How can you deepen your story’s theme? This is a question most writers find themselves asking at one point or another. And there are many answers.
As an inherently abstract concept, theme can be approached from many different directions—and still feel hard to get at. But as one of the most important factors in creating a story with meaning, cohesion, and resonance, theme must be approached with practical understanding at least at some point in the writing process. I’ve written extensively on this site and in my book Writing Your Story’s Theme about how writers can use a practical understanding of plot structure and character arc to consciously craft and hone integral themes.

Writing Your Story’s Theme (Amazon affiliate link)
Basically, this approach revolves around the realization that character arc reveals and proves theme, while plot structure creates and unfolds character arc. In order for any of the “big three” of plot, character, and theme to truly work, all three must be in alignment. This means that if you’ve got a plot that works or a character arc that works, it’s pretty likely you also have a theme that works. And if any of the three doesn’t work, you’ll at least have clear problems to solve on your way to strengthening all three.
But are there any other practical tools you can use in deepening your story’s theme?
First of all, what does it even mean to “deepen” theme?
It might mean simply to “improve” the theme. But often, writers who are seeking a deeper theme are, in fact, looking for ways to expand upon their thematic argument and delve deeper than simplistic good/bad explorations of moral premises. Good stories will be complex enough to generate many different thematic queries, some only tangentially related to the main premise (which is fine as long as they’re not given major screentime). This, however, can get tricky fast, since sometimes even simple themes can be difficult to execute with cohesion. There is a vast difference between a properly complex theme, in which a single simple idea is explored from multiple angles, versus a complicated theme, in which too many disparate ideas are being thrown at the wall and too few are actually sticking.

Story by Robert McKee (affiliate link)
In increasing the complexity of a story’s theme, one tool I personally use and love and about which I am frequently asked is Robert McKee’s “thematic square.” He talks about this approach in his exceptional screenwriting classic Story (a must-read for anyone passionate about story theory). Today, at the request of several of you, I will offer a quick overview of this technique, and I how I use it.
What Is the Thematic Square?
The simplest way to approach theme is through the polarity of the protagonist’s view of the world (whether accurate or not) versus an opposing view of the world. In teaching character arc, I refer to this polarity as the Lie and the Truth. However, this is necessarily a very black and white description of any thematic argument. These terms are only meant to be representative of the protagonist’s relative views at the beginning and ending of the story; they are unlikely to represent moral absolutes. To the degree they do, stories can often end up feeling moralistic and on the nose. As McKee points out:
Life … is subtle and complex, rarely a case of yes/no, good/evil, right/wrong. There are degrees of negativity.
He then develops those “degrees of negativity” into three specific categories of thematic viewpoints that progressively distance themselves from a basic “positive” view (what I refer to as the thematic “Truth”). Together, the positive Truth and its three counter-views can be seen to form a thematic square:
Instead of the positive Truth being simply opposed by a negative Lie (or call it a Counter-Truth if you prefer) of equal force, it is instead challenged by many nuanced arguments. Thanks to this realistic variation, the story can explore both clearly awful alternatives to the Truth as well as subtler ideas that may, in fact, offer convincing arguments against the Truth.

Wayfarer (Amazon affiliate link)
For example, here is the thematic square I concocted when writing my gaslamp fantasy Wayfarer:
Positive thematic Truth: Respect
An aspect that is outright Contradictory to the Truth: Disrespect
Another aspect that is perversely Contrary to that Truth: Rudeness
The Negation of the Negation, which is an atmosphere in which the Truth doesn’t even exist: Self-Disrespect
In his book, McKee offers several other examples, including this excellent one:
Positive: Love
Contradictory: Hate
Contrary: Indifference
Negation of the Negation: Self-hate
Four Corners of Your Story’s Thematic Truth You Can Explore
Now, let’s dive a little deeper and explore each of the corners of this thematic square.
1. Positive
In my explorations of story, I refer to the positive value of the theme as the thematic Truth. Although it may be a relative truth that is pertinent specifically to your character and your story, it will usually be rooted in something deeper and more universal. McKee says:
Begin by identifying the primary value at stake in your story. For example, Justice. Generally, the protagonist will represent the positive charge of this value; the forces of antagonism, the negative.

