Every segment of a story offers its own challenges, but perhaps none leaves more writers bewildered than the Second Act. At least beginnings and endings provide a checklist of things to accomplish. The middle of the story, on the other hand, is a yawning blank. You may feel like you’re entirely without a guide as you try to move your characters toward where they need to be for the ending to work. Fortunately, if you pay attention to solid story structure, you’ll find that the middle of the story has a checklist all its own. The Second Act is the largest part of your story, comprising roughly 50%. It begins after the First Plot Point at the 25% mark and continues until the Third Plot Point at the 75% mark.

Within the Second Act, we find three structural beats, once again falling at eighths within the overall structural timing:

• The First Pinch Point – 37%
• The Midpoint (Second Plot Point) – 50%
• The Second Pinch Point – 62%

From the book Structuring Your Novel: Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition (Amazon affiliate link)

This week, we will discuss the First Half of the Second Act, which includes the First Pinch Point. Next week, we will devote an entire post to the Midpoint, and the following week we will cover the Second Half of the Second Act and the Second Pinch Point.

Character Reactions in the First Half of the Second Act

The First Half of the Second Act is the “reaction phase” of your story. This is where your characters find the time and space to react to the First Plot Point. Remember how we discussed the First Plot Point being definitive because it forced the characters into irreversible reaction? That reaction, which will lead to another reaction and another and another, creates your Second Act.

The First Plot Point hit your characters hard. Now, their lives are no longer running on the same smooth paths, and they have to do something about it. If you examine the First Plot Point in a story, you will see it is the characters’ reactions to the event that change everything and create the story. Even when the First Plot Point incorporates a life-altering tragedy (e.g., the murder of Benjamin Martin’s son and the burning of his plantation in The Patriot), the characters could conceivably continue their lives more or less as they had before. It’s their reaction (e.g., Martin’s becoming the “ghostly” militia leader who terrorizes the British army) that allows the chain of events to continue—and create a story.

The Patriot (2000), by Columbia Pictures.

This is why introducing characters and other crucial elements in the First Act is so important. If you fail to properly set up the protagonist as someone who would logically react in the way necessary to facilitate the Second Act, your story will implode. When searching for the appropriate Characteristic Moment to introduce a character, consider an event that will reflect, inform, or contrast the character’s reaction to what happens later at the First Plot Point.

For the next quarter of the book, until the Midpoint, your characters will react to the events of the First Plot Point. They will take action, but all these actions are a response to what’s happened to them. They’re trying to regain their balance and figure out where their lives should go next.

For Example:

• In my medieval novel Behold the Dawn, the characters spend this part of the book on the run from the bishop who wants them dead.
• In Brent Weeks’s The Way of Shadows, the protagonist spends years reacting to the orders of his master.
• In Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur, the protagonist is forced into a reactionary role as a galley slave after he’s unjustly captured and sentenced at the First Plot Point.

Ben-Hur (1959), MGM.

Just because the characters are comparatively reactive in this phase does not mean they are passive. However, even though they are making choices and trying to move forward toward the plot goal, they are not yet able to be genuinely effective in doing so. Not until they reach a Moment of Truth at the Midpoint will they see themselves and the plot conflict in a clearer light. This will then allow them to switch into an “active phase,” in which their choices and actions become increasingly informed and calibrated in the Second Half of the Second Act. This is why the First Half of the Second Act is often where the character is learning the rules of the game—whether those are the nuances of a new relationship, the tricks of the trade in a new job, survival skills, or the social structure of a new neighborhood.

The First Pinch Point

The First and Second Pinch Points are paired beats, both occurring in the Second Act, one prior to the Midpoint and one after. Although pinch points are just as structurally integral as plot points, they won’t always be represented by huge scenes. Their primary role is to provide a “pinch” that reminds the protagonist of the formidable obstacle represented by the antagonistic force and what is at stake should the protagonist fail.

The First Pinch Point takes place halfway through the First Half of the Second Act at the 37% mark. Here, the antagonistic force can flex its muscles and impress with its capacity to disrupt the protagonist’s forward momentum. This moment serves primarily to set up the change of tactics the protagonist will soon learn. By reminding readers of the antagonist’s power, the First Pinch Point raises the stakes and foreshadows the central turning point at the Midpoint. Like all major structural beats, the First Pinch Point should focus on the central conflict rather than a subplot.

For Example:

• The antagonist might jab at your protagonist’s weakness, as in Ever After, when the wicked stepmother exults to Danielle about the probability of her daughter marrying the prince.
• The protagonist might fail in his fight against the antagonist and be mocked or reprimanded for it, as in the film Warrior when Brendan’s brother Tommy rejects his attempts at reconciliation.
• If your story features your antagonist’s POV, your First Pinch Point might simply be a reminder of what the antagonist is planning, as in Captain America: The First Avenger when the Red Skull murders his superiors and goes rogue or as in The Empire Strikes Back when Emperor Palpatine tells Darth Vader that Luke Skywalker is their new enemy.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), 20th Century Fox.

Character Realizations After the First Pinch Point

Although the entirety of the First Half of the Second Act is a story’s “reaction phase,” the degree to which the characters shift out of reaction and into action will steadily evolve as they learn new skills. By the time they reach the Midpoint, they will encounter a definitive turning point that offers a concrete epiphany about themselves and the nature of the plot conflict. The events at the First Pinch Point will contribute to that process.

Whatever the characters learn at the First Pinch Point, even if it is just that the antagonist is more formidable than they thought, will fuel their continuing growth toward effectiveness in the plot. The section after the First Pinch Point and leading up to the Midpoint will solidify a state of realization for the protagonist. Think of these realizations as clues leading the characters to the major revelation at the Midpoint. A story’s most significant revelations—those that irrevocably change things for the protagonist and thus turn the plot—should be saved for the main structural turning points. However, most stories will require a chain of minor realizations that evolve the characters’ perspectives leading up to these seismic shifts.

For Example:

• In Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, the Midpoint declaration of love is preceded by the section in which the protagonist must internally grapple with and admit he is in love with a woman who is not his fiancée.
• In Little Women, the Midpoint revelation is Jo’s quiet Truth that life inevitably changes as everyone begins to grow up; this is preceded by a section in which many smaller changes occur, including her best friend Laurie going away to college.
• In The Martian, the Midpoint revelation is the stranded astronaut’s acknowledgment that he will probably die on Mars if he continues his current tactics. This is preceded by a section of small tragedies that successively limit his ability to survive.

The Martian (2015), 20th Century Fox.

Examples of the First Half of the Second Act From Film and Literature

Pride and Prejudice: After Bingley leaves Netherfield Park at Darcy’s prompting (the First Plot Point), Elizabeth and her sisters can do little except react. Jane goes to London to visit her aunt and to discover why Bingley left. In the absence of Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth pays an extended visit to her friend Charlotte (the new Mrs. Collins). While there, she again meets Mr. Darcy and is forced to react to his perplexing attentions.

Pride & Prejudice (2005), Focus Features.

