The Key to Great Storytelling

Summary

This script explores the vital role of change in storytelling, drawing on insights from authors like Peter S. Beagle and Ursula K. Le Guin. It emphasizes that meaningful change, both internal and external, is essential for character development and plot progression. The narrative arc should reflect personal growth or transformation, resonating with readers' own experiences of life's pivotal moments. Change at various levels—character, plot, scene, and sentence—enriches the story, making it relatable and thought-provoking, ultimately fulfilling the purpose of fiction to provide context and understanding to life.

Takeaways

• 🧙‍♂️ The world is seen as mutable and new only by a magician, who understands the secret of change and draws power from it.
• 📚 Writers are considered magicians who create stories through meaningful change, which is essential for engaging readers.
• 👑 A story's impact comes from the transformation of characters, like a farm boy who becomes a prince and experiences a shift in worldview.
• 🔄 Change in storytelling can be subtle or temporary, like a bully showing kindness or the transition of seasons, adding depth to the narrative.
• 📚 Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes that change encompasses various aspects of life beyond conflict, including relating, finding, and discovering.
• 🎭 The most impactful novels show change on multiple levels, from characters and plot to scenes and sentence construction.
• 👥 Character development involves internal changes in beliefs, attitudes, or goals, and can also reflect shifts in relationships with others.
• 🎮 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' by Gabrielle Zevin exemplifies how characters can evolve through decades, affecting their personal and professional lives.
• 🏆 Flat-arc protagonists may not change but can influence others or be part of a changing world, as seen in 'A Confederacy of Dunces'.
• 🌍 Plot-level transformation involves a shift in external circumstances, as in 'The Giver', where Jonas escapes to a new world, reflecting his internal change.
• 🎨 Changing moods within scenes or chapters can prevent monotony and keep the story engaging, as demonstrated in 'Lord of the Flies'.
• ✍️ Sentence-level change involves introducing new information or varying sentence structure to maintain freshness and momentum in storytelling.

Q & A

What is the central theme of the script from 'The Last Unicorn' by Peter S. Beagle?

The central theme is the concept of change and its importance in storytelling, highlighting the idea that only a magician can perceive the world as fluid and mutable, and that writers, like magicians, understand the secret of change.

Why is meaningful change essential in storytelling according to the script?

Meaningful change is essential because it allows readers to observe a transformation from the beginning to the end of a story, providing insight into the characters' lives and reflecting on our own experiences.

What is an example of a narrative arc that demonstrates significant character growth?

The script provides the example of a farm boy who discovers he's a prince, and instead of returning to his ordinary life, he takes the crown, marries his childhood sweetheart, and faces assassination attempts before abdicating the throne, showing a transformation in his worldview.

How does the script relate life's transformative moments to storytelling?

The script suggests that life's most transformative moments, such as receiving a diploma, falling in love, or mourning a death, are when our definition of 'normal' changes, and these moments are often the focus of satisfying narratives that reveal the most about characters.

What does Ursula K. Le Guin emphasize about change in her book 'Steering the Craft'?

Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes that change does not always equate to conflict. She points out that there are various important aspects of human life, such as relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, parting, and changing, all of which are sources of story.

How does the script describe the impact of change on the levels of a story?

The script describes that impactful novels feature change at every level, including character development, plot progression, scene dynamics, and sentence construction, each contributing to the overall power of the story for the readers.

What is the significance of internal and external changes in a character's journey as described in the script?

Internal changes, such as new beliefs or attitudes, and external changes, like shifts in physical location or circumstances, are significant as they reflect the character's growth and the evolution of the story, providing a deeper connection for the readers.

How does the script illustrate the concept of 'flat-arc protagonists'?

The script uses the character Ignatius J. Reilly from 'A Confederacy of Dunces' as an example of a 'flat-arc protagonist' who doesn't grow much from beginning to end, while the world and other characters around him change, revealing his impact on them.

What role does pacing play in the effectiveness of a story according to the script?

Pacing plays a crucial role in story effectiveness by determining how quickly things change and how frequently the character takes steps to pursue their goals or alter their situation, which can affect the reader's engagement and interest.

How can changing sentence structure and content contribute to the freshness of a story?

Changing sentence structure and content on a line-by-line basis introduces novelty and keeps the reader engaged, as demonstrated by the script's analysis of Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth', where sentence length, syntax, and tone are varied to maintain momentum and interest.

