How to find the right Theme for your screenplay
Every movie or TV show has a Central Thematic Question (or Statement). Here's how to find yours and how to make sure it aligns with your goals as a storyteller.
This is a free edition of my Weekly Email Newsletter! Every Friday I do a deep dive on an aspect of the business of screenwriting from a literary manager’s perspective.
Subscribe, so you never miss a post.
When a writer comes to me for help with their script, one of the first things I ask is:
Why did you write this?
I do this for a few reasons:
I genuinely want to help every screenwriter achieve their goals. Their goals. Not my goals. I want to help them craft a script that tells the story that they want to tell, not the story I want to tell or the movie that I want to watch.
At the early stages of a script, a writer’s intended message is often quite different from what actually ends up on the page. So it’s important for me to not make assumptions about what they’re trying to say. Throughout the notes process, I want to make sure that we are communicating about the same elements of the script based on accurately shared understandings of what the objectives for each scene are.
Sometimes I have a sneaking suspicion that the writer finished this draft without really knowing what they wanted to say. Asking them to point blank state their desired theme forces them to articulate the message of the story. If they can’t do that, then this is where our conversation starts.
Not only does a script require a theme, but your script has a theme, whether you want it to or not.
So you might as well make it work for you.
What is a theme?
A theme comes in two variations:
A Central Thematic Statement (usually in movies) - The message that your writer wants to convey to the audience.
Examples:
You can’t eliminate violence from the world. But if you embrace the darkness of your reality, you can save a few people, and you can save yourself.1
It’s better to lose with honor than to win by cheating.
Trying to be someone you’re not will make you feel inadequate. But if you embrace what makes you unique, you can achieve what the experts cannot.
A Central Thematic Question (not to be confused with the Central Dramatic Question, usually in TV) - A big, universal yet specific question that can be explored from all different angles throughout multiple seasons and from different Character POV’s and experiences.
Examples:
What can we learn from the people in our community who are different from us?
What does it mean to be a good person?
How can women from different generations learn to understand each other?
What does it mean to be a great leader?
If your TV project is centered on a Thematic Question, make sure you have a few possible answers brainstormed for it.
Why does your screenplay need a theme?
Your screenplay already has a theme, just by existing.
Your audience is going to have a takeaway from the movie whether you want them to or not. Just by virtue of conveying an experience to someone else, your work contains a message.
If the experience of your movie is absurdist, pointless, or nihilistic, it still has a message. “There is no message” is in and of itself a message.2
If your message is wildly different for every single person who reads your script, you’re probably not conveying it specifically enough. Now, it’s possible that certain viewers these days are media illiterate. There is also an argument to be made that the author’s intention doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the reader’s experience (this is a form of literary criticism called Reader Response Criticism, but now we’re starting to get into a topic that is outside the scope of this article).
For the purposes of mastering your craft, I recommend focusing your writing efforts on making sure everyone has as similar a takeaway from your movie as possible.
That is how you know your theme is clear.
Most movie watchers cannot walk away from the film articulating its thematic statement clearly. Especially if they aren’t used to thinking about these things.
But even though people who aren’t writers can’t specifically articulate the theme of what they watched, they do feel it in their hearts.
If a theme is missing or muddled, the piece won’t land with the audience. They just might not be able to explain why.
Once you accept that the theme is an essential backbone to your script, you can use it as another effective storytelling tool in your tool belt.
5 Techniques to Align Theme with Story:
Just knowing your Central Thematic Statement or Question is not enough.
You need to align it with your story so that you convey it accurately to your reader. Here’s how to do that.
Technique #1: Go beyond topic areas.
One of the biggest mistakes I encounter when asking a writer about the theme of their script is that they don’t get specific enough.
Sometimes when I ask, “What are you trying to say here?” or “What is the theme of your story?” I’ll get one of the following answers:
This is a story about redemption.
This movie explores the complex mother/daughter relationship.
This is about love, family, revenge, and heartbreak.
What is wrong with these answers?
They’re not specific enough.
What, exactly, are you trying to say about “redemption,” “love,” or “family.”
Get in there with a 1-2 sentence hypothesis. You need more than just a thematic bucket. You need a fully fleshed out Central Thematic Statement.
Technique #2: Pair the Internal with the External.
For the past two weeks, I have spent a lot of time talking about how important it is to have a clearly defined, external plot question.