It’s a Wonderful Life: Even after the First Plot Point in which his father dies of a stroke, George’s life could have progressed exactly as he wanted it to. But when he reacts to Mr. Potter’s attempts to close down the Building & Loan by agreeing to stay in Bedford Falls and take his father’s place, his life is forever changed. For the next quarter of the movie, we find George adjusting to life in Bedford Falls. When his brother Harry (who was supposed to take George’s place in the Building & Loan) gets married and takes another job, George is again forced to react. He accepts he must stay in Bedford Falls, and he marries Mary Hatch—reactions that build upon his initial decision to preserve the Building & Loan.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1947), Liberty Films.

Ender’s Game: After joining Bonzo’s Salamander Army, Ender struggles to stay afloat in Battle School. He learns to fight—and win—in the zero-grav war games. He makes friends and enemies and sets in motion the events that will later cause the standoff between him and the bully Bonzo. Everything he does in the First Half of the Second Act is a reaction to his presence in Battle School in general and his promotion to Salamander Army in particular.

Ender’s Game (2013), Lionsgate.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World: Captain Jack Aubrey and his crew spend the First Half of the Second Act reacting to their second sighting of the Acheron. After turning the tables on the enemy ship, Jack subsequently loses her during a tragic accident at Cape Horn and is forced to devise new plans and methods for managing his crew until they reach the Galapagos Islands.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Miramax Films.

Top Things to Remember About the First Half of the Second Act

1. The characters should react promptly and irrevocably to the events of the First Plot Point.
2. Because the characters’ lives and plans have been significantly altered, they must find new ways of dealing with the world in general and the main antagonistic force in particular.
3. Their reactions should be deep and varied enough to create the next quarter of the story.
4. Their reactions must be dominoes, moving the plot forward and deepening the weave of scenes, subplots, and themes.
5. Often, this section is where the characters will gain the skills or items necessary for the final conflict in the Third Act.
6. At the First Pinch Point, the protagonist will be pressured (either in person or even from afar and without knowing it) by the antagonistic force.

The First Half of the Second Act deepens character development and foreshadows meaningful elements. Even in fast-paced action stories, this will often be the most thoughtful portion of your story as you finish building the foundation your characters will stand upon during the Climax.

Stay tuned: Next week, we will talk about the Midpoint, or Second Plot Point.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Do ever you struggle with the Second Act in your stories? Tell me in the comments!

Related Posts:

Part 1: 5 Reasons Story Structure Is Important

Part 2: The Hook

Part 3: The First Act

Part 4: The Inciting Event

Part 5: The First Plot Point

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify).

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How can you move past your limiting beliefs to find success as an author? How can you successfully self-publish in Germany? Andrea Wilk shares her thoughts in this episode.

In the intro, how to cope with writer conferences [Ink in Your Veins]; Author Nation schedule; Conde Nast signs a licensing deal with OpenAI [Hollywood Reporter];
Breaking down AI misconceptions [Brave New Bookshelf]; Blood Vintage Kickstarter.

This episode is sponsored by Publisher Rocket, which will help you get your book in front of more Amazon readers so you can spend less time marketing and more time writing. I use Publisher Rocket for researching book titles, categories, and keywords — for new books and for updating my backlist. Check it out at www.PublisherRocket.com

This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn 

Andrea Wilk (AD Wilk) is the German author of more than 30 books across romance, thriller, and non-fiction. She’s also the author of the book in English, 15 Keys to Set your Creative Mind for Success and Happiness.

You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. 

Show Notes

• Germany’s book culture
• Why write a book in English?
• How to take control of your author career
• The impact limiting beliefs can have on your writing career — and how to shift them
• Obstacles faced as an indie author
• Common money blocks with authors and creatives
• Tips for generating multiple streams of income and for selling direct via your own Shopify store
• Using AI models as part of a translation process

You can find Andrea at AndreaWilk.com.

Transcript of Interview with AD Wilk

Joanna: Andrea Wilk is the German author of more than 30 books across romance, thriller, and non-fiction. She’s also the author of the book in English, 15 Keys to Set your Creative Mind for Success and Happiness. So welcome to the show, Andrea.

Andrea: Thank you so much for letting me be here. I’m so excited.

Joanna: I’m excited too. Obviously, we’ve been connected for years now, and you’ve shown us things on the Patreon, but for anyone else listening—

Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and self-publishing.

Andrea: Yes, I’d love to. I’m Andrea Wilk. I’m from Berlin, Germany. I started writing seven years ago. Well, that’s not true completely, because I started writing when I learned writing. When I was 14 years old, I did not win a writing competition, and so I gave up that dream of becoming a writer!

Then 20 years later, when I was 34, I reconnected to that dream. Since then, I’ve been writing. A year later, I published my first book, and I got to make a living from it almost immediately. I appreciate it so much, and I feel so grateful for it.

I’ve learned so much from other people, people like you, so I feel like sharing what I learn and my experience is part of my journey, and it belongs to me. This is why I also write books for authors, and I have a YouTube channel in Germany, and I’m going to start one in English as well.

Joanna: So you mentioned there that you started writing properly at age 34, and then quite soon you were making a living that way. So some people will be surprised at that. So tell us—

How did you start with self-publishing?

Did you go traditional in any way? How did you go from nothing to making a living?

Andrea: So I’ve been self-employed for 17 years now, so back then I was already 10 years. I knew from the start that I wouldn’t want to go with a publishing house because my freedom means a lot to me, and I’m kind of impatient, so I wanted to have this done as quickly as possible.

I took a year to learn a lot about self-publishing, everything I got to know. This book I published back then, it was a romance book, and that story had been on my mind for forever. So it was a special book, and I think that readers connected to it because of that.

I did a lot of marketing. I did a lot of everything I could do back then without using a lot of money. So I worked with bloggers, and this was 2018, and self-publishing in Germany really started in 2012, so six years ahead.

So people already knew that self-published books could be read, but it wasn’t the beginning of that market. So I feel like I’ve done a lot, and I’ve learned a lot, and I studied a lot about self-publishing, but of course, there was a little bit of luck in there.

Joanna: Tell people a bit about Germany’s book culture.

Because it’s a very traditional book culture, isn’t it? So I feel like romance and fantasy and things like that were underserved by the traditional market.

Andrea: I wouldn’t say so. The German market is quite wide considering books because we love books. Germans love reading.

We have a third of the market of the US in books, which is huge. People tend to read a lot of books. Not only one book, but they tend to read a lot, and the bookstores are big. So I wouldn’t say that romance was under-served.

Joanna: Okay. There was a point where, like in English language, when Kindle first launched, then later on KU, and the earliest people on that store did really well because there was nothing for people to read digitally. So it was kind of a new thing.

I think 2018, I think I might have come to Frankfurt Book Fair that year, or I was getting involved in the German scene around then, and there wasn’t so much like in the Kindle store as there is now, for example.

Andrea: Yes, that’s true, because now it’s like a lot. It’s crazy.

Joanna: This is the first point for people, so often, everyone obsesses about the English language market, which I guess is the biggest. In France, for example, in Spain, Italy, other countries, the Netherlands, these countries haven’t had so many books for so long.

I think Germany is still a few years behind what’s happening in the English-speaking market.