What is the purpose of fiction as described in the script?

The purpose of fiction, as described in the script, is to provide context to life, help understand it better, offer new perspectives, and allow audiences to heal, learn, mourn, and celebrate through the experiences and changes depicted in stories.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Magic of Change in Storytelling

This paragraph emphasizes the transformative power of change in storytelling, drawing on Peter S. Beagle's 'The Last Unicorn'. It suggests that writers, like magicians, harness the universal tension of change to create compelling narratives. The summary highlights the importance of meaningful change for character development and plot progression, using examples such as a farm boy turned prince and the transformative life events that alter our perceptions of 'normal'. It also touches on the idea that change can be subtle or temporary, and references Ursula K. Le Guin's view that change encompasses a wide range of human experiences beyond conflict, ultimately arguing that impactful novels reflect change at multiple levels, from characters to sentences.

05:03

🌟 Character and Plot Transformations in Narratives

The second paragraph delves into the specifics of character and plot transformations within stories. It discusses how characters often remain static while the world around them changes, as seen with Ignatius J. Reilly from 'A Confederacy of Dunces'. The paragraph uses 'The Giver' by Lois Lowry to illustrate an external plot transformation, where Jonas's physical and internal journey reflects his disillusionment with a society devoid of emotional depth. It also addresses the importance of pacing and mood variation within scenes and chapters to maintain narrative interest, citing 'Lord of the Flies' and 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' as examples. The summary underscores the need for change to keep stories engaging and reflective of life's dynamic nature.

10:05

📖 The Dynamics of Change in Prose and Story Structure

This paragraph focuses on the micro-level changes in prose and the macro-level changes in story structure. It begins with an analysis of Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth', highlighting the use of sentence structure and content to create a tragicomic tone and build narrative momentum. The summary contrasts effective prose, which gradually reveals details and varies sentence length, with a choppy rewrite that lacks the original's poeticism and voice. The paragraph also discusses Kurt Vonnegut's writing rule that every sentence should reveal character or advance the action, and it encourages writers to consider change as a fundamental element of storytelling that resonates with our human need for meaning and reflection of life's constant evolution.

Keywords

💡Magician

A 'magician' in the context of the video script symbolizes a storyteller or writer who possesses the ability to transform and manipulate the world within a narrative. The script suggests that only a magician can perceive the world as fluid and mutable, drawing power from the potential of change. This concept is central to the theme of storytelling, as it emphasizes the transformative power of narrative.

💡Change

The term 'change' is a core concept in the script, referring to the process of transformation or alteration that is essential for meaningful storytelling. Change can be internal, affecting a character's beliefs or attitudes, or external, altering the circumstances or environment. The script illustrates change through examples such as a farm boy becoming a prince or characters evolving through life experiences, emphasizing its importance in driving the narrative and resonating with the audience's own experiences of change.

💡Narrative Arc

A 'narrative arc' is the structure of a story that describes the sequence of events leading to a climax and resolution. The script discusses the importance of a compelling narrative arc that shows significant change in characters or their circumstances from the beginning to the end of a story, providing a satisfying and transformative experience for the reader.

💡Internal Change

'Internal change' refers to the transformation that occurs within a character's mind or emotions. The script explains that this can involve the adoption of new beliefs, attitudes, or goals, and is a critical element in character development. It uses the example of Sam from 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' to illustrate how internal change can drive the story and affect relationships.

💡External Change

In contrast to 'internal change,' 'external change' pertains to shifts in the external circumstances or environment of a character. The script cites 'The Giver' as an example, where Jonas experiences both internal and external change as he escapes his conformist society, signifying a physical relocation that underscores his personal transformation.

💡Flat-Arc Protagonist

A 'flat-arc protagonist' is a character who does not undergo significant change throughout the story. The script uses the character Ignatius J. Reilly from 'A Confederacy of Dunces' to illustrate this concept, noting that while he does not change, his actions provoke change in other characters and his environment.

💡Scene

A 'scene' is a unit of action within a narrative, often representing a single moment in time and space. The script discusses the importance of varying the mood and pace of scenes to maintain interest and momentum in a story, using 'Lord of the Flies' as an example of how scene dynamics can shift from despair to hope.