Your thematic question is probably going to be a version of that Central Dramatic Question. But unlike the CDQ, which is specific only to your main character, your Thematic Question should be universal—applicable to anyone who watches your movie.
Examples:
Barbie (2023)
CDQ: Will Barbie succeed in finding the girl who’s playing with her so she can return herself to perfection?
Thematic Statement: Our world demands an unreasonable standard of perfection from women that can only be combatted by going easier on ourselves and supporting one another.
Saw (2004)
CDQ: Why are these two men trapped in this room, and how do they get out?
Thematic Statement: People don’t appreciate what a gift life is until they are forced to do something drastic to survive.
John Wick (2014)
CDQ: Will John Wick succeed in getting revenge on the man who stole his car and killed his dog?
Thematic Statement: Once you succumb to the dark parts of yourself, it’s impossible to climb back out again. Only by being willing to move on from our pain do we begin to heal.
Severance (2022)
CDQ (pilot): What is this place?
CDQ (series): What is this department working on that requires so much secrecy?
Thematic Question: What are the different ways in which corporate office culture strips us of our humanity?
Succession (2018)
CDQ (series): Who will succeed as CEO of WayStar RoyCo?
Thematic Question: Why are the people who are in power so unhappy?
Shrinking (2023)
CDQ (pilot): Can Jimmy help his client fight his aggressive impulses?
CDQ (series): Will Jimmy succeed at fixing his relationship with his daughter?
Thematic Question: How do we move on after the death of a loved one?
Typically, the answer to your Central Thematic Question determines and defines the answer to your Central Dramatic Question. Basically, this means that your character needs to learn the message of your movie in order to achieve their goal (or the answer to the mystery is what conveys the message).
These aren’t hard and fast rules, but in general, your movie is an experience that externalizes on screen the internal truth that you want your audience to absorb.
Technique #3: Phrase your theme as Negative or Positive.
Just like a character arc can be negative or positive, a thematic statement can also be negative or positive.
How you phrase your Thematic Statement is not a simple matter of semantics that can be rushed through or ignored. It’s actually incredibly important.
A positive version of a thematic statement can be a rom-com, comedy, action movie, or a kids’ movie.
A negative version of a thematic statement can be a tragedy, a horror, a crime drama, or a mystery.
Spot the difference:
It is only by working together as a family and embracing our differences that we can overcome challenges.
If we let our differences tear our family apart, we’ll fall victim to the evils of the world.
Both of these movies has the same message: Families argue with one another because they’re made up of different people with different thoughts, feelings, and emotions. We can let these tear us apart, and then we’ll suffer. Or we can embrace our difference and work together.
One version has a positive experience (The Incredibles, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, The Avengers, etc.)
One version has a negative experience (Krampus, Hereditary, Knives Out, etc.)
Notice that these are very different movies, just by re-framing the angle through which we approach the thematic statement.
Technique #4: Make sure your theme is Universal.
A mistake I often encounter is that when I ask a writer the theme of their script, they tell me more about their main character’s internal struggle and journey.
That’s great. Your main character should have an internal struggle and a journey.
But these are not the same thing as your theme.
Your theme is how and why your audience relates to that character’s journey. Even though we personally aren’t going through these experiences (and, depending on the genre of the film, probably never will), it’s still going to relate to our lives in an emotional way.
If it’s a love story, we can relate because we have been in love.
If it’s a family story, we can relate because we have a family.
If it’s a horror film, we can relate because we have fears.
No matter what your story is or what world it takes place in, your audience is going to connect to the experience through some universal emotional understanding.
That is your theme. It should apply to everyone.
Technique #5: Incorporate theme into your character arc.
Your character’s arc is the emotional trajectory that we follow throughout the film.
There are exceptions, but generally your character will be different at the end of your movie than they were at the beginning of it. There’s a lot I can talk about surrounding the topic of character arcs, but that’s a discussion for a separate article.
Suffice to say that in general, your character believes an internalized lie about themselves and/or the world at the beginning of your story.
They either let go of that lie and embrace your message by the end of the movie.
Or they hold on to that lie despite every opportunity they are given to embrace the thematic message until they hit a point of no return and it’s too late.
Whether they have a happy ending or a tragic ending will tell your audience whether that character did the right thing. This will convey the thematic message to them.