Creating Character Arcs (Amazon affiliate link)
In a story in which your protagonist fulfills a Positive Change Arc, he will start out believing a Lie (probably one of the thematic “anti-values” in the below categories) and, gradually, over the course of his story come to recognize and embody the Truth. In a Flat Arc, the protagonist will embody the Truth throughout the story, using it to combat other characters’ Lies and encourage change in some of them. In a Negative Change Arc, the protagonist may or may not represent the Truth in the beginning of the story, but will eventually fall away from it by the end.
2. Contradictory
The contradictory thematic value is the simple binary opposite of the positive thematic Truth. In a story with a clear-cut “good guy” and “bad guy,” the good guy will usually obviously represent the positive value, while the bad guy will obviously (and sometimes mindlessly) represent a contradiction to that value. McKee puts it:
….the Contradictory value [is] the direct opposite of the positive. In this case, Injustice. Laws have been broken.
Although simplistic, the contradictory value is crucial within the story since it represents the fundamental polarity found within the thematic argument. However, by its very simplicity, it can create realism issues for writers who over-rely on it. After all, in most simplistic situations, most people would easily choose the positive value over the negative. If life were always as simple as that, there would be no struggle to reject Lies in favor of Truths—and thus no stories!
3. Contrary
Now things start to get more complicated—and interesting. As McKee says:
Between the Positive value and its Contradictory … is the Contrary: a situation that’s somewhat negative but not fully the opposite. The Contrary of justice is unfairness, a situation that’s negative but not necessarily illegal: nepotism, racism, bureaucratic delay, bias, inequities of all kinds. Perpetrators of unfairness may not break the law, but they’re neither just nor fair.
The contrary value of your theme is where the nuances began to appear. At first glance, some of the contraries of your positive theme may seem “less bad” than its outright contradiction. Via McKee’s example, we might initially be inclined to say that “unfairness” is not so bad as “injustice.” And yet, here we find the slow fade, the gray areas that can lead us to compromise our own basic values, sometimes without even fully realizing it.
It is in the contrary aspect of the theme that your protagonist will be most tempted to abandon the difficult high road of the positive Truth. Indeed, in not accepting or allowing some contrary aspects, the character makes it all the harder for herself to truly embody the Truth. For instance, a boxer unwilling to compromise his sense of integrity and justice in the face of pressure to throw a fight may find this causes him to become the victim of a true injustice that threatens his very life.
4. Negation of the Negation
Finally, McKee finishes out his square with the “negation of the negation”:
At the end of the line waits the Negation of the Negation, a force of antagonism that’s doubly negative…. Negation of the Negation means a compound negative in which a life situation turns not just quantitatively but qualitatively worse. The Negation of the Negation is at the limit of the dark powers of human nature. In terms of justice, this state is tyranny.
In essence, the negation of the negation is an ideology or state of being in which the theme is flipped on its head: right becomes wrong, wrong becomes right. The negation of the negation is the thematic Lie taken to its furthest extreme. Disrespect of others eventually leads to disrespect of self and of all life. Hatred leads to a total moral vacuum: evil. Injustice leads to unmitigated oppression.
Obviously, this aspect of your theme offers tremendous dramatic possibilities. You may choose to fully portray the consequences your character and the story world will face (or already face) if the protagonist fails to embrace and embody the high side of the theme. Stories such as Lord of the Rings, Hunger Games, and Schindler’s List come to mind.

Schindler’s List (1993), Universal Pictures.
But you can also use simply the specter of the negation of the negation in subtler ways to symbolize what is at stake for your character. Even in “quiet” stories, the negation of the negation is usually what shows up, in some form or another, at the story’s Low Moment or Third Plot Point. For example, in a romance where the positive theme might be “love,” the protagonist may have just broken up with her love interest, believing they can never make it work. Now, at this Low Moment, she is faced, however briefly or symbolically, with a horrifying negation of the negation: loneliness as the absence of love.
One More Trick: Combining McKee’s Thematic Square with Truby’s Conflict Square
So how do you apply McKee’s thematic square to your story? Your protagonist’s inner conflict is one aspect of the story in which you can (and should) explore all four nuanced corners of your theme. But you can also powerfully externalize your character’s inner conflict onto the outer conflict of the plot. You do this by identifying certain supporting characters in the story who can represent different corners of the thematic argument.

