I love what the chapter “Art as an Honest Labor” says about story:

“Every dramatist must learn to write stories that come from the characters and their situation,rather than starting with a theme or message and imposing it on those stories. ‘The problem with Christians,” says screenwriting teacher Bart Gavigan, ‘is that they love theme more than story.’”

This I believe is the reason why so many Christian movies and plays are cheesy. We try to come up with a story after we come up with a theme. Life doesn’t take place in themes it takes place with actions and characters. That is why theme based stories are so unrealistic. Themes never drive the plot in real life, it is always the people. Until Christian writers notice that we won’t be able to produce anything authentic.