B-Story and Theme

TheGunslinger · Kitten Joined: 11 Oct 2012 Posts: 1

I don't fully understand B-Story and theme. I've read Save's the Cat and I've looked at beat sheets but for some reason it is still unclear to me. Can someone give me examples and/or a good explanation.

I've been trying to write stories and these two always stump me.

quade · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:07 pm Post subject:

Theme is what your story is really about. It's the overriding message you're trying to get across. It's a particular point of view on a larger topic. It can be subtle or hit the audience like a club over the head. Surprisingly, sometimes the audience wants to be clubbed over the head with the theme as long as they agree with it.

Consider Atlas Shrugged. Regardless of whether you personally agree or disagree with its theme (Randian Objectivism is good), you have to admit the theme is for an audience who passionately agrees with it. It relentlessly clubs the audience over the head with that theme and they eat it up.

Or Avatar. (Corporate private militaries committing genocide of indigenous people for profit is bad)

Or Argo. (Don't abandon people just because it's convenient)

B-Story can serve several purposes, but generally it's the representation of the internal struggle of the Protagonist. In a GREAT story, it's a smaller and more personal version of the larger story. Some people focus on it "always" being a love story and therefore want it to "always" involve a member of the opposite sex as a love interest. Mmmm...maybe yes, maybe no. Love isn't a bad thing to use. I'm not convinced it has to be that way "always."

Did you see Argo this weekend?

The A-Story is a protagonist attempting to get people hiding in Iran out of the country and back home.

The B-Story (or however you'd want to count it) is the protagonist getting himself back home and to his estranged wife and son.

The entire story isn't finished until that resolves itself.

Joseph · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:11 pm Post subject:

The B Story is kind of like a sub story that merges with the A Story as it progresses. I think Blake said the B Story is the internal story while the A Story is the external story. Both are influenced by the theme, but where the A Story is about experience (action and plot), the B Story is about learning (growth) from what is experienced.

The theme is the moral of the story. The experiences you put your hero through must have a point. They can't just happen to him for no reason. Although in life, we have countless experiences, some of which mean nothing to us, we are still touched by those experiences on some level. The idea of the theme is to allow for certain types of experiences to occur consistently so that the protagonist will learn from them and grow, just as we would if we have certain similar experiences again and again that force our attention on a certain issue. That issue is the theme.

I'm not in the mood to give examples right now. Sorry. Almost time for bed. Hope this helps though. I'm sure others will be more specific.

Rachel T. · Ocelot Joined: 15 Jan 2008 Posts: 1912 Location: Michigan

Here's an example for you: the first Pirates of the Caribbean! It's the movie that cracked "theme" for me, as every single scene revolves around statements made in the first 6 minutes:

Elizabeth to an unconscious Will: "You're a pirate?!"
Captain Norrington to Elizabeth: "I intend to see that every pirate gets what he deserves - a short drop and a sudden stop."

Theme: Is Will a pirate?
Sub-theme: Do all pirates deserve to be hanged?

Since we see in Act 1 that Will is a good man, he cannot let himself become a pirate until he knows that pirates can be good men, too. Since this is internal logic that's never spelled out, the Debate begins appropriately enough with Captain Jack Sparrow, a known pirate: is he a good man for saving Elizabeth from drowning, or does he still deserve to die for being a pirate? It ends in a draw: Jack is alive but imprisoned.

When Elizabeth is kidnapped by pirates, Will faces a crisis: be the good British citizen and let the navy men grind their slow, deliberate pace towards rescuing her, knowing that they might be too late, too slow, and too stupid to save her, or ask the pirate for help? He votes "ask the pirate." Setting up the B-story itself, Jack teases, "And you want to turn pirate yourself, is that it?" "Never!" Will snaps. But saving Elizabeth is more important that obeying the rules.

B story: Will enters the topsy-turvy, chaotic, and no-longer-clearly-defined world of pirates. Some are good pirates, like the pirate-lore-obsessed Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Cotton and his talking parrot, and the boat-less captain Anna-Marie; others are bad pirates, like the ruthless captain Barbossa and his murderous crew. The B-story is completely in the world of pirates - there are no neutral citizens, and very little military presence, which forces Will to make decisions about pirates that are based on his own observations.

By the end of the movie, Will has learned that a man can be both a good man and a pirate, and he proudly defies the law to save Jack's life. This in turn leads Elizabeth to answer the theme question: Will is a pirate. Very Happy

_________________
Don't be afraid to admit that inside you is a seething, fiery core of ambition and lust for success that would appall Napoleon.
-Russell Galen

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