The last time I visited Barnes and Noble, I marveled at the comic book section. Western comic books only filled a couple of shelves, while around the corner, there was an entire aisle of manga comic books. Shelf after shelf displayed manga comic books written in English but written so readers must read right to left, which is very difficult to adjust to.
Why is Eastern manga so much more popular than Western comic books from DC and Marvel? Why is Naruto more popular than Superman? Superman has every advantage, yet his books struggle to sell. Investigating the answer to this question took me to an interesting discovery, and the answer is shockingly ancient.
Western storytelling is typically based on the three-act structure. You likely learned the three acts in school and try to follow them in your writing. The three-act structure dates back to Aristotle, which makes it a rather new (and uniquely Western) storytelling form. However, the three-act structure is not the only story structure. There is an ancient story structure that dates back to the time of oral storytelling. This ancient structure is still popular in the East, yet it appeals to modern Western readers.
In fact, many Western storytellers have rediscovered it and used it to write some of the most enduring bestsellers in the English language. Pride and Prejudice, Goodnight Moon, and Dracula all follow this structure.
What is this ancient story structure?
How can you use it to make your book more appealing to readers?
This is the Anime Formula, Not the Hollywood Formula
When I talk about craft, I try to use films as examples. Millions of books are published every year, so you and I are probably not reading the same ones. However, only a few hundred big films come out every year, so statistically speaking, you are more likely to be familiar with any given film than with any given book.
But very few Western films follow the Eastern two-act structure. Most follow the Hollywood Formula, which is based on the three-act structure. However, most of the best and most popular anime films follow the Eastern two-act structure. For example, Code Geass, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Attack on Titan, and Death Note all follow the two-act structure. If you shop for completed anime shows, they often have only two seasons, one for each act in the two-act structure.
But as much as I would love to explain the chiastic structure with Code Geass, I want to start with something smaller and super American. The interesting thing about this structure is that it scales. It can be used in works as large as a book series with millions of words, or you can use it to structure a sentence.
So, enough teasing. Let’s talk about the chiastic structure.
Chiasm: Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You
In sentence form, a chiastic structure is called a chiasm or chiasmus.
In 1961, John F. Kennedy had a chiasm at his inaugural address. The chiasm made the sentence so memorable that you still remember word for word. In fact, you probably are already playing the sentence in your head. That is the power of a chiasm.
Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
-John F. Kennedy
Chiasms follow the format of either ABBA or ABCBA format.
Kennedy’s quote ends where it begins. The word “you” is at the center of the quote. The word “you” is the peripety, the pivot that changes everything.
To create your own chiastic quote, you want to start with a parallelism.
Ask not what your country can get for you.
Ask what your country can get from you.
Then, flip one of the parallels to create the chiasm.
Ask not what your country can do for you
ask what you can do for your country.
I don’t want to talk too much about chiasms at the sentence level. If you want to learn more about crafting proverbs, I talk about crafting sticky chiastic proverbs in my course, The Art of Persuasion.
So far, so simple. Now let’s expand our understanding of chiasms into children’s books.
Beautifully Resonate Symmetry
Have you ever wondered why children love Goodnight Moon? Why has it sold 50 million copies? Why is it always in the top ten bestselling children’s books?
Well, Goodnight Moon follows a chiastic structure with its writing and illustrations. This gives it a beautiful symmetry that children can appreciate before they can talk.
The story starts by describing everything in the room. “In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon.”
As the description progresses through the room, the color illustrations gradually get darker. The pages alternate between color and black and white, giving the feeling of nodding off to sleep. The book also uses concrete language and a right-branching sentence.
Then we get to the peripety, the turning point that changes everything. In Goodnight Moon, it is a full two-panel page with just two words: “Goodnight room.”
Then we go back through the room, saying goodnight to all the things we just saw. “Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.”
Finally, we end where we began, but now everything has changed. The room is dark, and the light is off. The old lady has left her rocking chair. Instead of saying, “Goodnight telephone,” it says, “Goodnight noises everywhere.” And the story ends.