Andrea: I think what’s different for self-publishing compared to the traditional publishing market is that ebooks are way cheaper from self-published authors.

In Germany, I don’t know how this is in the English market, but traditionally published ebooks are way more expensive than self-published books. This is why so many people buy self-published books because they can just read more by spending less money.

Joanna: That’s completely true. There are some publishers who’ve gone with the cheap model, but certainly the big ones, it might be the equivalent of like 13 euros, 15 euros for an ebook.

Okay, well, we’re going to come back to publishing, but let’s get into your book in English. So, I mean, that would be the first question.

Why write a book in English?

Andrea: Well, I didn’t write it in English. I just translated it to English. I feel so connected to the English language. Of course, for German authors, it’s a dream to have your book published in English because the German market feels quite small compared to it.

So it was a dream. It has been a dream for years. Two years back, a colleague of mine and I, we discovered DeepL. So back then we decided, well, we have to go into the English market, but things happened, and so it took us some time to get here—or me, she’s not there yet—but it took me some time to get here.

Joanna: Yes. Well, let’s get into the book now. You open it with the importance of taking personal responsibility. I really love this because this is also what changed my life back in the day, a book called The Success Principles by Jack Canfield.

He also said, “You are 100% responsible for your life,” and you also say this in the book. Many people feel out of control, they don’t feel responsible or in control of their life.

How can you encourage people to take control of their author career?

Of their life, and accept responsibility, even if it’s tough? Which it is.

Andrea: Yes, it is. I love this, that you are 100% responsible for your life, because the moment you realize that you’re responsible for your thoughts, and your feelings, and what you do, for me, this changed everything.

I was raised believing that I have to react to whatever happens on the outside. That life pushes me and that I have no control about it, that I have no control on how I feel about things. That I just run on autopilot, even though for the most part of my life, I didn’t know that there was an autopilot in myself that was steered by limiting beliefs I had gathered for my whole life.

These limiting beliefs, they make us feel out of control, I think. So what I do when I feel overwhelmed with what happens in the outside is I go inside. I have that picture of a tree, it’s a mammoth tree, or I think it’s a giant sequoia, it’s a big tree. I sit in that tree, and the tree stands in a garden.

I got that picture during a meditation in a coaching session, and sometimes I feel like I cannot trust myself or trust life, so I put myself into that tree, and I was all alone in there. So nobody’s allowed to get in there, it’s my safe space.

This tree has these huge branches and leaves, and there are fruits. These fruits are what I want to achieve in my life, like the successes I want to have, like money and books, all that stuff. This feels big, but the tree didn’t feel stable, and I realized that the roots didn’t dig that deep into the earth.

So what I learned was that I have to trust, in life and in myself, to get these roots growing, to get them connected to the ground. So that the tree, my tree, my safe space, and everything that comes out of that tree is safe as well.

Joanna: I think having a visual metaphor is very useful. I have had people on the show who can’t see images in their mind, which I find really interesting, but I think most people can see something or can imagine the words.

I think what you’re saying is it doesn’t matter whether it’s a tree or whatever it is, but to have some kind of center that you can go back to. I like the fact that your fruits on that tree are what you’re aiming for because I think that kind of shows that that is coming from you.

I guess the question is, okay, so with the trees growing, but let’s say our author career is that tree, but very fragile. Like a new author is very fragile. The winds are coming and the rain is coming, and it is a nightmare. How do they deal with that?

How can you reduce these limiting beliefs in order to get back to feeling in control, even if you’re not in control?

Andrea: What helps me is to reconnect me with my why, my biggest why. Like my purpose, what I really want to achieve beyond writing books, beyond making money. I feel like all these things just lead us to something bigger, to something really big.

For me, that’s actually interesting. It’s quite uncomfortable to talk about it in English. My writing, I want to inspire people with my writing, with my YouTube channel, with everything I do, because I want people to live their dreams because I get to live my dream, and I know how that feels.

I feel like when each of us gets to live our dreams, then the world is going to be a better place. When you live your dream, you don’t feel anger that much. Of course, you feel it as well, but not that much.

You’re just more with yourself, and when you’re with yourself, then you don’t go into separation from other people, but into connection. You go into love, not into fear. I think that’s it.

So this is my why, because I want to have people to act out of love and to do what they love. Whenever I go into that tree, I reconnect to this bigger why because then I can trust that everything that happens, happens to get me there.

Joanna: Even if it’s difficult along the way. In fact, so the book has got principles, each chapter is like a principle. Then you talk about that and what people can do, and you have things that people can practically do.

One of the principles is, “I build my dream castle out of obstacles.” So this is, I guess, another visual metaphor, but building it out of obstacles.

What obstacles have you faced as an indie author?

Because it hasn’t all been wonderful. Can you give some advice for other people on the journey?

Andrea: I feel like we are facing a constant stream of obstacles. Here’s another picture, because I feel like my path is like a river, and when I’m in my flow, I can go ahead and swim very fast. Then bigger and smaller obstacles are coming.

For some I already acquired the skills to easily deal with them, and my flow is hardly affected by them. Then some are so big I have to stop, look at them, and learn how to make something of them. I think a lot of people see an obstacle and consider it something they don’t want in their lives.

So don’t get me wrong, in the first moment I am truly with them. We go into resistance, but that doesn’t take us anywhere, right? When you have an obstacle and you see it as a problem you cannot solve, then you just feel small and you feel helpless.

If you see it as something that lets you grow because it was put into your way to make you a person that can deal with even bigger problems, that can take another step. When you have stairs and you climb up, and you can climb up a little more when you have solved that obstacle.

So I didn’t have like these huge obstacles, but in a way, they’ve constantly been thrown at me. So this starts with the way people treat you when you start writing, what they tell you about the uncle who has written great books, but he never was successful with it.

So this is an obstacle as well, because dealing with these people and dealing with these new limiting beliefs, in a way, that’s an obstacle as well.

Even things like—because I used to do print runs, and I have a distributor—a few years ago, they told me that they had to send me back 500 books. I didn’t have any storage or anything. My apartment is not that big, so I had no idea how to deal with it.

The first moment I was like, no, I don’t want this. I don’t want to have to deal with this. I want everything to just go as it used to.

Then the next moment I felt like, hmm, okay, this could actually be the chance to start selling direct, and to build my own storage, and to build my own shop, to be more independent from Amazon and this distributor.

Joanna: I think that’s a really good example. So you gave two examples there. One is other people’s limiting beliefs about us. I’ve been doing this for a really long time, and still, I went to a networking event recently, and I was talking to a lady, and I said, “I’m an author, and I run my own publishing company.”

She sort of looked at me and said, “Oh, you mean you’re self-published,” and like her tone of voice. I was like, “Yes, I run my own publishing company.” I just, I felt that feeling of what other people’s beliefs can do to us, and I thought my tree was pretty okay, was pretty strong.

That was one example you gave, and then the other one was that more practical one. It sounds like you’re pretty quick to learn how to deal with things, and you can adjust your attitude quite quickly. So how have you learned to do that?

How can people snap out of it more quickly in order to regain their strength?

Andrea: Well, here’s a book recommendation, and that is Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle is the Way.