💡Sentence Construction

'Sentence construction' refers to the way sentences are built and arranged to convey meaning and evoke emotion. The script emphasizes the role of sentence construction in creating change at the micro-level of a narrative, using 'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith to demonstrate how varying sentence structure can add novelty and maintain reader engagement.

💡Mood

The 'mood' of a scene or narrative refers to the emotional atmosphere it creates. The script suggests that manipulating mood from the beginning to the end of a scene can create interest and prevent a story from becoming monotonous, as exemplified by the shift from despair to hope in a scene from 'Lord of the Flies'.

💡Pacing

'Pacing' is the speed at which a story unfolds, affecting the reader's experience of time and action within the narrative. The script discusses the importance of pacing in storytelling, noting that a fast pace often involves frequent changes and active pursuit of goals by the characters, which can be achieved through changes in scene dynamics and sentence construction.

💡Storytelling

The art of 'storytelling' is the focus of the script, which is the act of crafting and conveying stories. The script explores various aspects of storytelling, including the importance of change, character development, and engaging the reader through different levels of narrative, from the overall plot to the construction of individual sentences.

Highlights

The world is fluid and mutable for a magician, who understands the secret of change and draws power from universal tension.

Writers are likened to magicians, capable of transforming 'all things' into something new through storytelling.

The essence of great storytelling lies in meaningful change, visible from the beginning to the end of a narrative.

A narrative arc should show a character's development, such as a farm boy becoming a prince and evolving his worldview.

Transformative life moments, like receiving a diploma or falling in love, redefine our 'normal' and are key to character development.

Narratives often focus on moments of change to reveal the most about characters, which resonates with our own life experiences.

Change in a story can be subtle or temporary, such as a bully's unexpected kindness or the transition of seasons.

Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes that change encompasses various human behaviors beyond conflict in storytelling.

Impactful novels feature change at multiple levels, including character development, plot progression, scene dynamics, and sentence construction.

Characters' internal changes can involve new beliefs, attitudes, or goals, and shifts in their relationships or understanding of others.

The novel 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow' by Gabrielle Zevin exemplifies complex character relationships and internal changes over time.

Some characters, like Ignatius J. Reilly, serve as 'flat-arc protagonists', provoking change in others or remaining static while the world changes around them.

Plot-level transformation involves external shifts in a story's circumstances, as seen in 'The Giver' with Jonas's journey to a new society.

Scene dynamics should avoid monotony by introducing mood changes from beginning to end, adding emotional depth to the narrative.

Fast pacing in storytelling is achieved through frequent changes and the character's active pursuit of goals or alterations in their situation.

Every sentence in a story should reveal character or advance the action, introducing new information or building on established details.

Zadie Smith's 'White Teeth' demonstrates the importance of sentence-level change for maintaining narrative momentum and reader engagement.

The purpose of fiction is to provide context to life, offer new perspectives, and connect with our humanity through the reflection of change and lived experiences.

Transcripts

“For only to a magician is the world forever  fluid, infinitely mutable, and eternally new.  

Only he knows the secret of change, only he  knows truly that all things are crouched in  

eagerness to become something else, and it is from  this universal tension that he draws his power.”

These words of wisdom come from The Last Unicorn  by Peter S. Beagle. Writers are magicians who  

know that “all things are crouched in  eagerness to become something else.”

The key to great storytelling is  change—meaningful change. Readers  

want to look at the beginning and ending of  a story and see that something has happened.

If at the start, a farm boy discovers he’s  a prince, it might feel pointless if by the  

end he returns to his ordinary life with  all the same beliefs and relationships.  

A more intriguing narrative arc could  show him deciding to take the crown,  

marry his childhood sweetheart, and  fend off assassination attempts before  

abdicating the throne. His worldview might  morph from blissful ignorance to world-weary  

cynicism. A journey has taken place, one  that provides insight into our own lives.

When you ask people what moments  transformed them, the answers are similar:  

receiving that sought-after diploma,  falling in love, cradling a newborn,  

mourning the death of a loved one. Life’s  most transformative moments are when our  

definition of “normal” changes, rewriting  the routine. Satisfying narratives often  

focus on those moments of change where  we learn the most about the characters.

Change need not be dramatic or lasting  for the story to be meaningful—it can  

be barely noticeable, even temporary.  It’s the moment a bully reaches down  

to pet a dog when no one’s looking,  or when winter passes into spring.

