Helping Writers Become Authors

If there’s a magic ingredient in writing, it’s story subtext.

It’s actually not magic, of course, any more than any of the other demystified techniques of structure, theme, or character arc. But story su...

Negative Character Arcs explore what happens when a character encounters a story’s thematic Truth but cannot—or will not—fully integrate it. The three major variations—Disillusionment, Fall, and Corruption—each represent a different tragic relationship with the story’s thematic Truth and Lie. When we put them together, they also reveal a larger pattern of negative transformat...

In childhood, stories are always about exactly what they appear: “See Spot. See Spot run.” But as we grow older and our life experiences deepen, so do our story experiences. What emerges is often a complex weave of subtext and misdirection. Life isn’t always as we perceive it on its surface—and even when it is, we often miss what’s right in front of our noses anyway. Our stor...