The key to a good chiasm is the peripety—the thing that changes the second act. In the second act of Goodnight Moon, each page is literally darker than the pages in the first half. The text and scene are the same, yet everything is different because we are now saying goodnight and falling asleep.
There is something inherently beautiful about symmetry that transcends time and space. For example, while beauty standards are in constant flux, people all over the world find symmetrical faces more attractive than asymmetrical faces. Children love symmetrical, tightly structured stories. The same is true for most adults.
Ending at the beginning also invites the reader to read the story again, much to the chagrin of many a busy parent.
Two Acts and a Cataclysm
In the Eastern two-act structure, you have act one, which opens the story, introduces what the characters want, and then follows them as they seek that goal. In the middle of the story, you have what my brother David Umstattd calls a cataclysm. In anime, the middle usually is a cataclysm of some kind.
But the term my dad prefers, and the term I’ll be using is “peripety.” A peripety is a sudden and unexpected change in circumstances or fortune. It’s also known as “a reversal of circumstances” or “central turning point.” Often, the protagonist’s goal changes in some fundamental way.
To illustrate this, let’s look at Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Act 1: Haunted by Dracula
The story starts in Transylvania, where Jonathan Harker slowly realizes that Count Dracula is not all that he seems. Jonathan questions his sanity as his scientific mind is at war with what his eyes see. Could vampires be real? Could Dracula be a vampire?
Dracula then comes to England, where he begins feeding on and haunting Lucy Westenra. Dr. Van Helsing tries to save Lucy. The other characters struggle with whether to trust modern science or accept that vampires are real and if they are, they need to save Lucy.
Cataclysm/Peripety
The peripety of the story starts with Lucy’s death. This turns into a true cataclysm as her corpse starts looking healthier and more beautiful until, eventually, she comes back as a vampire that feeds on little children. Van Helsing, Quincy Morris, and the others go to Lucy’s crypt to pray to God, exorcise the demon, and give Lucy her final death.
The peripety is this short statement by Van Helsing:
“Now, my friends, one step of our work is done, one the most harrowing to ourselves. But there remains a greater task: to find out the author of all this our sorrow and to stamp him out. I have clues which we can follow; but it is a long task, and difficult, and there is danger in it, and pain. Shall you not all help me? We have learned to believe, all of us—is it not so? And since so, do we not see our duty? Yes! And do we not promise to go on to the bitter end?”
Each in turn, we took his hand, and the promise was made.”
This is such a perfect example of a peripety because it changes everything. Even the genre shifts from horror to thriller at this moment. Everything has changed with the realization that vampires are real and that Dracula is a vampire. The hunted become the hunters.
Act 2: Hunting Dracula
Changed by the peripety, the heroes investigate Dracula, trying to find his hiding places.
There is an encounter with Dracula, but now that they understand vampires are real, the men come armed with crucifixes and communion bread. The great and terrible Dracula, count of Transylvania and ancient terror to the Turks, flees before these men armed with communion bread. The men are no longer stuck in England being hunted by Dracula. Dracula is now stuck in England, being hunted by the men.
Dracula flees England for Transylvania. The heroes chase him to his castle, where the story began and where the final confrontation will happen.
Since I suspect most of you have not read Dracula, and none of the movies seem to follow the plot at all, I won’t tell you what happens next. The book is fantastic and surprisingly Christian. It’s also a textbook example of the chiastic two-act structure used by a Western author and written to a Western audience.
I hear Shelley’s Frankenstein also follows a chiastic structure. The story begins with a letter from Robert Walton, transitions to Victor Frankenstein’s story, and the peripety is the monster’s narrative. After the peripety, the story reverses back through Frankenstein’s perspective and ends with another letter from Walton.
I haven’t read Frankenstein myself to confirm, but if you’ve read it, feel free to comment and let me know if it has a chiastic structure.
