Story is the most powerful way we have to express ideas. We can actually see the journey that a human being takes in getting from one place to another, and this journey inevitably involves some kind of transformation.
In this article, I’ll explore what transformation is, its purpose in storytelling, and I’ll offer you a Story Weapon to harness it’s power in your own story.
This article explores transformation as the heart of every story, showing how a protagonist’s journey from desire to self-realization creates true change. Transformation isn’t about grand miracles but a shift in perception—a surrender of old beliefs that allows the character (and reader) to see the world anew.
What is transformation?
When we think of the word transformation, it sometimes conjures some miraculously grand occurrence, some vision of enlightenment. However, transformation is quite simply a shift in perception. Nothing more.
And yet, when we have seen something one way our entire life, and then suddenly we see it in an entirely other way, it can be quite miraculous. It can also be quite ordinary, as in, “Duh, yeah, of course, now I see.”
When a transformation occurs, the tension vanishes, the fight disappears. We are left with a knowing that was not there before. Through the journey of the story, the protagonist comes to understand something that they were previously asleep to.
The purpose of transformation
Einstein said that “you can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.”
Every story begins with a problem. A problem that wants to be solved. Our challenge as writers is to understand and accept that our protagonist wants something, desperately. The stakes are life and death. If our protagonist does not get what they want, their life will be unimaginable. If the stakes are any less, we will not care.
It is the same way in life, isn’t it? If we don’t get what we want, we cannot imagine going on. And at some point in the story, the protagonist comes to realize that in fact, it is impossible for them to get what they want.
A dilemma confronts the protagonist. Do I give up, or do I surrender? There is a difference. It is an important distinction.
Surrendering does not mean giving up the want, the thing we desire. Rather, it means letting go of the idea that it is what we must have to be free.
The dilemma drives the protagonist to transformation
Transformation occurs when we recognize that we are the only ones that can give us what we want. The want begins outside of oneself. By the end of the story, the protagonist is able to reframe it as something that they can give to themselves.
It is in this shedding or surrendering of the old identity that the protagonist accepts the reality of their situation and adapts. In doing this, it becomes possible for the protagonist to get what they want, if it belongs in their life.
Your story weapon: Understanding transformation
A fundamental understanding of transformation is crucial to having anything more than an intellectual relationship to story structure.
You’ve probably read books on three-act-structure. But it is important to recognize that no one has yet been able to isolate the transcendent beauty that draws us into a great story. It is one thing to analyze the anatomy of a tale, but it is possible that story also contains magic. There is some ineffable quality that we can’t explain.
The writer’s job (as I see it), is to track the beats in a believable way that lead to a transformation. I’ve laid out the steps in my Story Structure Worksheet here.
Now, you may say, “What about a story where the protagonist dies?” Or, “What if the protagonist doesn’t get what they want?” There are cautionary tales, where the protagonist is destroyed by their own willfulness. This does not mean, however, that they have not come to understand the error of their ways. Story necessarily involves a transformation.
Find out more in one of my workshops – The 90-Day Novel, The 90-Day Memoir, Story Day