How to spot themes in the wild.
The best way to start learning about and thinking about themes is to define them in the movies and TV shows that you watch.
Here’s where you can usually spot a theme:
In the Outside Information stage of the All is Lost Moment.
Very often (especially in traditionally structured feature films), someone will straight up say the theme out loud to the character while they are at their Rock Bottom. Once that character (a scene or two later) realizes they’re right, they can take that message into their Act Three efforts.
In the Climax of the movie.
Right before the Main Character defeats their challenge and answers the Central Dramatic Question of the Film, they fully embrace and embody the internalized truth of their character journey. This might be the writer’s thematic statement.
In the Ending.
Does your character die at the end of the film? They probably did not learn the lesson. Do they live but pay a heavy price? They probably learned the lesson too late. Do they not get what they want but do get what they need? Then what they needed is what your viewer really needs. Look to the conclusion to determine what the writer is trying to say about the world.
Journal about how you experienced the film and how the ending made you feel.
In a movie that doesn’t explicitly state its theme, you can find it yourself by diving deeper into the emotional journey that you went through. Write down how each of the major events made you feel and how the ending made you feel. What view on life are you taking back into the real world now that you have finished the experience?
Ask yourself “What is this movie about?”
Write down the answer. Then ask yourself, “What is it really about?” Keep doing this until you hit emotional, universal bedrock. There’s your theme.
If the theme you find sounds too simple or is the same at other themes you’ve spotted, that’s okay! You’re not doing it wrong. Humans tell stories for a variety of reasons, but there are always going to be thematic statements that come up consistently.
It’s the differences in execution that makes films unique from one another.
Pushback I receive:
Some writers embrace theme too much and forget that they need to include plot.
On the other hand, I often meet writers who don’t know their theme and push back at me for suggesting that they need one.
Here are common arguments against theme that I hear.
#1 - “I don’t want to be preachy.”
First of all, there is nothing wrong with being preachy.
Some of my favorite movies (Idiocracy, Mean Girls, Bruce Almighty) are quite preachy about their themes. But this doesn’t bother me while I’m watching them because the movies are funny, entertaining, and emotionally compelling.
But if you don’t want to be preachy, that’s okay! You don’t have to be. You can hide your theme in the emotional experience of the story.
There’s nothing wrong with having one of your characters state your theme out loud.
But there is also nothing requiring you to do so.
#2 - “I don’t want my theme to be a cliché.”
You can make your theme as basic or as unique as you want.
Incredibly unique films have super basic themes. Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) won seven Oscars and was widely lauded as being one of the most unique films of the year, if not all time.
Its thematic message was: “Love conquers all.”
This is not a unique statement. And it was not subtly conveyed.
The main character literally triumphs (spoiler, sorry) in the climax through leveraging the power of love.
You don’t need to get creative with your theme.
Your thematic statement can be a simple cliché. That doesn’t prevent it from being a career-defining film.
#3 - “What if I want to say many things?”
You can absolutely have sub-themes in your movie.
Perhaps your supporting characters all go through different versions of your theme. Or different set pieces ask smaller versions of your overarching Thematic Question. Certainly TV shows get into smaller, more specific themes for each episode.
But as a rule, if you try to say too much in your film, you end up saying nothing at all.
Instead of muddling your message, I recommend choosing a specific theme.
Write down all the other things you want to say on a list. You can pull from that list for the next project you write. Over the course of your career, your body of work will start to cluster around meta-themes that define your voice and brand as a writer.
The most iconic writers and filmmakers have done this.
#4 - “What if I don’t want a theme?”
Some writers claim that they don’t want to say anything, they just want to tell a story.
First, I’m going to push back on this one and say that’s not true.
I’m sure you have something to say. I’m sure you have opinions about the world, about life, about your day-to-day experiences, about culture, about how humans interact with one another. Hell, if you’re here, I’m sure you have opinions about movies.3
I don’t buy that you don’t have opinions. I don’t buy that you have nothing to say.
But if you do insist that these things are true, why are you here?
If you’re interested in screenwriting because you want to be rich, go away. The industry is a crapshoot right now, and this craft is so hard. There are way faster, more guaranteed ways to make a fortune. Go be a lawyer, start a business, or learn to code. Screenwriting is no easy shortcut to riches, and if you think it is, you have a harsh future of disappointment ahead of you.