The Anatomy of Story by John Truby (affiliate link)
This ties in beautifully with the idea of the “four corners of opposition,” which John Truby presents in his Anatomy of Story. His proposition is that of ensuring that your protagonist is not simply opposed by the antagonist, but rather by multiple characters, who in turn oppose not just the protagonist on some level but all the others as well.
This is an excellent approach for breathing dimension into your characters and your conflict. After all, how often in real life are we perfectly aligned with our allies—or even perfectly opposed to our opponents?
Truby illustrates this idea particularly as a square representing four characters (personally, I always default their identities to the four primary character roles of protagonist, antagonist, sidekick, and love interest—or alternately the contagonist sometimes). However, you can actually apply the idea of “conflict from all sides” to every character in your story. This doesn’t mean your protagonist’s mom has to be coming after him with a butcher’s cleaver. But it does mean that even good ol’ Mom should have some goal or belief that conflicts with the protagonist’s in however small a way.
Overlaying this idea atop McKee’s thematic square gives you a guide for assigning a plethora of worldviews to your characters while still keeping them all thematically pertinent. For instance, as McKee noted in his description of the contrary aspect of theme, there may be many different contrary ideas to the main positive thematic Truth. If your story takes up McKee’s example to explore a positive theme of Justice, then you could choose to develop any or all of his contrary suggestions through individual supporting characters: nepotism, bureaucratic delay, etc.
As with any exploration of theme, you don’t want to get too obvious about this. Characters, including the antagonist, need to be fleshed out beyond serving as basic foils for your protagonist’s thematic exploration. But if you can craft characters who authentically represent differing arguments or aspects of the theme, your story’s complexity and depth will expand almost all on its own.
Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Have you ever explored the thematic square in your stories? Tell me in the comments!
Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast or Amazon Music).
___
Definitely coming back to this! I think this is one of the things that I have used subconsciously in the past, as far as using different Lies to oppose one Truth. However, not having a clear outline to follow means I haven’t used it thoroughly or consistently. Theme was always something that I had a harder time grasping… I knew the Truth and the Lie, but Theme seemed a little more nebulous. Thank you for solidifying this concept!
Yes, this is one of the best tools I’ve ever used for making sure you’re developing a truly fleshed-out thematic premise.
In his book did Robert McKee not give *any* mention to Algirdas J. Greimas, who developed the semiotic square and published a book on it in 1966? ‘Cause what you’re calling the thematic square is nothing but a relabeling and repositioning of the points on the semiotic square.
Not that I remember. Sounds interesting though, so I’ll look into it.
I haven’t used the Square or Four Corners before. This is very interesting! I just did a McKee’s Square for my WIP and discovered I’m already doing some of this, but these tools will help me build on what I’m already doing. Thank you for another great article!
That’s why I love tools they like this: they help us take what we’re doing instinctively and refine it on a conscious level.
This is awesome. I drew the square, identified the Positive, and the three other corners rather quickly. Then wrote one major character name beside each one (just added one recently, so I magically had protagonist + three); they are already written to represent these “shadings” of the theme… a fabulous tool for revision, which is what I’m doing with my story now. Thanks! BTW, the corners are:
Positive: Interdependence
Contradictory: Independence
Contrary: Submission
Negation: Utter Helplessness
Nice! Thanks for sharing.
Just had a lightbulb moment! Great post. Fantastic comment! Thanks 😊
Glad it was useful!
I love McKee and go back and reread him often. I appreciate you showing us how you use his thematic square. As I’m tightening up my characters before I begin my next draft, these two squares will be helpful to see where each of my characters stand thematically in the different scenes. I’m guessing that where characters have change-arcs, there should be movement within the square as they move from the lie to the truth, or from the truth to the lie, or even back and forth as characters wrestle with the their beliefs.
“I’m guessing that where characters have change-arcs, there should be movement within the square as they move from the lie to the truth, or from the truth to the lie, or even back and forth as characters wrestle with the their beliefs.”
Yes, totally, and thanks for making that explicit, because it’s definitely one of the most useful aspects of the square, in that you can also use it to chart any Change Arcs within your story.
“We dug coal together.”
For those of you who never saw “Justified,” that’s something U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens says of his chief antagonist, Boyd Crowder. The theme of the show was “the ties that bind,” and in that light the Truby diagram is brilliant to me.
