Action and Reaction - The Key to Screenwriting? <>

Action and Reaction - One of Newtown's Laws of Physics illustrates how humans behave.  And it's a great way to focus on your story and help you make sure you're not skipping over important scenes.

BUT

I want my screenplays to be personal.  I want them to resonate with readers.

And Action - Reaction puts me and them at an observant distance.

SO

Let's change it up and call it Action - Reflection.

Reflection?

Reflection speaks to how the action reflects on my main character's "character."

From the first scene on, I want to be thinking about how each action makes my character look.  And how they look in their own eyes and in the eyes of others is at the soul of what they want.  Or what some might argue, they need.

Here's two examples:

Action - Reaction Example:
OFFICER TOM chases down a WOMAN.  The chase ends with her drawing a gun on top of an apartment building.  He fires a shot into her leg and she falls to her death.
He reacts by filing his police report and moving onto the next case.

Action - Reflection Example:
Office Tom chases down a WOMAN, chase ends on roof, he fires into her leg and she falls to her death.
His record of no criminal deaths has been shattered.  He heads home early.  He can't shake the image of the woman falling out of his head.  He feels like a bad person.  He must do something to regain his status of a "good guy".
He walks into the precinct and hands in his badge.

When an action reflects onto your main character, the drama/comedy will begin to develop and flourish into a screenplay worth reading.

When I'm writing - right off the bat I'm thinking how does this first scene reflect on my character.  Don't wait until 10 or twelve pages in to start this process.  Scene one is the source of all that will come after.

Alternative Theme - Screenwriting

In a pure a story every scene to scene is Action - Reaction.

All of the Action scenes will have a Theme.
All of the Reaction scenes will have another Theme.

Let's say the action scenes are about attempting to get a bag of cash.
That's the theme - "to get a bag of cash" Every action scene will be about this.

Then let's say all of the reaction scenes are about attempting to understand why your character wants that specific bag of cash, why another character wants it, what happens if your character doesn't get it, so on and so for.

That's the theme - "Why this bag of cash."  Every reaction scene will be about this.

By the end of the story you may be able to distill both themes down.

The action theme will probably be MONEY.  The reaction theme could be honor, love, respect, freedom...depending on what you uncovered as you had characters exploring why they want that bag of cash and why others want it.

Once you decide what you think the reaction theme is, you can phrase it like this:
Money leads to Respect.
Money leads to Freedom
Money leads to honor.

Note: the above arguments may turn out to be false by the end of the story.  Money leads to Respect may be the belief your main character has at the start of the story but once they get the bag of cash...maybe they still aren't getting respect.