The Controlling Idea is an element that Robert McKee talks about in his book “Story”. The Controlling Idea is the heart of your story, the central idea, the “why are you telling me this?”. It is similar to a theme, but instead of popping up every now and then, it is, more or less, present in every scene. McKee argues in his book that the Controlling Idea should be boiled down to a single sentence.
To give you an example, I will explain this concept using The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, because I don’t want to spoiler anyone with recent titles and Hunger Games is something everybody seems to know. And remember: this is just me spinning this together. This might be complete false, but it helped me understand, so maybe it helps you, too!
The Controlling Idea of Hunger Games revolves around defiance. If I had to put it into a single sentence, it might be something like:
Defiance against the government is only possible if you put your own life at risk.
Looking at the bigger picture, the strongest moments in Hunger Games are moments of defiance: Katniss volunteering for her sister, shooting at the jury, burying Rue, and finally, her decision not to kill Peeta and to commit suicide instead — and therefore, to break the rules of the game.
But why are these moments so strong? Because Katniss’ development is connected to defiance.
Her inner conflict, her flaw, revolves around her inability to trust and rely on others.
But her outer conflict revolves around the games. Katniss believes nothing can be done against the government, portrayed in her refusal to run away with Gale when he proposes the idea in the first chapter. In her opinion, defiance is not an option.
But in the course of the story, Katniss learns to trust Peeta, showing development of her inner conflict, and at the climax, she finds herself unable to kill him. Instead, she proposes suicide and breaks the rules of the game, showing development of her outer conflict.
See how her inner conflict and outer conflict come together? If it weren’t for the development of her inner conflict, if she had never learned to trust Peeta, she might have killed him in the end, but she would have ended up as just another puppet in the capital’s games.
Of course, not every story follows the same rules. As the game developer John Carmack, who builds rockets in his freetime, once said:
“Making video games is harder than rocket science.”
Because rocket science, that’s math and formulas and rules you can follow. But stories, just like games, come from the heart.
So, what do you think? Can you figure out your Controlling Idea? You might not find it in the beginning of your story, but give it some time, it’ll crystalize after a while! Use your Controlling Idea to weave your plot elements together, focus your character development, patch up your holes, and create a beautiful story!
Sara Han 