Remembering The Quest: Theme and Taco Tuesday. #TBT

THROWING IT BACK TO 2013, I was selected to participate in THE QUEST - a 24 week screenwriting workshop adventure traveling from story conception to typing "The End". Part of this process was weekly blogging on our realtime feelings and experiences. On #Way Back Wednesdays, I will share one of my weekly QUEST blog posts.

Special thanks to our fearless QUEST leader, Scott Myers, and I strongly recommend his screenwriting site - GO INTO THE STORY.

This blog was posted on September 6, 2013 - the original link is HERE...

Theme is meaning. Everything in my life is dictated by theme. As a GU13 soccer coach, our 2013 theme is “Possession”. All of our practices are based on passing and movement and not just shooting. A sub-theme could be “the best defense is a good offense” which leads back to “Possession”. At dinner in the Fontenot household, Sunday is “Breakfast for Dinner”, and Tuesday is “Taco Night.” These mealtime themes help us to narrow down decisions on what’s for dinner as well as set expectations so there’s no whining about wanting something else because you know what night it is and what’s for dinner. Tuesday – tacos, damn it!

2016 Update: We are way due for a "Breakfast for Dinner" Sunday in the Fontenot house.

By my math, this dispatch will fall right between the eighth anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. A quick history lesson, Hurricane Katrina completely destroyed the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the southeastern parishes of Louisiana as well as flooded 85% of the city of New Orleans. 26 days later, Hurricane Rita struck land, wiping out the rest of the Louisiana coastline. My real time blogging from these hurricanes can be found here.

In the aftermath of these hurricanes, I had the privilege of working with 10 of the smartest people in the world as well as a $100MUSD budget to help rebuild and transform education in the impacted gulf coast.

2016 Update: Still one my most rewarding job experiences ever and probably every will be; I miss those super smart, sassy people.

Beside the challenges of both physical and emotional damage inflicted in the region, our team was leaderless, or should I say that we were all leaders. Theme was key to overcoming the kitchen full of chefs and improving our effectiveness. Our main theme was collaboration – collaboration between student, teachers, school districts and states. Having this theme empowered each of us to make important independent decisions necessary for the program’s success.

All of our life experiences shape us as writers and as a writer I always start with theme. Theme is the air that our characters breathe; it’s the water that our characters drink; it’s the unified field theory of our characters’ universe. Theme is God.

Can I get an “Amen”? CAN I GET AN AMEN!

AMEN!!! Next week in #TBT we will explore procrastination and write, I still haven't found that post yet, probably will look for it tomorrow.

#wri #screenwriting #TBT #TheQuest