Joanna: Good book, yes.

Andrea: Yes, an amazing book. I think when I read this, this was the first time I realized that it’s on me, on how I deal with obstacles.

Then there’s a method, a tool by Albert Ellis, and it’s the ABC Tool. It says that when something happens, because of our autopilot, we tend to go to C directly. Like when there’s an obstacle, we tend to see it as a problem, and see it as something we cannot deal with, and just feel overwhelmed.

When we get into B first, like A, something happens, and then we have B, and we take ourselves back—go into our trees, for instance—and just reconnect to ourselves and see the problem from the outside, then we can connect to our strengths and can see if it’s really problem or if it’s an opportunity to grow.

That’s what I do. I think it’s about trusting life. It’s about trusting that life wouldn’t put anything in front of you that you’re not able to deal with, you know what I mean?

Joanna: Or at least you might not be able to deal with it right now. I mean, take self-publishing, even just someone with their first book who wants to just upload their eBook on Amazon. I mean, like you and I have done this a lot, but formatting an eBook, getting a cover design, working with an editor, I mean, there’s so many steps.

People email me all the time and say, I just can’t do this. People must email you too with your YouTube channel.

What do you say to those people who are just starting out and it’s all a problem?

Or there are people listening who have not yet built a Shopify store, and let’s face it, it’s hard.

Andrea: I won’t say that it’s hard, but it’s out of our comfort zone.

Joanna: Yes, it’s a challenge.

Andrea: It’s a challenge. Yes, that’s the word. It’s a challenge. You have to accept the challenge, or you have to decide whether you want to accept a challenge or not. The moment you accept it, there’s only one thing to do, and that is taking the next step.

Then you go on and on and on like that. Just take the next step and the next step. When you hit a wall and you realize, well, I need to learn something to take the next step, then learning that thing is the next step. So we tend to see the big mountain we have to climb, but seeing the next step is actually quite easy.

Joanna: I think one of the problems in the publishing industry, because the media shows us the images of the people who just are really super successful, is people think they can go from the first step to the top of the ladder, or the top of the mountain, without doing the years in the way.

So I think that’s interesting too, isn’t it, that the impatience can be an issue.

Andrea: I am impatient. My first book was such a big success, and I did a lot for it. I studied a year to get there, but it was still too soon. Sometimes I feel like it would have been better if I had that slowly, organically growing success.

When we want to get from the bottom of the mountain to the top in seconds, mostly we’re not the person who can deal with whatever happens up there on top. When we’re when we’re climbing that mountain, we’re building strength to be that person.

We become that person that can handle the success, and the failure, and everything that can happen up there, because what happens up there is way more challenging than what happens at the bottom of the mountain.

Joanna: Yes, and let’s face it, we all have to learn a lot about the writing craft, as well as business. Another thing that you have in the book is you have things around money. Of course, you mentioned before that your tree has fruits that are books and that are money.

I’m glad you have a section on this because I think money mindset is really important for business success.

One of your principles is, “I am allowed to be successful and make money.”

That phrase is really interesting, “I am allowed.” I wrote an article very early in my blogging career around “I give myself permission.” So I guess that’s quite similar.

What do you think are the common money blocks that you see with authors and creatives, and how can they break through them?

Andrea: So in Germany, it’s kind of a bad thing to make money from something good, something you enjoy doing. I always feel like I have to justify myself when I tell people that I make a living from writing.

I mean, it depends on the people. So many people are stuck in jobs that they don’t like. They only work for money. They only go to that place to be able to pay their rent and their food. So it’s kind of difficult to tell people that we make a living from something we love.

I think this is another limiting belief that is deep inside of us and that we have to work on. Another money block, I think at least I face it, is that it’s supposed to be hard to make money. Of course, writing can be hard, publishing can be hard, but not as hard as going to a normal job, a job you don’t like.

So we have that picture of the poor artists in our heads because that’s how, at least, that’s how I was raised. I know a lot of people who just feel like that and who have that romantic picture in their heads. So many people feel bad for making money from stuff they love.

Joanna: It’s really interesting because there are these money blocks, but I also say that multiple streams of income is a really good idea as a creative. I know that you do a lot of stuff. You’re a multi-passionate creative. You do tons of different things.

What are the multiple streams of income for your books and your other aspects?

Andrea: So first of all, I’m still in KU with some books. I tried to get out of it, but it turned out to be very difficult, at least in Germany. So I put back some books into KU.

Since I have so many books, I’ve published 30 books so far, and I’ve only put back like 10 books into KU. These are romance novels, so my thrillers and my non-fiction books are wide, which makes me some money.

That’s only for the ebooks because my print books are all wide. I sell them on Shopify as well. So I have my own store for four years now, and it’s growing. It really makes me some decent money already.

Then I did print runs. Sometimes I do limited print runs that I only sell via Shopify. I used to do print runs and had them distributed by a distributor that is Nova, because that’s the only possible way to distribute print runs in Germany without having it being complicated.

Then I have audiobooks, which I narrate myself. I do Kickstarters twice a year. Thank you for that, for inspiring me to do that.

Joanna: Your covers are beautiful.

You design your own covers, don’t you?

Andrea: Yes, I do. Thank you so much. It takes a lot of time. People constantly ask me about designing their covers, but I couldn’t do it.

Joanna: I mean, you love doing it for your own work. I think that’s it.

Andrea: It’s the creative side I love, but it wouldn’t be efficient. It’s just too much time to do it.

Then I’ve just started the Patreon channel, and I’ve only got like 20 members there, but it’s a start. I also started a member area on YouTube, and I started coaching authors. I finished the 10-months coaching training in June.

Joanna: Will that coaching be more around the mindset stuff or the practicalities of uploading things and stuff?

Andrea: No, because that’s what people asked me for years. I always felt like, well, I can tell you all that stuff, but that’s not a guarantee for success.

If you want to be successful, you have to start within. You have to start with your mindset and with your heart.

I’ve been coaching for 12 months now, and I’ve already coached other authors, but also a lot of people from the training.

It’s so interesting when you just ask the right questions, what people already know about themselves but haven’t seen so far, and what can change for them when they just start looking inside.

Joanna: Yes, I agree. On your YouTube channel, do you have any ad revenue from that? It looks amazing. You do great video. I was watching it, and you and your co-host are really good to watch, even though I don’t understand the language.

Andrea: No, I don’t, and I actually don’t want to because I don’t want to have people watch ads while watching my videos.

Joanna: I’ve got a tip for you, which is for the first two weeks, three weeks, you have the ads off, so then the first round of people get them. Then you turn them on like three or four weeks later. Then you can also have ones that are only at the beginning and the end, and you can say no to the midroll ones.

Andrea: Oh, that’s amazing. So in the beginning when I upload the video, people don’t see ads?

Joanna: Exactly.

Andrea: Oh, that’s great.

Joanna: Then I feel like, well, the subscribers have seen it with no ads, and then new people—well, people are used to it, right? If you stumble across a new creator on YouTube, you kind of expect to wait the five seconds, or whatever it is, before you can click the button to move into the video.

