The Great Transformation in Storytelling
Creating Perfect Character Transformation
Readers read stories to experience the great character transformation from who they are at the beginning of the novel to who they become at the end. Most of the time, it’s a positive transformation, but that’s not always the case. Characters can transform from good to bad or from bad to worse. An example of this might be the character from the series Breaking Bad. We watched him transform from a family man, an average high school teacher who took care of his family to a criminal who put himself and his family in great harm.
But most of the time, characters will move from a place of pain and negative habits and feelings to a happy, renewed, positive person who can be successful in life. They might move from fear to courage or from indifference to love or from incompetence to successful, for example. The positive transformation leaves readers with a satisfied feeling and a belief that good does prevail in this world.
The challenge for writers is to show the transformation in an entertaining way that will entice readers to keep turning pages.
The way we do this is by taking our characters on a journey. The journey begins with something changing in the character’s life. In the case of Breaking Bad, the character finds out he has…
