Writing and intimidation

In the current one-week online course I’m teaching through UCLA Extension (“Screenwriting as Scene-Writing”), GITS reader Mark Rovner made these comments after an extensive series of posts analyzing the many themes evident in the wonderful movie The Shawshank Redemption:

I have kind of an existential question. A bunch of them actually.

Clearly many of the themes and themelets here — around hope vs. despair, living vs. dying, the power of redemption, etc. — have been deliberately put forward by the writer. What I always wonder when exploring themes though is how much of this is consciously laid down by the writer. And how much of what is consciously laid down has a “right or wrong” answer. Is the theme what the author says it is, or as when is often the case different people draw different meaning, is it more open-ended than that?

Some of the instructors we’ve had have been pretty adamant that theme rarely shows in a first draft. That suggests to me that theme is something iterative and at least somewhat subjective — first there’s a “conversation” between the author and his/her work, and then there’s one and many more than one conversation between the reader/viewer and the material. I certainly have had the experience of having the same movie evoke different feelings at different times depending on my own state of mind.

I know I am babbling, but hopefully, some of this make sense. Partly, I am just incredibly intimidated (and in awe, truly) by how intricately layered with meaning this particular script is.

As I read Mark’s words, I felt like I knew exactly what he was feeling. Of course, I had felt intimidated when I was just beginning to writer screenplays, but even after I broke in and started working as a professional screenwriter, there have been plenty of times where the thought of creating something as thematically rich as Shawshank has caused my stomach to churn and my sphincter to tighten. So here was my response to Mark:

Mark, every writer is different, every story is different, so in theory you can run the gamut from every theme being determined before a draft is written to no one understanding any of the themes until the movie is produced.

I’m reminded of a story where the writer-director James Brooks was in the editing room with As Good As It Gets, when he saw a scene — I believe the one where Nicholson’s character announces to the strangers in the waiting room, “This is as good as it gets” — that he finally “understood’ the movie. So even someone as great as Brooks doesn’t have it all figured out upfront.

Which is a nice segue to my main point: I think that (generally) most themes arise in the course of the actual writing. If you think of themes like some sort of spiritual goo that binds a story together, it makes sense that the goo wouldn’t start to ooze until the individual narrative elements got set into place in the actual story.

I’ve certainly found this to be my experience, more and more over the years. It’s why I’ve drifted away from prepping extensive outlines: I’ve become much more instinctual about the story-crafting and writing process this last several years.

And so I would agree with you that if a writer were supposed to have all the themes well in mind before they typed FADE IN or even during the writing, that would be “incredibly intimidat[ing]”. A better approach is to trust the process. As you write, the thematic goo will seep up through your characters and into your consciousness.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that you can write a story and be unaware of some layers of meaning or certain themes. Do I think Darabont knew Shawshank so well that he put that harmonica melody in the soundtrack when Red found the tree under which Andy had buried that tin box with money, map to Mexico? Yes. Do I think Darabont knew all the many layers of themes we’ve been kicking around online in this course? No. If informed of them, he may not even agree that they’re there. But that’s not the point — because watching a movie or reading a script is a dynamic process, between the movie / script and the viewer / reader. The latter brings their entire life-history into the process. And their eyes will see different themes and nuances than even Frank Darabont will.

And then there’s the collective unconscious that Jung articulated:

“It is a part of the unconscious mind, shared by a society, a people, or all humanity, that is the product of ancestral experience and contains such concepts as science, religion, and morality.” [from Wikipedia]

When we watch a movie, we also dip into the collective unconscious, which can suddenly lurch an image or sensation into our consciousness. That’s improtant. What’s more important is being open to this in the writing process. If you’re worried about finding themes, this should alleviate some of your concern — because if we are open to what pops up into our consciousness, either from our own unconsciousness experience or as we dip into the collective unconscious, we have access to a universe of themes, symbols, talismans, sensations, etc.

That is why I am such a strong proponent of brainstorming. In fact, I’d say if there was one piece of advice I’d give to students over any other, it’s spend more time, much more time simply brainstorming the story. Sit with it for days, even weeks. Let your mind wander. And always write down what comes into your mind. If all of a sudden you hear a harmonica or see an image of one, write it down. Perhaps that happened with Darabont. Who knows. But that is precisely the type of inspiration you can find while brainstorming.

Long-winded response, Mark. And as I say, I can relate to your sense of intimidation ala, ‘Holy crap! I’m supposed to generate, know and understand themes in my story in equivalent fashion to Shawshank or any other great movie?’ My answer is no. Your only responsibility is to go into the story deep enough that it starts to reveal itself to you. The deeper you go, the more you uncover. Trust that process. Yes, themes will emerge. Some you will see and understand. Some you will see and not understand. Some you won’t even see — but others will.

But none of that is your worry. Your task, as a writer is very simple: Go into the story. Trust the writing process. Be open to sudden blasts of illumination re themes and images.

It’s a meandering response, but I do think it hits on several important points, the most important being that while we can and should be attuned to themes as we develop and write our screenplays, the primary obligation we have is enter into the story and immerse ourselves in that world. If we do that, then themes will almost magically surface and find us.

How about you? When you see a great movie, does it intimidate you or inspire you?

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