A Chiasm Can Add Emphasis, Humor, or Mystery
You can also use the chiastic structure to add emphasis, humor, or mystery. The Bible uses chiasms often, so you may have heard about this structure at church. The Bible has two testaments, after all.
Emphasis
The Bible often uses the chiastic structure to add emphasis to an important element of the story. You see this at the chapter level. For example:
The Flood of Noah (Genesis 6–9):
A: Violence and corruption (6:11–12)
B: God’s decision to destroy (6:13)
C: Noah builds the ark (6:14–22)
D: The floodwaters rise (7:10–24)
E: Peripety: God remembers Noah (8:1)
D′: The floodwaters recede (8:2–14)
C′: Noah leaves the ark (8:15–19)
B′: God’s promise not to destroy (8:20–22)
A′: New covenant and blessings (9:1–17)
The most important part of this story of judgment and destruction is when God remembers Noah! The symbol of the flood story is a bow (the rainbow). God said, “I have set my bow in the clouds” (Genesis 9:13). But the bow is not pointed downward at mankind, as if to launch an arrow of judgment at humanity. It is pointed upward toward heaven, foreshadowing how the pain of a future judgment will pierce God himself.
Mystery
You can use the chiastic structure to hide a mystery.
The book of John uses a lot of chiasms. I want to shout out to my pastor, who is currently preaching a sermon series about the chiastic structure of the seven signs in the book of John.
The Book of John
A: Water Changed to Wine (John 2:1-11)
B: Healing a Dying Child (John 4:46-54)
C: Healing a Disabled Man (John 5:1-15)
D:Multiplication of Bread (John 6:1-15)
C’: Healing a Disabled Man (John 9:1-41)
B’: Raising a Dead Man to Life (John 11:1-44)
A’: Jesus Crucifixion (Sour Wine, Water, Blood) (John 19:29-34)
So, why is the feeding of the five thousand such a point of emphasis? Why structure the gospel around that miracle instead of other, more dramatic miracles? Why is the feeding of the 5,000 one of the only miracles in all four gospels? If you know, you know. Otherwise, it’s a mystery that invokes curiosity and invites you to investigate.
And that is the point. You can use a chiastic structure to create curiosity.
Humor
You can also use the chiastic structure for humor. The book of Esther is structured as a chiasm.
The Book of Esther
A. The king’s banquet and Queen Vashti’s removal (Ch. 1)
B. Esther’s rise to queen (Ch. 2)
C. Haman’s plot against the Jews (Ch. 3)
D. Esther’s first banquet and Haman’s plan for Mordecai (Ch. 5)
E. Peripety: The king honors Mordecai (Ch. 6)
D’. Esther’s second banquet and Haman’s downfall (Ch. 7)
C’. Mordecai’s decree for the Jews to defend themselves (Ch. 8)
B’. Mordecai’s rise to 2nd to the king (Ch. 9)
A’. The king’s final banquet and celebration of Purim (Ch. 10)
Timeless Tension Through Contrasting Characters
The harmonizing structure of a chiastic story tends to highlight contrasts, making it fun to use in romance stories. For example, Pride and Prejudice follows a chiastic structure. So let’s break it down.
A: Darcy and Elizabeth Apart:
At the start of the novel, Elizabeth is prejudiced against Darcy, perceiving him as arrogant and overly proud. Darcy, on the other hand, regards Elizabeth with indifference, seeing her as beneath him due to her family’s lower social standing and family drama.
B: Darcy’s Growing Interest in Elizabeth
Despite his initial pride and disdain for Elizabeth, Darcy starts finding her interesting. Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s prejudice against Darcy becomes stronger.
Peripety: The Proposal (Cataclysm)
Darcy acknowledges his feelings for Elizabeth and proposes marriage, but he delivers the proposal in a way that emphasizes his pride and superiority.
Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s proposal with prejudice. Like any good peripety, this cataclysm changes everything for the rest of the story. It marks the inversion of their roles: Darcy is now vulnerable (prejudice), while Elizabeth holds the power to accept or reject (pride).
