Creative interventions in screenwriting: Embracing theme to unify and improve the collaborative development process

When developing a screenplay, theme is often overlooked by the writer. Or, as my experience as a script editor, script consultant and screenwriting lecturer suggests, writers struggle to articulate their themes, which impacts how the story is told. In a professional context where others are involved in progressing the work (writer, producer, director, script editor, etc.), this can stall and complicate the development process which can lead to work that is technically good but emotionally lacking: strong in craft but lacking in meaning. I suggest that embracing theme is an important creative intervention in the development process, encouraging writers to feel the story they want to tell so as to provide an emotionally authentic base from which it can be advanced. This paper thus argues that embracing theme in the collaborative development process of a screenplay will create stories that ‘matter’. Putting craft and technology aside, the focus here is on asking deep, meaningful story questions to give a screenplay substance that can be understood and exploited by those working to develop it. This paper will provide insights into what story development is, experiences of working with writers and students on developing screenplays, and an account of a recent screenplay project where theme was integral to its development, thus providing ideas and tools for writers to feel their screenplays in order to successfully navigate the development process.