I was thinking the other day of how Raylan is a good example of choosing a protagonist well. Raylan has to be the protagonist as opposed to Art, Tim, and Rachel (his boss and colleagues) because he’s the one who has the ties to the criminals they deal with. He’s the one who has an “in,” and the one who knows where the bodies are buried, and he best exemplifies the show’s theme. And now Truby’s diagram, too.
In the first episode Raylan is reluctantly obliged to return to his roots in Harlan County, Kentucky. His father Arlo is there, and Arlo has partnered and tangoed with assorted gangsters in Harlan: the Crowders, the Bennetts, the Limehouses, etc. Raylan’s Aunt Helen and Mags Bennett used to arrange treaties so the Givens-Bennett feud didn’t become a bloodbath.
In one episode, Raylan has to deal with some drug guys feuding with his father Arlo. They’re living in Aunt Helen’s old house. Because it was his childhood refuge, he knew a particular hidey-hole in the house where the bad guys are keeping their ill-gotten gains. Someone linked to it as an example of how to do exposition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Dhtu9JU_A
In a different episode, he uses a photograph of his mother to prove to some belligerent hillbillies that they’re kin and shouldn’t kill him.
Just because he’s a Givens, some people are willing to talk to Raylan. Others oppose Raylan *because* he’s a Givens. Otherwise they might oppose him because he’s a lawman, or he’s a rival for a love interest, or because of Raylan himself. Some of these people oppose his chief antagonist, Boyd Crowder, and he can exploit that.
I only just started with “Story,” and this post finally prompted me to get the Truby book. Really great food for thought.
Great show–and great analysis. Raylan and Boyd are a wonderful protag/antag pairing. Because they, in fact, share more similarities than oppositions–even though their oppositions are key–they’re able to create all kinds of fabulous thematic and character development.
Jamie – thank you for the Justified reference – love it.
I love all of your material on writing. I am the owner of all of your books and although it’s a process, I am making my way through them.
Theme is definitely a hard one for me. I do have McKee’s book and I will try to look at the square for a little more understanding.
Thanks for the advice.
Glad you’re enjoying the books! And, yes, I highly recommend Story. It’s probably one of my top five favorite writing guides.
I haven’t used the Thematic Square (or read McKee’s book), but I have read Truby and used his corners of opposition to make multiple antagonists/contagonists. It’s one of my favorite parts of Anatomy of Story.
Recently I DNF’d parts 2 and 3 of a trilogy (yes, I gave part 3 a chance after DNFing part 2 twice). The rich characters and setting of the first book carried through, but the following parts of the trilogy lacked cohesion. It didn’t help that about 5% of the sentences are redundant, but that was also a problem with the first book. I figured out that, as good as the characters and the setting were, parts 2 and 3 had such fractured plots and themes that they didn’t feel like a whole.
For that matter, a nonfiction book I recently reviewed, What We Talk About When We Talk About Books by Leah Price, is less than the sum of its parts. Largely because the book doesn’t know what its core message is. Instead, it’s an unfocused romp through various interesting ideas. Anyone who is interested can find that review though my blog (it’s currently the link at the top).
I hear you. I’m currently back in the process of discovering whether I can un-fracture sequels in my own proposed trilogy.
Something new to wrap my mind around. I like how the other characters can take on variations of the theme, in effect showing the MC how far she could go toward or from the Truth. It’s intriguing how this can enrich the story. I just did a quick square of my MG WIP and came up with this: PT: Integrity; Cont: Dishonesty; Conty: Cunning; N of N: Self-deception. I’ll be looking at this post again. So interesting. Thank you!
Nice! Thanks for sharing.
This definitely appeals to the logical side of my brain that gets to nap during much of the writing process. I’m struck that some of the corners are really spectrums of emotion themselves, so it’s not just indifference that’s contrary to Love, but even other types of love than that which is the protagonist seeks. The classic “friend zone” shows up pretty often in this corner (in both fact and fiction). For that matter, lust without regard falls somewhere in here too. And I think complexities like this are possible for many broad themes. Think about this, I think that some of what we think of as singular emotions, can be seen as bundles, so romantic love is something like friendship + desire + self-sacrifice + boundary dropping, and probably some other stuff I haven’t thought about.
Great point. And, yes, the Contrary aspect really can’t be confined to just one aspect of the theme, as can the Contradictory or the Negation. Really, it encompasses *everything* that the other three categories do not account for.