If they’re at the beginning and the end and they’re not in the middle, I feel like that’s the best way. So you get less ad money for having no midroll, but I’m the same, I don’t want it kind of in the middle.

Andrea: That’s great advice. Thank you so much.

Joanna: Yes, so that might add a little more.

Just coming back to, first of all, KU in Germany. I also have my books in German in KU. Just tell people, what does wide mean? I mean, I know of the Tolino. You can get to the Tolino through, I think, Draft2Digital and through some other places, Publish Drive.

I’m kind of with you in that it’s very hard to sell eBooks on these other platforms because the marketing isn’t quite there.

Is KU still the best option for ebooks in Germany?

Andrea: Yes and no. I think for the beginning when you start off in Germany, it is, because you get the biggest reach there. I do know some authors who built their readership on other platforms. I think it’s crucial for your long term success to be wide.

I just heard of another author whose Amazon account was terminated, and I’m kind of scared of this, which is why I go wide as far as I can. You have different options, but Tolino is actually another ereader like the Kindle, but it’s also a platform, a distributor.

The three biggest distributors in Germany are Tolino, BoD, and epubli. They all distribute your books to Tolino, Kobo, Apple, and all these platforms. So if you put in the effort of marketing and are a little patient, I think you can build something there as well.

A lot of people who are using the Tolino are reading via the smartphones.

Joanna: Yes, exactly. That’s for eBooks, obviously. Now for the print on demand, so I get people all the time saying, can you tell Bookvault to get a printer in Europe? They’re in the UK, and obviously we’re no longer in the EU. There’s customs and all the duties and all that kind of thing.

 Who do you use for your print on demand?

Andrea: Well, I’d love to use Bookvault. I’ve asked them on the Self Publishing Live Show, but they said no, not yet at least. As I said, I used to do print runs because I love beautiful books. In Germany, Germans love beautiful books. We love flaps, and we love the UV foil stuff, and all these things.

It’s expensive, and it’s gotten more expensive since paper prices are just skyrocketing. So I stopped this, because if you have so many books, it’s just too hard.

Joanna: That’s exactly the point. You can’t keep doing print runs when you have 30 books.

Andrea: You can do it for the first print run, but when it’s sold out, you have to redo the print run. That’s more expensive because you print less books then, and so it’s more expensive for each book.

So I switched to a print on demand, and I went with Tolino because, well, the most taken option is BoD, but BoD takes all your rights. So they take your printing rights, and that means I cannot print any books with a printing service, which I want to do because I want to sell my books direct. I cannot do that when I’m with BoD.

So I went with Tolino, which is a good option. It’s a good quality. It’s not perfect, I don’t love it, but it’s okay. BoD is not better, and what BoD does as well is they take your audiobook rights. You can get them back when you write to them, but, meh.

Joanna: Why would you do that?!

Andrea: Yes, I just don’t like the policy of taking all the rights.

Joanna: Absolutely. It’s funny, you mentioned epubli before, I spoke at their conference in Berlin. It must be a decade ago now. I think that was before we connected. It was kind of the early days of that kind of self-publishing. I think they really just started out.

What about KDP Print in Germany?

Andrea: Well, it doesn’t make sense because bookstores don’t order books from Amazon. Well, some do, but the big ones don’t, and you’re not listed in the VLB. This is an index of all the deliverable books in Germany that have an ISBN, but you have to list the books there.

The print on demand services, they do that. So bookstores can look into their computers and order the books when somebody wants to buy them, and they don’t do that with the Amazon books.

So Amazon KDP actually would be a nice option because it’s cheaper, and I do like the quality in Germany, but the book isn’t available in other stores then.

Joanna: That’s interesting. A lot of my KDP print books, when I get the proofs and stuff, come from Poland, I think. So that would certainly be closer to you than to me. I think that’s really interesting. So coming back on the Shopify store—

What are your tips for authors when selling direct, and dealing with customers, and any of the challenges you’ve had with Shopify?

Andrea: Well, I did start with WordPress and WooCommerce, and this was like the biggest challenge using WordPress. So I switched to Shopify like 18 months ago, and I love it. I just translated the whole page into English, which is crazy.

Joanna: They have AI tools in Shopify now, right?

Andrea: Yes, and it even translated all my products. I just had to add, “This has been translated automatically by Shopify. If you want to read the book, please tell me, and I’ll put it on my translation list.”

Yes, so I feel like one of the biggest challenges is to find space for your books, to store them. I used to have them in my apartment, and it just was a big challenge. So I’m really glad that I had to rent storage space.

I think we’ve talked about this when we interviewed you, that you have to be the person who wants to do that stuff with the print books, because it can be exhausting.

For eBooks, and audiobooks, and I do have Notion templates as well, it’s just amazing because everything runs automatically. I use Bookfunnel, of course, because it’s amazing.

I think the biggest difficulty in Germany is to make readers, and authors as well, learn that this is a possibility. We are used to buying from Amazon or from a bookstore, and I’m constantly convincing people to buy from my store. So I’m constantly building that readership that wants to buy from me directly.

Joanna: Yes, and that’s the point. It’s always going to be a smaller group, but they care enough to do that. I think that’s important.

So we just mentioned AI translation there, and back in 2019 I used DeepL to translate some non-fiction books. I worked with an editor, and it was pretty expensive. Previously to that, like 2014 I think, I first did translations where I paid for things, and that was even more expensive.

So it feels like things are just starting to change. Just last week, I used Claude 3.5 Sonnet to translate a short story, Beneath the Zoo, to German. I got two proofreaders to look at it, and then I sent it to you. So tell me what you thought of that, and—

What do you think of AI and the new [translation] models now?

Andrea: It was excellent. I was completely blown away by the translation because I wouldn’t have noticed that it was AI translated. When I read again that it was translated not by DeepL, but by Claude, I was even more excited.

When I translate my books, I put them into DeepL, and then I put chapter by chapter into Claude or Gemini. I think Gemini is doing a great job as well. So how did you do it? Did you put it in chapter-by-chapter or the whole manuscript?

Joanna: Yes, because it’s a short story, it’s about 4000 words, I put it in 1000 words at a time. In my prompt, I said, “Make sure you keep the author’s voice in the translation.” You said that you thought it was quite voicey, didn’t you?

Andrea: Yes.

Joanna: So obviously I’m not bilingual, so is DeepL kind of more non-fictiony, more serious? Or is there a difference, do you think?

Is DeepL now just a lot better as well?

Andrea: Well, with DeepL, I think what’s interesting is that you can put up the whole manuscript, and I hope that the software just makes some connections between the chapters.

So when I upload the manuscript chapter-by-chapter for the translation to Claude or something, I would be afraid that it wouldn’t keep the tone, as you said, but it did with your manuscript.

Joanna: Well, it was all in one conversation, so it was just in the same chat. It wasn’t like a new start for every chapter, it was just all in the same chat. “Do this. Now, do this. Now, do this. Now, do this. Now, do the sales description. Now, give me a list of keywords.” For people listening, I’m going to do a video on this for my Patreon.

Andrea: I have a question on this. What if you put up the whole manuscript? Because you can upload a whole manuscript and tell it to read it, and then you go chapter-by-chapter and ask it to translate it.

