Recently, while working on a piece of fiction set in Austria, I needed to find a German idiom for "Let sleeping dogs lie," as one of the secondary characters in the story tends to give words of wisdom in short pithy sayings. So, I turned to an online English-German dictionary of idioms. What I found there was inspiration. Idioms often contain nuggets of wisdom that have survived the centuries, most likely due to the fact that they're often true.
At the same time I was on this quest for the perfect idiom for the character of my story, I was reading Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! The Last Book On Screenwriting That You'll Ever Need. In his chapter on structure, he discusses "thematic premise," which he describes as: ". . . an argument posed by the screenwriter, the pros and cons of living a particular kind of life, or pursing a particular goal." Screenwriters and novelists often explore thematic premise as the writing takes shape. Which direction is this story headed? What's this story about? Some writers make sure the thematic premise is stated upfront, so the reader is clear about the story's theme. Others are more nuanced in their approach, allowing the theme to develop organically.
The fascinating thing as I looked over the list of idioms in the English-German dictionary was how these universal truths were so nicely summarized in these sayings. It was a list of themes. I thought about the stories I had read, the movies I had recently seen, and here were the premises summed up in this list. Seeing the English idioms translated from German brought a freshness to the the tired old sayings. For example, the idiom "Let sleeping dogs lie" was translated "Don't paint the devil on the wall."
While the list was most helpful for my fiction, I loved the fresh imagery in some of these translations and considered how poetic these were after after reading them. I'm fairly certain that most poets don't begin a poem with a thematic premise, and I don't recommend that at all. However, the imagery and ideas were just so inspiring.
At the same time I was on this quest for the perfect idiom for the character of my story, I was reading Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! The Last Book On Screenwriting That You'll Ever Need. In his chapter on structure, he discusses "thematic premise," which he describes as: ". . . an argument posed by the screenwriter, the pros and cons of living a particular kind of life, or pursing a particular goal." Screenwriters and novelists often explore thematic premise as the writing takes shape. Which direction is this story headed? What's this story about? Some writers make sure the thematic premise is stated upfront, so the reader is clear about the story's theme. Others are more nuanced in their approach, allowing the theme to develop organically.
The fascinating thing as I looked over the list of idioms in the English-German dictionary was how these universal truths were so nicely summarized in these sayings. It was a list of themes. I thought about the stories I had read, the movies I had recently seen, and here were the premises summed up in this list. Seeing the English idioms translated from German brought a freshness to the the tired old sayings. For example, the idiom "Let sleeping dogs lie" was translated "Don't paint the devil on the wall."
While the list was most helpful for my fiction, I loved the fresh imagery in some of these translations and considered how poetic these were after after reading them. I'm fairly certain that most poets don't begin a poem with a thematic premise, and I don't recommend that at all. However, the imagery and ideas were just so inspiring.