“Stories tell us what we already know”
I don’t exactly know how I wound my way into teaching screenwriting in my spare time, but I’m glad I did. I’ve been doing it now for 12 years, working with over a thousand writers by my estimate. A number of them have gone on to achieve success in the entertainment business. Many continue to ply their craft demonstrating the persistence and effort necessary to break in as professional writers. Others have taken lessons they have learned and applied them in their jobs, benefiting them in the workplace.
I’d also like to think that everyone who has worked with me in one or more of my classes has come away with important insights into life. Sometimes from me, but often from other writers participating in our courses and workshops.
Here is an example from a recent class, some wisdom posted on a forum from Ellen Musikant:
A guiding principal in my work has been: Stories tell us what we already know. The recognizable universal truth imbedded in a story’s characters and plot is its theme.
Sub-text reveals what Scott calls here “sub-themes” — but I might also call these “motifs.” Again, recognizable but uniquely articulated truths. Hundreds of stories share the same theme, but all the individual sub-themes/motifs render them different. Same but different.
And Scott nails it totally. The characters will reveal the theme.
On a separate note: A cousin (ex-cousin-in-law, to be precise) once related this story about his preacher father. “When I was visiting with my dad one day, near the end of his life, we were sitting on the porch deep in conversation. I asked him: ‘Dad — has the way you think about God changed as you have gotten older?’ He thought for a bit, then answered. “Yes, son. I now believe that God is everything I don’t understand.’”
So, maybe when characters reveal something we don’t already know in our hearts and minds, they are revealing to us a greater truth.
Two things.
* Ellen is totally talking my language here. I ask writers to believe that the story universe and the characters they create actually exist. Therefore, our most fundamental task is to go into the story and get curious, immerse ourselves in that universe and engage those characters. After all, who knows the specifics and perimeters of a particular story than the participants in it? Our characters want us to tell their story, so in effect they are our allies in the process. All we have to do is connect with them directly, fully, and intentionally, and they will lead us into and through the plot.
* Now think on this: That story universe and those characters do not exist randomly, but rather as an extension of who you and I are as writers and people. And the activities they engage in are a way of “revealing to us a greater truth,” something “we don’t already know in our hearts and minds.”
If we can connect with our stories through our characters, we tap into the mysteries of our own existence. So in effect, a story can function as a ‘god,’ taking what we don’t understand about this fleeting moment we know as life, and putting some of those key philosophical and existential questions into play for us to see how they resolve themselves.
I think one of the most important questions we can ask when writing a story is the following: Why does this story have to happen to this character (Protagonist) at this time?
As writers, we can frame that question this way: Why does this story have to happen to me at this time?
That anecdote Ellen was thoughtful enough to pass along to our class is a profound one: “I now believe that God is everything I don’t understand.” It speaks to something I feel deeply in my heart and soul, and is one of the reasons I write: Stories help me to understand life… and in writing them, I can experience Incarnation in a real and personal way, telling me something I already know, but need to concretize in words to really know in an deeper, more meaningful way.
Tomorrow I am going to share another story from some of the writers with whom I have had the privilege to work as a teacher and mentor. Again it’s a mystery to me how I ended up here in my creative journey, but the daily discourse I have with writers in my classes affirms something I do know:
I am blessed to be a teacher.
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