By Melanie Anne Phillips
Creator of StoryWeaver

Click for Table of Contents

Read it free on our web site!

 Also available in Paperback
and for your Kindle

Write Your Novel or Screenplay Step By Step

Try it Risk-Free for 90 Days

Contact Us - About Us - Lowest Price Guarantee - Shipping - Return Policy

Copyright Melanie Anne Phillips - Owner, Storymind.com, Creator Storyweaver, Co-creator Dramatica

$29.95

$99.95

Follow Us

Novel Writing Software

Thousands of writers use StoryWeaver to build their story’s world, characters, plot, theme,
and genre.

Try it Risk-Free!
Click for Details

Try it Risk-Free!
Click for Details

Thousands of writers use Dramatica to find and refine their story’s structure and to find and fix holes and missteps.

• 200 Interactive Story Cards guide you from concept to completion, step by step.

• Help Buttons with Writing Tips, Example Stories, Hints, and Tricks.

• Work on multiple stories at once.

• Jot down creative notes from anywhere in StoryWeaver.

• Placeholder: Pick up writing where you left off.

• Develop multiple levels of detail for your plot and characters.

• Intuitive navigation path helps you follow your Muse.

• Works on any device: desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, Windows, Macintosh, iOs, Android & Chrome

Try it Risk-Free for 90 Days!

Click for Details

• Patented Story Engine cross- references your dramatic choices to create a structure map.

• AI style narrative model finds holes, missteps and suggests how to fix & fill them.

• Automatically generates a timeline from your story’s structural map.

• Offers three levels of detail depending on the complexity of your story.

• Includes hundreds of examples, tips, tricks, and techniques.

• Comes with more than sixty structural maps for classic and popular novels, movies and stage plays.

Try it Risk-Free for 90 Days!

Click for Details

~ Step 133 ~

Theme - Act One Beginning

Theme is intriguing because it is the most emotionally powerful part of your story, but also the least structured.  Previously, you have determined which aspects of your Thematic Topic, Message Issue, Counterpoint, and Main Character dilemma you wish to explore in acts one, two, and three.

Now it is time to get a bit more specific and divide each act's exploration of theme into Beginning, Middle, and End.

Act one is where you establish your theme.  It must be done clearly, but gently, so as not to appear to ham-handed.

Don't forget that the thematic message issue and the counterpoint should never appear together in the same scene or at the same dramatic moment.  If they do, it make your theme appear preachy as it seems you are telling your readers what to think, rather than letting them make their own decisions.

In this step, list the illustrations of your theme you developed for the first act that you wish to present in the beginning of act one to establish the method of development you selected from the three approaches (small to large, large to small, mixed).