Joanna: I could’ve done that. I guess I was just nervous. It was just an experiment. As I said, I mean people listening, just to be clear, I used two proofreaders who gave me some changes. Then I sent them to you so you could have a look.

Andrea: I did that too. I had two proofreaders as well.

Joanna: Yes, and you had yours for English, right? So you did that for the books in English. Of course, we all do it for our own language too. I use an editor for my books in English.

So I think the point is that these translations can be cheaper, but we still want to ensure the quality. That’s the most important thing.

Andrea: Yes.

Joanna: Tell people what else you’re using AI for, in your designs and stuff like that.

Andrea: I feel like I use it for everything. I use it mainly for marketing stuff, actually. I do have it open when I write a book because right now, I’m writing a book about somebody who’s a hairstylist, and I have no idea about this stuff.

So I ask the AI to give me some examples, for instance, for some wording and stuff. Then I might put up a paragraph and ask it if it’s written correctly, or if I should add something, or if it’s completely wrong.

Mainly, I do use it for marketing. For instance, I’m on TikTok, and you have these videos where you see the book, and then you have the quotes from a book in there.

I upload the whole manuscript and ask it to give me quotes out of the book that I can use for TikTok.

Joanna: Which tool are you using for that?

Andrea: It depends, because I’m on Poe. On Poe.com, I can use all the chat boards, so I switch between them. For some things, Gemini is better than ChatGPT, and then Claude is better than the two of them. So I ask all of them, mainly those three.

Joanna: I think that’s great. I haven’t done that, ask it for quotes from the book. That’s actually really good because I have gone to Kindle Highlights, I’ve used that before. Like, what is everyone highlighting? But if you can get quotes picked because, I mean, who wants to read their whole blooming book again?

Andrea: Not me, not me. I hate this. I always tell myself when I’m editing my books that I pick these quotes out, and then I don’t do it because it’s not fun.

Joanna: It’s just not fun. So this is for TikTok.

You get the quotes, then what do you do with them?

Andrea: I go into TikTok, and I have my template video, in a way. So I use almost the same video all the times. Then I just put the quote, it’s mainly like five to six sentences, and I just put them up sentence by sentence so that they appear after each other.

This is actually working. I don’t like doing this on my normal TikTok channel because I feel like this is about me and my books. So I just started a Romance AD Wilk TikTok channel where I only post these videos.

So this is really for the algorithm and for marketing stuff. I feel like this is not social media to post videos like that, it’s marketing.

Joanna: That’s interesting. I mean, I’ve thought about TikTok, and I have even tried TikTok for less than a day and decided it’s not for me.

I can see how some of these things people could use, and they don’t have to kind of put their face up or whatever. It’s just kind of more of a genre account or something like that, which is interesting.

What image software are you using for your book covers and stuff?

Andrea: Midjourney, and I love it. I’ve tried all the others, but no. They are updating the platform so often. Now it’s so easy to edit the pictures you generated, and I just love it.

I’m going to publish a Christmas romance novel in October, and I just let it create a picture for it. I love that you can expand the picture and that you can reframe it, and the quality is amazing.

Joanna: Yes, it really is. I know you’ve been using these tools for, I think, even longer than I have, but I think that Midjourney really is just brilliant.

The book cover that I’ve just done in the last week, Blood Vintage, I’m just in love with that cover. That was out of Midjourney, and I gave it to my cover designer, and she put the text on and stuff. So what’s next for you?

Are you going to do more books in English?

Is that kind of the new thing? You mentioned you’re going to do a YouTube channel in English. So is this where you’re pushing next?

Andrea: Yes, it is. As I said, I’ve been wanting to do this for years now. I’m starting with the non-fiction books because I feel like it’s more easy. It’s easier to translate non-fiction stuff into English or into another language than fiction stuff.

Now I saw your story, and I feel like, well, maybe that’s not true anymore. I do want to start with the non-fiction books because I have five more in German. There are four books for authors, and there’s one inspiration book, and they’re not that long, so it can be done quite quickly.

I want to have them published by the end of the year in English. Then I want to start with my romance books. Yes, that’s exciting.

Joanna: It’s definitely a new direction.

Where can people find you, and your books, and everything you do online?

Andrea: So you can find me everywhere under Andrea Wilk. So that would be AndreaWilk.com. There you can sign up for my newsletter. I have my YouTube channel. It is called Between Words.

I have an offer for every author who writes romance books and wants to translate their books into German, maybe you’re interested in a collaboration with me. So stuff like newsletter swaps and whatever, just connect to people who are where you want to be. I feel like networking is so worthy, and I just think we should all work together instead of being so competitive about that stuff.

Joanna: Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for your time, Andrea. That was great.

Andrea: Thank you so much.

The post Author Mindset Tips And Publishing In Germany With AD Wilk first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Today, I want to talk about writing strong themes, because there’s a lot of misunderstanding around the concept of theme (which is why I wrote the book Writing Your Story’s Theme). When we think of theme, we often think of a one-word or short phrase aphorism. For example, maybe the theme of the story is “love” or maybe it’s “overcoming a sense of unworthiness” or something like that. While that is very possibly what the story is about and what the theme is pointing to, that isn’t necessarily a good roadmap for helping you learn how to write strong themes. It’s valuable to look a little deeper and to understand how theme actually operates within a story, what its function is, and therefore how you can use the other elements of your story to consciously create the theme you want to create.

Can You Write Strong Themes “On Purpose”?

Writing Your Story’s Theme (Amazon affiliate link)

In the past, a common statement that has floated around the writing community is that “writers should never consciously write the theme.” There is some truth to this (which I’ll talk about in just a second), but ultimately, I adamantly disagree with this idea.

What this is really pointing to is the truth that writers never want to preach at their readers. You don’t want to try to start with some message you’re trying to share about the world and then shoehorn that into your characters’ mouths or their perspectives of the world and try to prove it through whatever is happening in the story. You don’t want to come into a story to prove, for example, some political statement. Readers don’t want that. It doesn’t work within the story because it isn’t organic or it doesn’t flow. It feels, even if the author isn’t actually preaching at you, that they’re trying to jam some specific moral message into a story that doesn’t fit.

However, I think this unfortunate effect most often happens simply because the writer has an idea of theme but doesn’t understand how it actually works within storyform. If you do understand how theme operates, you’re much less likely to end up with fragmented themes, in which your story is saying one thing while you’re trying to say something else with the theme. Likewise, you can also avoid the problem of getting to the end and realizing what you thought was your story’s theme doesn’t seem to have anything to do with what’s actually happening.

In either case, you can end up having either stories that seem very disjointed, or even two different endings that are trying to individually address the plot and the theme. This creates a story that doesn’t feel cohesive and resonant.

However, if you understand what you’re doing and how story creates them, then you can accomplish two things.

1. You can consciously create anything you want to create within the realm of your story.

2. Perhaps most importantly, you can double-check and troubleshoot what isn’t working. If you get to the end of the story and you feel your theme is off the rails or nonexistent, you can go back and check what happened by asking, “Where do I need to work with the story in order to make the theme more powerful and pertinent?”

What Is Theme, Really?