If the reason you are interested in screenwriting is you want to be famous (be honest with yourself!) then you need to have something to say. Fame comes from having fans. And fans become interested in an artist because that person says something that resonates with them.
If you want your readers to get invested in your work and actively try to help make your dreams come true, then your script should say something that makes them care.
#5 - “X movie doesn’t have a theme.”
First of all, yes it does.
I have tried to get into many different examples here, including examples of how nihilism is a theme in and of itself. Just because you didn’t notice a theme when you were first watching an entertaining movie or TV show doesn’t mean it’s not there.
It was just hidden within the masterful storytelling on screen.
I have now given you a few exercises that you can use to go out and find the themes in the scripts you read and movies you watch.
Maybe a film or TV show really doesn’t have a message.
That doesn’t mean that you can do the same thing. Maybe that movie would have been even better, even more successful with a theme. Maybe the only reason the movie got made in the first place was because the filmmaker already had a successful career and they could play around with something experimental. Maybe they got a greenlight because they’re a nepo-baby who doesn’t need to try hard.
But if you’re reading this, you do need to try hard.
You can’t break into this industry writing something in the middle of the pack.
You can only break in by writing something that stands out.
Ensuring that your thematic message is aligned with the experience of your story is one way to demonstrate that you know how to craft a masterful script. Giving your reader the feeling that they are in the hands of an expert who knows what they’re doing is key to opening doors with your material.
And having something articulate to say is one skill you need to demonstrate.
When in the process do you need to define your theme?
You can start with a theme if you know why you’re writing this script.
But you don’t have to.
There’s nothing wrong with writing an exploratory first draft experimenting with where you want the story to go. You can start by feeling your way through what is entertaining to you about this movie.
Theme can come in at any point in the process. It doesn’t matter when, as long as you end up with one eventually.
But if you’re having trouble structuring your script, a thematic statement or question can serve as a guidepost that informs the decisions you make.
Once you know your theme, plot points become clearer. Escalations become clearer. If you don’t know which of your many possible inciting incidents you should run with, consider your thematic statement. Which inciting incident best delivers an experience aligned with that?
Same thing if you can’t figure out your Central Dramatic Question.
What is an external version of your Central Thematic Question?
The brainstorming experience can be overwhelming for many writers. Now that you have accumulated so many possibilities for where the story can go, which ones should you choose?
Your theme will help you decide.
What if I don’t know my theme?
Your theme will help you decide which plot points to go with.
If you don’t have your theme yet, here is how to find it.
Step 1: Determine whether it’s a Question or a Statement.
Do you know what you want to say? Or is there something about the world or premise of your story that is inherently interesting and piques your curiosity?
If you don’t know which to go with choose:
A statement for a movie.
A question for a TV pilot.
Step 2: Write down everything you know about your script.
What are the non-negotiables that you definitely will be including in your movie?
Keep this list short to allow for flexibility in all the other areas of your story.
Step 3: Journal until you find your theme.
Once you know what your story will definitely include, set aside some time to journal.
Feel free to use the following prompts, but allow yourself to go wherever you want.
Why do I want to write this?
What about this story interests me?
What do I wish I could change about the world?
What do I wish I could change about myself?
What do I wish that I could get everyone else (or maybe just a specific person) to understand?
What do I wish that I had known ten years ago?
Once you have your thematic question or statement, write it on a notecard and tape it above your writing workspace.
Whenever you’re lost or don’t know what decision to make, look to your theme to keep you on track.
These are specific examples from movies. If you guess which ones in the comments, I will tell you the answer! (hint: I have written about them in my other Substack articles).
See: A Clockwork Orange (1971), Aniara (2018), anything by the Coen Brothers, etc.
Kill Bill (2003) is a movie about movies. Similarly, Community (2009) is a TV show about movies and TV. You can absolutely have your theme be meta media criticism. It’s risky. But it’s possible. And if done well, it can be very entertaining.
“X movie doesn’t have a theme.” “First of all, yes it does.” 😆 So true. Great perspective to help excavate the heart of a piece, Audrey! Thanks for sharing!
In my experience, the theme in my features always relates to the emotional arc of my main character. When I've developed the character and worked through their emotional journey, I also understand the theme of my story in deeper and more complex way.