Storytelling Is About Transformation

I’m pretty tuned in to the world of writing as a profession. It’s a complex web of academic texts, blogs, and an army of writers, story analysts, and literary agents on LinkedIn collectively shaping the discourse. Within that web, you’ll find an almost overwhelming amount of advice. I’ve given plenty of it myself. But this week I want to zoom out and talk about, really, the only thing that truly matters. It’s the one thing that, regardless of genre or medium, all stories have in common: transformation.

All compelling stories include transformations. Whether you’re talking about the Epic of Gilgamesh or a two-minute microdrama – transformation is at the heart of storytelling. Most commonly it’s a character. Someone wants something, must overcome obstacles to get it, and the experience changes them somehow. But it could be the world that changes around an unflinching character, or some universal threat that changes reality for everyone. Whatever the scope of the transformation, change is inseparable from storytelling. Without change, you’re not telling a story, you’re describing an event, and that’s an important distinction. 

Say you’re writing about a chicken crossing the road to get to the other side. A bunch of crazy stuff could happen on the road. There might be explosions, double-crosses, and car chases; but if the chicken learned nothing, overcame no flaws of character, and made no impact on the road during its crossing, then I would argue that there’s no story there.

Now you might be thinking, “but my friend ran into Bad Bunny at Trader Joe’s and he bought her cookie butter ice cream! Surely that’s a story!” Yes, I agree! If your friend had never met Bad Bunny before, then the change or transformation is that she’s now living in a world where she met Bad Bunny. Assuming she knew who he was beforehand, she inherently had some opinions or impressions of him, and those opinions and impressions were altered after the meeting. This might seem nitpicky, but it’s illustrative of the fact that every story contains a transformation, even if it's subtle.

Understanding the importance of transformation is critical for writers. A lot of the scripts I give notes on read more like a description of a plot rather than a story. Ninety percent of the time, this is because the plot happens independently of the characters. I don’t think that every story needs a dramatic, sweeping transformation; but it does need some change. A movie like Marty Supreme comes to mind. You could argue that the main character remains unchanged until the very last scene. The “change” there (no spoilers) is extremely minor, but it is a transformation. 

As always, this is my opinion. I’d wager that other readers are not as big of hardliners about this. For me, though, if I’m reading a story without an obvious transformation, I always think “what’s the point of this? Why is this story being told?”

A writer’s gift is to see the world differently.  Using their unique perspective, they might offer a powerful, evocative theme for readers to consider. So if I may add another brick to the Great Wall of advice out there, it’s this: Don’t be ruled by the plot. Identify the theme of the story and use transformations to bring it to life.