The most important thing to understand about theme is that it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s not its own thing within the story. It’s part of the greater whole. Specifically, it forms what I call “the trifecta” of plot, character, and theme. These three elements of story create each other; they do not exist by themselves in isolation. One necessarily creates the other.

We sometimes hear the idea of plot versus character, as if they were two totally separate things, when really they can’t be. The plot has to create the character, the character has to create the plot. Theme is the third part of that.

Here’s the thing: if you have a functional story that’s working, what that means is that all three of those things—plot, character, and theme—are working. Even if you’re not conscious of theme—even if you didn’t do it on purpose, so to speak—if all three are in cohesion with one another, that’s what you want. If you can bring consciousness to your administration of theme, then you can do it on purpose.

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you come up with an idea for a plot. Necessarily, there must be characters in that plot. Although it may take a little time, as you flesh out that plot in your mind, you will begin to understand what kind of people are driving this plot. What kind of people are interested in going to the places and achieving the things that you want to see happen in this plot?

This works in reverse as well. If you start with an idea for a character, obviously you don’t have anything for them to do until there’s a plot. So pretty soon you start getting ideas for what these characters will do. What are they interested in? How are they interacting with other people? What do they want? What are they moving toward? Suddenly, you have a plot. Plot and character are not separate. One necessarily creates and brings with it the other.

The same is true of theme.

How Plot and Character Arc Create Theme

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)

The interaction between plot and character is the engine that creates theme. We talked about in the last video about the Lie the Character Believes and how that creates this entire arc of the character’s evolution as they change their perspective, as they evolve into a new way of being and a new identity within the world. That’s character arc. And this new understanding of the world is something that has to be acted upon. It’s not just something happening in the character’s head. Otherwise, there’s no reason for the change to happen within the plot. It will be just an expression of philosophy, not a story. You have to bring this change of perspective into the action of the plot. Show what the character is going through, dramatize it through the events of the plot.

The events of the plot and the arrival of the conflict prompts the need for this change within the character. And then the change inside the character also allows them to evolve and grow what they’re doing in the external plot. If they remained the same, then either they wouldn’t be motivated to go on this story’s adventure at all or, depending on the type of story, the events of the plot will destroy them. They’ve got to evolve in order to survive. They’ve got to evolve in order to reach this next level of whatever it is the story wants them to achieve, whether that’s a relationship or a new job or saving the world or whatever the case may be. Some quiet literary stories really are just about changing that inner landscape. Whatever the case, this change must be proven in some way. It must be acted out within the plot.

Using Your Plot as a Thematic Metaphor

I like to think of the plot as a metaphor for whatever the character is changing internally, for the story’s Lie and Truth. Let’s say you start with the character’s Lie and Truth. And from there, you ask yourself what can the character do physically in the world that would dramatize and show this inner transformation from Lie to Truth.

An easy example of this would be The Hunger Games, in which the protagonist Katniss Everdeen follows a Flat Arc. This means she doesn’t change her perspective; she doesn’t grow from Lie to Truth. Instead, she uses her understanding of the Truth to change the world around her. In this case, that Truth would be her understanding that “oppression is no good,” that this Lie that has been fed to her country Panem by its oppressive government is that “their control is necessary to protect them” and the brutality of the Hunger Games is also necessary. Katniss begins her story understanding this is not true, as many people in her world do. What makes her an interesting character and protagonist is that her story gives her the opportunity to act on that Truth.

Specifically in this story, we can see how the entire premise of the Hunger Games—the entire scope of the plot in this story—is a very specific dramatization of her story’s Lie and Truth that allows her to go out and actively battle this oppression. She’s basically put in a cage and has to fight her way out. That’s a very explicit example of how your plot can operate as a thematic metaphor.

The Hunger Games (2012), Lionsgate.

When you’ve got plot and character working together beautifully, we might say one is proving the other. From this, we get a theme. Even if you try to paste on a different kind of a theme, the events of your story and how your character responds to them and interacts with them is what inevitably creates the theme. That is the point of your story; that is the message of your story. The thematic Truth that will be proved by the end of your story is whatever is shown by the events of the story. Whatever is effective in your story is your story’s Truth. This can be something very practical such as a skill, but it can also be just an effective perspective that the characters hold of themselves or the world (e.g., self-worth).

Using Plot and Characters to Identify Your Story’s Theme

When you approach a story from the idea that plot, theme, and character are all equal members of the equation and that necessarily one creates the other, it allows you to make sure you’re creating a cohesive cycle. And also, when you’re running into problems, it allows you to stop and check.

Let’s say you’re having problems with your theme. “I don’t know what my theme is.”

Look at your character’s arc and specifically at the Lie the Character Believes. Look at what they need to overcome by the time they get to the end of the story and therefore what Truth they’re moving toward. That Truth is usually a very specific and easy way to sum up your story’s theme.

You can also look at the events of the plot.

• What are the characters doing?
• What is happening?
• What is challenging them?
• Where do they fail?
• What do they have to do to succeed?
• How do they have to change in order to become someone who can succeed in gaining the plot goal within your story?

This is where you can start looking for a theme and vice versa.

Using Theme to Create Your Plot and Character Arcs

Let’s say you start out knowing you want to write a story about “love conquers all”—that’s your theme, that’s what you want to write about. There’s no reason you can’t start with just that. Now you have a map for determining what kind of characters and what kind of character arc will help exemplify this.

• How will they be challenged to grow into this?
• What Lie might oppose this idea?
• What events of the plot will be an interesting way to explore all aspects of this idea?

Story by Robert McKee (affiliate link)

Deepen Your Themes With the Thematic Square

This is where it can be really helpful to bring in a technique that Robert McKee wrote about in his book Story, which he called the Thematic Square. Start by examining your story’s thematic Truth from multiple perspectives. This prevents it from being just this simple black-and-white approach, i.e., “this is the wrong way to do it, and this is the right way to do it.” That approach is simplistic and can be on the nose and ultimately unconvincing to readers because that’s not really how it works for most of us most of the time in real life. If it was that simple, we’d always think, Ah, truth. I want to do that.  I pick that one because obviously it’s better. It’s obviously going to be more effective and help me get what I want, what I need, and what’s good for me.

But it’s not that simple, right?

There are many shades and complexities to this evolution of perspective because the Lie and the Truth are actually never black and white. Rather, they represent an evolution along the spectrum, from a limited perspective to a broader perspective. Ideally, you want to be able to explore the complexities around this idea.

The Four Corners of the Thematic Square

You can do this, via McKee’s Thematic Square, by creating a square with four corners that represent four different sides or points of the thematic premise you’re exploring.

The Positive Thematic Statement

First and foremost, you have the Positive corner. Positive represents the story’s Truth. This is the good stuff you’re trying to posit in your story, i.e, “this is the way we should be”—whether the character embraces it and succeeds or fails to embrace it and fails within the story. This is the positive Truth you are suggesting is the best way for the characters to behave in this story. Examples of this would be Respect or Love. These are good qualities. These are things that we recognize as something we want to to embody in our lives, because they will help us to be more effective in whatever we’re doing.