B’: Elizabeth’s Growing Interest in Darcy
After the proposal, both characters undergo significant personal reflection. Elizabeth realizes her prejudices against Darcy were based on Wickham’s lies and her initial pride in her own prejudice. Darcy, in turn, recognizes how his pride and arrogance have affected others, especially Elizabeth.
A’: Darcy and Elizabeth Together
By the end of the novel, Darcy and Elizabeth have both changed their perspectives.
Darcy humbles himself, demonstrating generosity and kindness, particularly through his efforts to help the Bennet family after Lydia’s elopement. Elizabeth acknowledges her earlier misjudgment and repents of her prejudice. The story ends with their happy marriage.
Powerful Endings
One reason the chiastic structure works so well is that it leads to powerful character-based endings.
The Cat in the Hat is a good example of this. Here is the breakdown to refresh your memory.
A: The Boy and the Girl Sitting at The Window Watching the Rain
B: Fun with the Cat in the Hat
C: Release The Chaos with Thing 1 and Thing 2
Peripety: Mom is Coming Home!
C: Catch and Control Thing 1 and Thing 2
B: Clean with the Cat in the Hat
A: The Boy and the Girl Sitting at the Window Watching the Rain
From a plot perspective, the boy and the girl are doing the exact same thing at the end of the book as they are at the beginning. But everything within them has changed. They went on a chaotic adventure and came back different.
It makes the ending so powerful that it has triggered a million deep conversations between children and parents.
Mom asks, ‘Did you have any fun? Tell me. What did you do?’ And Sally and I did not know what to say. Should we tell her the things that went on there that day? … Well.. what would you do if your mother asked you?”
By taking your characters back to where they began, you can emphasize to the reader how much those characters have changed.
In this way, the Eastern two-act structure follows the Hero’s Journey. In fact, the hero’s journey is often illustrated as a circle broken into two parts labeled “Known” and “Unknown.” The hero’s journey begins with the call to adventure and ends with the return. He goes from the known into the unknown and then back.
Image Source: Wikipedia
Transform a Messy Middle into a Meaningful Peripety
One advantage of the chiastic structure is that it fixes the messy middle that often haunts three-act stories, especially when you create a clear peripety. Instead of a messy, sagging middle, the biggest, most meaningful moment of the whole story—the moment that changes everything, the cataclysm—happens near the middle of the story.
This transforms the messy middle into the most compelling part of the story. The middle of Dracula kept me up till 2:00 in the morning. Darcy’s proposal is not boring either.
The peripety explains why anime can be so addicting. The first season typically ends with the peripety, and once you know everything has changed, you have to keep watching.
It’s important to note that the peripety does not need to be in the dead center of the story. In Dracula, Lucy’s second death happens about 60% of the way through the story. In Cat in the Hat, Mom comes home on page 47 of a 61-page book. The first half is often a bit longer since you have to provide context so the story makes sense. But it’s not always longer.
A chiasm creates a structural symmetry rather than a symmetry of the word count.
Interestingly, the second half of Goodnight Moon is longer than the first, as the child stalls going to bed and comes up with extra things to say goodnight to. Those of us with small children may argue that Brown’s technique of drawing out bedtime moves the book from fiction to nonfiction.
Peripety in a Single Sentence
My family used to run a speech and debate club whose contestants regularly advanced to the national championship. My brother David Umstattd placed second in the nation in one of his events.
My dad, who led most of the meetings, taught his students about chiastic structures. He demonstrated how to use them to underline key points in a debate and how to structure an award-winning speech.
He wanted to create chiasm that illustrated a sentence-level peripety, so he created this one.
I’m a one woman man
married
to a one man woman.
As he put it, marriage changes everything. And he’s not wrong!
If the middle of your novel is lagging, it may be missing a peripety. Add a cataclysm that changes everything, and suddenly, the middle will grab readers and compel them to keep reading.
