Real time story development part 2

(continued from Real-time story development part 1) 

I didn’t choose the theme for `The Call’, it was inspired by an incident. An American Pastor had just started preaching at a local (British) church and my reaction to this was something along the lines of `I hope he isn’t wasting his time, the British aren’t exactly devout Christians, what if they resented his preaching Christianity to them.’
What use is this information to you? Well, it shows that an incident can be enough to create a theme, it shows that it isn’t essential to spend a lot of time searching for one. Incidents take place around us all the time, it might might be possible to train your mind to regard them as possible themes, or rather, to expand your mind to do it.
It also seems that some themes have to be explored and some don’t have to be explored. We could call the ones that don’t have to be explored `established themes.’ These are themes for which there is a precedent, for which there is an established pattern of behaviour.
It’s probably easier to look at the movies rather than at fiction writing for examples of established patterns of behaviour.
The movie `An officer and a gentleman’ shows what happens when  someone who is obviously not an officer and a gentleman tries to be one. He faces adversity because of his perceived lack of personal qualities - loyalty, integrity etc.
This adversity is an established pattern of behaviour, it’s an established fact that you have to have certain personal qualities to become an officer.
This theme can be explored, but because it’s an established theme, it isn’t too difficult to explore it. This isn’t intended to be a criticism of the writer\s that wrote the script, it’s a fine movie.
On the other hand the Tom Wolfe novel `The Bonfire of the vanities’ is an unestablished theme, there is no precedent for it, there are no established patterns of behaviour, no-one knows what happens in that kind of situation.
`The Call’ is also an unestablished theme, there is no precedent for it and there are no established patterns of behaviour. No-one knows what might happen in this kind of situation because the British have never been so indifferent - and possibly hostile - towards Christianity.
Again, what use is this information to you? Well, if you don’t enjoy exploring themes - exploring new and perhaps controversial ideas, you might prefer to choose an established theme rather than an unestablished theme for your story.
Footnote:`The Call’ is entirely a work of fiction and is not intended to represent the views of American clergymen in Britain towards the British or the views of the British towards American clergymen in Britain.