The Contradictory Thematic Statement

Opposite that is the Contradictory corner. This represents something that is directly contradictory to the story’s positive Truth. At its simplest, this is the Lie. This is what stands opposed to the story’s Truth. In simple one-word explanations of what these might be, we have in opposition to Respect, Disrespect. In opposition to Love, we have Hate.

The Contrary Thematic Statement

Those two are obvious; they’re an obvious polarity. From there, you can start moving down to the bottom corners of your square and think about, first of all, what would be an element within this thematic exploration that would be Contrary to the Positive.

The word contrary always makes me think of somebody who’s being contrary: they’re just being annoying. They’re just being stubborn and refusing to see things. It’s not necessarily that they represent or are directly opposed to the argument, but they’re just refusing to do it. They’re opting out, saying, “talk to the hand,” as we used to say. The Contrary perspective wants to bypass the whole thematic argument. In some ways, this makes it more dangerous than the contradictory aspect, which at least is looking at the Truth—looking it in the eye and doing battle with it. In contrast, the Contrary aspect just wants to skip it. It doesn’t even want to engage with this Truth.

An example of this for a theme of Respect, could be Rudeness. Rudeness is passive-aggressive. “I don’t respect you, but I’m not actually doing you the service of coming to your face and telling you that either.” For Love, the Contrary aspect could be Indifference, which in many ways can be more painful than Hate in some relationships. We often say love is hate flipped on its head, with the idea being that if you can dig down there in the hate, you might be able to find love in the shadow and integrate it. Indifference, however, says, “I don’t care about you. You don’t exist to me. You’re dead to me. I don’t think about you at all.” And this can be more painful and certainly more difficult to move through toward that more positive Truth.

The Negated Thematic Statement

Finally, we have what McKee calls the Negation of the Negation. This is the  Lie taken to its farthest extreme. It’s taken to such an extreme that it’s as if the Truth doesn’t exist. It rewrites reality. Over the course of the story, a Negation character will be given an opportunity to see the Truth and how it could potentially positively impact their life. But for whatever reason, they reject it and end up in a worse place than when they just believed the Lie or the Contradictory aspect.

In our example of Respect, the Negation of the Negation would be Self-Disrespect. Usually, even if someone disrespects someone else, there’s that place within their own ego where they are still standing within their own sense of identity and pride of self in opposition to something else. However, with Self-Disrespect, they can’t even respect themselves. If there isn’t even that ego container to hold their own identity, that is, in many ways, a worse place to be than if you’re just this egoic person disrespecting everybody else. It’s an almost plague-like effect. The seed of the Lie takes over the person’s entire being and life and perhaps beyond depending on the type of story you’re telling. The example McKee uses as the Negation of Love is Self-Hatred. Again, the Negation sees the character moving into a place where love doesn’t even exist in their universe.

How to Implement the Thematic Square in Your Story

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)

One of the best ways to explore the Thematic Square is to have your protagonist represent any one of the thematic corners with the antagonistic force representing the polar opposite. Depending on whether you’re telling a Positive Change Arc, a Flat Arc, or a Negative Change Arc, your protagonist may or may not represent the Positive statement.

You can also use the Thematic Square to deepen this thematic complexity by looking for ways in which multiple characters—at least four characters—represent the different aspects of the square. This gives the protagonist a chance to interact with all of them, to be challenged by all of them, and to see the pros and the cons of each one so that they’re challenged. Their exploration of the theme will no longer be a simple binary choice between, “Oh, the Lie is bad and the Truth is better, so of course I’ll choose the Truth.” Rather, they have to move through all of these shadow aspects of the Lie and the Truth, to explore them, and to be challenged by them.

If your project uses characters to represent all four aspects, this also helps you develop and deepen the opportunities for your plot. Make sure every character’s actions, everything that’s happening, any opposition the protagonist faces from antagonistic forces is all thematically pertinent.

No thematic position in your story should be random. If the protagonist is trying to move toward a thematic Truth of “Love,” you don’t want another over here focusing on Freedom and Slavery. That’s a totally different theme. Of course, there can always be crossover—because ultimately everything is interconnected in real life. But applying the Thematic Square to your story can help you recognize which ideas don’t support the point of your story. If something doesn’t support the plot’s throughline and doesn’t support the protagonist’s individual arc, ask yourself how you could repurpose it so it informs the central theme.

Find Your Theme by Examining Your Story’s Ending

When thinking about how best to integrate theme into plot and character arc, look at how your story ends. The ending of your story—your Climactic Moment—will prove what your story was really about. This means it will prove what your theme is really about.

The decisions your characters make in the end, the perspectives they use to inform their choices and actions, as well as their ability to gain their plot goal—all of these things reveal your story’s theme. Examine the questions your story raises and the answers it ultimately ends up giving.

This does not mean that you need to end with some kind of moral of the story or with the mentor character coming out and giving a little speech about the lesson to be learned or something like that. Your story’s “answer” is simply whether or not the characters were effective and how they end up.

• Did they end in a better place physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally?
• Or is it a worse place?

If it’s a better place, then the story’s Truth (i.e., the “answer” to the questions that have been raised throughout the story), is “yes, this is an effective way of being in the world. This is a good course of action.”

If the characters fail, either ambiguously or definitively, then what the story is saying is “this is not a good way of being.” Such a story becomes, even without any need to create a moral of the story, a cautionary tale.

Find Your Theme by Examining Change and Consequence in Your Plot

Finally, think about how your story will develop change and consequence.

Change, both within your story’s character arcs and within the context of how your characters are able to enact change in the outer world of the story will prove what the story is really about. It will show you how your theme develops, what thematic questions are at play, and what answers the plot ultimately posits.

Specifically, think about consequences. Consequences aren’t always something negative. From a causal perspective, consequences can be something good. However, more often, consequences reveal a hard pill to swallow. Not only can consequences sometimes prove that “oops, the characters did not choose the best way of being. They did not choose the story’s Truth,” but consequences can also offer a resonant way to drive home that this path of change, this path of evolution that we’re all on within our lives, isn’t easy. It’s not cut and dried. It’s not black and white.

Again, if theme was simply “Lie versus truth—this is worse and this is better,” we’d always choose the right thing. There would be no need for stories because we’d always choose the right thing. Stories show us that there are, in fact, consequences even for choosing the right thing, for choosing what’s best for us, for choosing something we believe is in the best interest of ourselves and our communities and our world. Stories show us life isn’t simple, that there are always sacrifices, that letting go of a Lie or dealing with people who aren’t ready for us to let go of the Lie—it’s not easy. Embracing the Truth is often difficult.

Examining the consequences your characters face or could face if you deepen your story can be helpful in showing you not just your story’s theme, but how to deepen it and then explore all of the depth of it. Go into the shadows and explore the profundity of change. Ultimately, that’s what theme in story is about.

Admittedly, theme is an abstract concept. Zooming in and thinking of it in terms of plot and character makes it more concrete and easy to master within your story. Again, I’ve written a whole book about theme. So if you want more, you can check out Writing Your Story’s Theme.

Happy writing!

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What do you think is the most challenging part of writing strong themes in your stories? Tell me in the comments!

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