A Flexible Structure
I’m not saying you should abandon the three-act structure. It’s a great model and works for many stories. You can even use chiastic elements in your three-act story if you know what you’re doing. But you can also write an enduring bestseller without three acts. Pride and Prejudice is one of the bestselling romances of all time. Dracula is one of the bestselling horror novels. Goodnight Moon and The Cat in the Hatstand tall among giants.
Some of you have given up on outlining because you are trying to fit your story into a three-act structure, and it just doesn’t fit. That is why I want you to know you have other plot structure options. Maybe you’ve been writing a chiastic story all along.
If you are a discovery writer who writes by the seat of your pants, try dropping a cataclysm (that changes everything) near the halfway point in your novel. Then, revisit the previous plot points with the peripety in mind. Readers will marvel at your structure and foreshadowing. They will have no idea you were figuring things out as you wrote! You may also want to check out this podcast on chiastic structure in a series.
If you want help, watch some good anime like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It follows the chiastic structure religiously. (Interestingly, the villains are the seven deadly sins!) Experiment with the Eastern two-act structure.
Chiasms Invite Readers to Return
When readers finish reading your book and immediately want to read it again, they will also tell others about it. As readers experience the book for a second time, they tend to talk about it to their friends. A chiastic structure creates that invitation to reread children’s books and grown-up books alike. Once the reader has experienced the cataclysm that changes everything and read the second act, they often want to reread the first half with fresh eyes.
A well-written book can become a peripety in the reader’s life, changing everything in their life as a result of reading the book.
The chiastic structure can be used in a sentence, a children’s story, a novel, a TV show, and, yes, even a podcast. In fact, this very podcast followed a chiastic structure. If you listen again, you will be able to hear how I did it. My teasing opening will sound different to your ears now that you know what a chaism is.
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Related Episodes
THIS might well-be one of my favorite craft episodes EVER. Thanks for sharing this with us, Thomas.
This is fascinating! Thanks for the post!
First of all, let me thank you again for the helpful articles you post. They are thoughtful, well-illustrated, and insightful. I especially liked the new “take” on the hero’s journey. Is that your image, and if so, may I post about it, giving credit to you?
Second of all, I think many Bible readers have the rhythm of chiasmus in their heads after reading especially the poetry of the Old Testament. I gained a real appreciation for it when I decided to write a section of my historical fiction with a chiasmus in the middle. I’ve marked it here, if you are okay with me demonstrating here. The scene is first century, as a woman carrying a lithopedion (Cordelia) attends her friend Priska through the labor and delivery of twins, one of whom does not survive.
Cordelia’s eyes watching me were full of tears.
A“I will tell you one thing that helped me,” she said. Then she looked at her own still-ripe abdomen and nearly swallowed a sob. “Who am I to tell you anything.”
My body was for the moment placid, and I reached for her arm.
“Stay with me. Tell me what helped you.”
B She gathered herself and nodded. “I thought of the times that you and I, young girls, sat on the seashore.”
“Yes.”
“And as the waves came, we could see that the sea was drawing in things, treasures from the deep, we thought, bringing them in the foam to us, and we strained our eyes to see them from afar.”
“Yes.”
“But whatever came in, had to stay atop the waves. If it didn’t, it sank to the bottom of the sea.”
B2 My womb seemed at once to try to wring itself out. I could not speak, could not listen. It was as if I were in the middle of the crackle of a pitch-filled fire, explosions of stars riding on the crests of flaming waves.
Somewhere beyond the heat of that fire I heard voices and knew there were other women in the room. I shaded my eyes and saw tunics and legs and feet.
CBut I was at sea, again and again. I began to crave for the imposition of a beat that would make the rowing regular but a thousand oars slapped all around me. Then I could hear only my own breath and began to feel a hoarseness far deeper than my lungs. I gasped, long deep breaths that seemed as if my body were beginning a cough and then changed its mind.
I could hear Cordelia’s voice. She was commanding me, and I wanted to listen.
“Priska, each wave will end. The waves will each break on the shore. All of them. Every one. They do not stay out to sea once they have begun. You understand this? You must remember this.”