I loved learning about McKee’s Thematic Square. I am familiar with Truby’s Four Corners of Opposition. I will attempt to merge them together! But I am confused by one thing in both writing aids (and in my story’s thematic progression). My protagonist is on a positive character arc so he begins believing the LIE. How can I properly use these tools if my protag doesn’t start by representing the positive corner but only gradually gets there?
Good question. An Impact Character, such as a mentor, can be used to represent the thematic Truth, toward which the protagonist will be drawn throughout the story.
Hi KM, this is a great post for deepening theme. I love how your advice in general helps me to write stories that are coherent without being simplistic. I might end up using this square to work out my own lessons learned from my life experiences or my complex feelings on various polarized issues.
A thematic square for the story I am currently working on is this:
Positive: Strength combined with spiritual ethics (symbolized by the union of my main couple- a young leader who holds great power but is falling apart on the inside and a wandering mage-in-training who has been hiding from persecution but who exhibits a kind of tenacity the king lacks)
Negative: power but internal brokenness on one hand and ineffectual spirituality on the other leading to generally lonely, chaotic and corrupt society
Contradictory: Perhaps following a moral code *ultimately* strengthens one self and one’s society, but in other, more immediate and obvious ways it makes oneself and one’s community more vulnerable. Also, power is associated with corruption and violations of ethics, so how could anyone possessing power have anything to do with spiritual values?
The negation of the negation: fanaticism, acting unethically in the name of spirituality but really for the sake of power over others
This sounds like a great and really well thought out thematic square.
And this: “I might end up using this square to work out my own lessons learned from my life experiences or my complex feelings on various polarized issues.”
Great idea!
Trying this idea with “hope.” Contradictory: Hopelessness? Contrary: False Hope? Negation of Negation: Death? Or Depression? Or Passivity? Nihilism? Ambivalence? Whim? I’m not sure what term to use to express a complete lack of direction or a complete lack of desire for direction. Am I even in the right ballpark?
Nihilism strikes me as a solid negation.
Thanks
Thank you! You’re a gem!
Love this! Now I’m trying to work through how to apply this to the theme of “humility” or “self-sacrifice.” I’m pondering something like this: Positive – Humility; Contradictory – Vanity; Contrary – Insecurity/Self-loathing; and Negation – Hubris. But I’m wondering if Pride wouldn’t fit better than Vanity as a contradictory element. Or maybe Vanity is more contrary? Definitely scratching my head on this one.
I think you could go with either Vanity or Pride for the Contradictory, depending on the angle you’re specifically exploring.
Great post, K.M.
As a writer who tends to drag his endings, I welcome your advice.
By the way, the whole four-part series was fantastic.
I think this is one of the things that I have used subconsciously in the past, as far as using different Lies to oppose one Truth. However, not having a clear outline to follow means I haven’t used it thoroughly or consistently.
I am relatively new to your podcast and have been listening to back episodes. Your content is amazing. The episode on the thematic square really stimulated thought and was very helpful to me in clarifying my story’s theme. I worked out the following.
Positive: Face pain and course correct
Contradictory: avoid pain and be trapped in misery
Contrary: distract from pain through the pursuit of a false solution (MacGuffin.
Avoid/deny awareness of emotion. Seek to counterbalance pain through the pursuit of pleasure or a quest to escape stress.
Negation: disintegrate in the face of a pain that is perceived as overwhelming
If you have time, I would love to know your thoughts.
Thank you for providing such a wealth of free resources.
I think this is spot on! An interesting theme to explore. Glad you’re enjoying the content!
Thanks so much!
I love how this concept utilizes a visual diagram! I just made one for the theme of my WIP, which is “Letting go of the past.” So far, I have:
Positive: Embracing the future.
Contradictory: Holding onto the past.
Contrary: Living in the present. Indifference towards the future.
Negation: Believing there is no future.
My protagonist has a disillusionment arc, so the future she needs to embrace isn’t particularly rosy. The diagram still works though.
Thank you for such an amazing blog and podcast!
I like this. I might clarify living in the present, since living in the present could actually represent healthy behavior aligning with a truth. Maybe denial of the future, painting the future rosy, or distracting self from awareness of the future by busying self in the present could be contrary themes.