I have never once embarked on a script thinking “I have this great character in mind. Gee. I wonder what he/she is going to do?” We’re story tellers. Characters and the relationships between them service the story.

My process*: Logline the story, expand the concept to a couple three pages, find the maximum point of conflict and from that, identify the protagonist. (NOTE: He or she will be the person yelling in your head “I have the most to say on this subject!”) Now go back to the beginning of the story and write the script about that character or from that POV.

*In the interest of transparency, I am a Hollywood leper — I develop and write long form, fact-based docu-dramas for cable television. We’re an embittered bunch but we love what we do — truth is indeed stranger than fiction. In the meantime, we covet network writers’ shooting schedules and paychecks.

However I didn’t see any mention of theme in your How to Write a Scene section. Does that mean you’d only consider theme when conjuring a project or outlining a plot, and then perhaps during the rewriting phase, but not during the first draft of the script?

If you could expand your philosophies on both theme and re-writing, I’m sure it’d help a lot of new writers.

Thank you.