I nodded.
“You must stay on top of each wave, let it bring you as a treasure to the shore.”
My lips were too dry to speak, my tongue useless. She brought me wine, dribbling into my mouth. I found some voice there in the moist places of my throat.
“I can do it if you read John’s scroll to me.”
I heard a rustling, a rearranging of people around me. I saw Aquila’s face in front of mine, his black hair hanging straight out from his temples, and I realized he was on all fours beside me on the mat.
“Sit up for the surges, sit up for the surges,” the women’s voices whispered. I stumbled forward and he caught me as he helped me squat onto the birthing stool. Then Aquila’s face receded into the shadows.
Cordelia began to read, but I only heard parts.
A little while and ye do not behold me; and again a little while
D The reading stopped – or I could not listen. I thought of Cordelia’s birth phalanxes in tight rows, determined and faceless and implacable. Again they came. And again.
But mine were the bright-eyed assaulting ones of Habakkuk: Their horde of faces move forward.
Cordelia’s voice would rout them, but I asked in her voice:
What is this he says to us, A little while and ye do not behold me; and again a little while?
E Sometime late that night I passed a threshold into a world that was only air. I could hear my breathing more clearly than anything else I had ever heard. Each breath shuddered at its own exhalation.
What is this which he says
What is this which he says
What is this which he says of the little while?
We do not know of what he speaks.
A rooster crowed, and I wondered where Peter was. Would I ever see him again? And did a rooster crow in his heart every day?
But then everything in the world contracted itself into the exact size of my abdomen. There were women’s hands beneath the stool.
Cordelia read.
Jesus knew therefore that they desired to demand of him, and said to them, Do ye inquire of this among yourselves that I said, A little while and ye do not behold me; and again a little while and ye shall see me?
Verily, verily, I say to you, that ye shall weep and lament, ye, but the world shall rejoice; and ye will be grieved, but your grief shall be turned to joy.
The world was splitting and ripping. It was dawn.
I heard the voices.
“A son! Aquila has a son!”
I was being lowered onto the mat. There was slipperiness everywhere: on me, sweat-soaked. The hands holding me nearly lost their grip. And then the slipperiness I had felt inside me was on my chest, writhing and crying.
Cordelia was reading, weeping.
A woman, when she gives birth to a child, has grief because her hour has come; but when the child is born, she no longer remembers the trouble, on account of the joy that a man has been born into the world.
Middle For a moment of charged clarity, I felt a joining of eternity to me, stretching in both directions from the first intentions of God to the eschatologies of all things. I sought the haven of these heavenlies, the faraways, under my eyelids.
But my arms lost their strength and I felt my hands sagging over the child.
I could not hold the child, for the sea was back, and the armies, and the breath as coarse as sackcloth, ripped from my lungs.
I was back on the stool. Women knelt on each side of me, my arms held over their shoulders, their faces next to mine like a line of siege shields. This time the world did not rip.
“Aquila has a daughter, too!”
F I was back on the mat and another child was there on my chest, holding herself up on her forearms and looking directly into my eyes, and I knew her name.
“Tikveh,” I said. Hope. She seemed to look behind me then, as if summoned by another voice, and she sighed deeply.
And then she was gone.
The room was thick and still again. I held the limpness, still warm. Cordelia was crying. Outside, someone else was crying too.
“Read what John saw to me, Cordelia. Read me what else He said.”
And ye now therefore have grief; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one takes from you.
E My breaths were like raw edges of fabric, now overlaying one another, searching for a seam.
For the Father himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me, and have believed that I came out from God. 28I came out from the Father and have come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father.
D “The afterbirth, only the afterbirth,” one of the women was saying. The regiment of soldiers began to break rank, to wander off.
C My son and my daughter were in my arms. I could not talk as the shrinking pain hummed, vocalized in my outgoing breaths. I knew that I was being emptied out.
The sunlight was coming in slits through our walls. Aquila was crying, stroking both children.
