script noticed in Los Angeles.
I write female forward ambition, not because Hollywood wants it, but because I am that…even if my stories now take the shape of Animated/Family features and middle-grade fantasy books.
And if I had a husband I loved—I wouldn't use his concept.
I'd find a better one.
Developing one theme
Keep-it-simple-single before layering multiple themes. It might be a winning formula at best. And, at the very least, it will go the distance.
KISS the theme goodbye is best illustrated and viscerally felt in the movie ROCKY (1976). Its brilliance is its clarity. Its clarity comes from its singular thematic focus. Respect, and all its variations, drives each scene forward. Self-respect makes Rocky go the distance with Apollo.
Suppose you watch Rocky keeping the theme of respect in your mind for every scene. In that case, you'll see the magical force of the theme, respect, woven into the narrative drive (central conflict), effectively bringing the audience on a wild ride of emotions to Rocky's self-victory.
It's not merely about boxing; it's about the fight for dignity. It's about the self-respect Rocky will gain by going the distance. Analyze ROCKY and see how each scene effectively continues to flip the respect coin, driving the story forward and deepening the audience's connection to Rocky's journey.
This focused approach to writing and using theme is not a limitation but a strategic tool in the screenwriter's arsenal. It guides character development, shapes plot progression, delivers the expectations of the genres, and ensures that every element of the screenplay contributes to a cohesive and impactful whole.
Dissect the scenes of ROCKY, and you'll uncover how the consistent application of the single theme of respect creates a robust narrative framework that resonates with audiences on a profound level.
While it may seem basic at first glance, this single-theme method is an advanced trick of the trade that can significantly enhance the storytelling process, making your screenplay not just a story but an experience.
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I look forward to reading your stories and connecting in 2024!
Best wishes,
Kelly E. Keough