I sat up with both children resting on the triangle of my crossed legs. I kissed Tikveh, again and again, and washed her with my tears. Aquila wrapped her with his strong hands in the strips of kidskin we used to make purses, and then he took her away.
B2 As I lay on the mat beside my son, I wondered at how an unknown universe had been inside me those months. If I could open myself up, I believed, the entire studded night sky would be there, I was sure.
BI turned onto my side and spat out sea water, and then I fell asleep.
It was evening when I awakened with a pulling on my breast, and saw the child in the circle of my arm. I looked up and knew Cordelia had put him there, and sure enough, she sat nearby on the bench. She came to me and put a pillow behind my head and pulled my matted hair onto it. She drew a comb from her pocket.
Wordless, she began to comb my hair: first the surface snags, working them out so as not to break a single hair, then combing deeper, drawing strands out onto the pillow and my shoulders like a shawl.
“I was thinking, Cordelia.”
“Yes.”
“About Mary, and the birth of Jesus.”
“Yes.”
“How she did not have to go through her labor in front of people.”
“Yes.”
“At the inn, I mean. Where there was no room. Where everyone was crowded in, the criminals and rough men who had nowhere else to stay.”
“Yes.”
“How gracious God was, to keep her from their eyes, to give her privacy, so far from her home and the women who would have helped her.”
“Yes.”
“I never thanked God for that.”
“Yes.”
I fell asleep after that.
A Once I awakened. It was just before nightfall, and I saw Cordelia rocking in silent grief, cradling my baby, holding my child atop her own.
Thanks! The image is from Wikipedia. I’ve added a image source link to the post.
Thomas:
Masterful. That the biblical authors knew exactly what they were doing, the editors refining sometimes wildly different sources into one narrative, that is something that is lost on most today. There is a reason that the book tops all others in sales, year after year.
So thankful that you share your insights. Looking forward to meeting you at the conference.
Wow, super helpful Thomas. MIght even get me over the hump!
Will definitely give this some thought. Thanks, Thomas!
Awesome post, Thomas. Powerful, stark simplicity. We all need a good dose of olden wisdom and permission to deviate from modern rules sometimes. My pastor is going through John right now too! Sweet serendipity.
This is incredible!! You’ve presented this in such a clear way and I can’t wait to try this out in a future project!!
This is gold. Thank you for your generosity, Thomas.
Excellent timing! I’m at the 30k word point in a cozy mystery and was trying to figure out how to end the book. Yes, I’m more of a pantser than a plotter. I happened to write a cataclysmic scene a few days ago to stir things up, without planning what my protagonist would do next. This may be exactly what I needed to do and will hopefully propel a wonderful Act 2! Thank you!
It seems to me that Chiastic Structure is *equal* to Yinyang. This is the second article I have read on this subject. The first was Lindsey Hughes who directed me to this page. That’s her link https://thepitchmaster.com/an-unusual-story-structure-chiastic-structure-for-screenwriters-and-novelists/
Thanks for writing about it Thomas!
This is absolutely one of the most fascinating episodes on craft that you’ve written, Thomas. Although I was familiar with chiastic story structure, never have I seen it so clearly and thoroughly explained and illustrated. Kudos!
This is my favorite episode yet. Incredibly helpful! Thank you!
One of the most insightful and inspiring podcasts ever. Thank you.
This podcast is spot on, and I listened to it at just the right time. I had started sketching out a rough plot outline for a Jane Austen fan fiction book based on Pride and Prejudice but had gotten dragged down in a couple of areas. I will be revisiting it with the chiastic structure in mind! Thanks, Thomas, for your generosity!
I read Frankenstein and Dracula, but I didn’t know about this structure at the time. I really enjoyed Frankenstein, but was not as impressed with Dracula.
I’ll need to go back and reread Frankenstein and look for this structure. It does feel like there was a chiastic structure to it, with the first half in Frankenstein’s voice and the second half in the “monster’s” voice, but I’m not sure that really is the chiasm.
Thanks for writing this. I am inspired.