In her book Steering the Craft,  

speculative author Ursula K. Le Guin explains  that change does not always mean conflict:

“Modernist manuals of writing often conflate  story with conflict . . . Conflict is one  

kind of behavior. There are others,  equally important in any human life,  

such as relating, finding, losing,  bearing, discovering, parting, changing.

Change is the universal aspect of all these  sources of story. Story is something moving,  

something happening, something  or somebody changing.”

The most impactful novels feature change  at every level, from the larger character  

and plot arc to the smaller scene and  sentence construction. Let’s look at an  

example of each level of change—character,  plot, scene, and sentence—and see how you  

can apply those ideas to your own stories  to elevate their power for your readers.

Characters are how we most deeply connect  to stories, identifying with their thoughts,  

emotions, and experiences. We learn  about ourselves through observing  

others and the way their lives play  out, whether in real life or in fiction.

A character’s internal change can  involve new beliefs, attitudes,  

or goals—which can be positive,  negative, or neutral. Change can  

also entail a shift in their relationship  with or understanding of other characters.

Gabrielle Zevin’s bestseller Tomorrow  and Tomorrow and Tomorrow traces the  

lives of Sam and Sadie in their shared  obsession with video games. Naturally,  

the passing of decades creates change for both  characters. They improve as game designers,  

storytellers, and business owners in creating  their company, Unfair Games. Sam struggles  

with his health and his unrequited love for  Sadie, while Sadie enters and exits other  

romantic relationships and fights to make  a name for herself independently of Sam.

Sam and Sadie’s relationship as friends and  business partners oscillates across the novel.  

They start as close companions when they’re  young but have a falling out. By chance, they  

meet again in college and create their first game  together. They butt heads over business decisions,  

but both of them attempt to bridge the gap  and reforge their friendship. Their feelings  

toward each other are what shift the most  across the course of the novel, speaking to  

the complexities of how a relationship can fall  apart and reform over and over and over again.

Sam’s thoughts when he reunites with Sadie in  

the first chapter foreshadow  that changing relationship:

Sam looked at Sadie, and he thought, This is  what time travel is. It’s looking at a person,  

and seeing them in the present  and the past, concurrently. And  

that mode of transport only worked with  those one had known a significant time.

Not all characters change. These types of  “flat-arc protagonists” might instead be the  

ones provoking change in secondary characters,  or the world changes around them even as they  

don’t. The lazy, pompous Ignatius J. Reilly  from A Confederacy of Dunces doesn’t grow  

much from beginning to end, which is kind of the  point of this comedic novel. However, Ignatius  

shreds his mother’s last nerve, and by the end,  she decides to marry and have her son committed  

to an asylum, showing that she has experienced  an internal shift as a result of his behavior.

Stories often take place at the greatest point  of change in a character’s life; otherwise,  

there wouldn’t be much of a story. This is why  it’s vital to see characters make choices—their  

decisions reveal something to us about our  own lives and understanding of human nature.

In a plot-level transformation, the story’s  external circumstances shift. The character  

or world end up in a different  place than where they started.

In the young adult dystopian novel The Giver by  Lois Lowry, eleven-turned-twelve-year-old Jonas  

experiences a dramatic upheaval both internally  and externally. In this world, people are assigned  

specific careers and spouses, with a limit  of two children. This conformity is meant to  

eliminate conflict, and their society further  prevents suffering by suppressing everyone’s  

emotions and memories—even pain and colors. The  exception is the Receiver of Memory, who keeps  

the mental records of humanity’s suffering  and joy and all the color that once existed.

I’m going to talk about the book’s ending, so skip  ahead one minute if you want to avoid spoilers.

The final scene of The Giver shows  Jonas escaping his community,  

along with a baby who was going to be  euthanized. Jonas rides a sled into  

a town outside the oppressive boundaries of  the world he’s known and toward new freedom:

The runners [of the sled] sliced through the  snow and the wind whipped at his face as they  

sped in a straight line through an incision  that seemed to lead to the final destination,  

the place that he had always felt was waiting, the  Elsewhere that held their future and their past.

This external change in physical location  underscores the internal metamorphosis Jonas  

has experienced in becoming disillusioned  about his colorless, pain-free society.

Across a novel, the reader often  travels on an adventure with the  

protagonist. The character might return  to a place they were in the beginning,  

but their experience feels different. “It’s a  funny thing coming home. Nothing changes,” Eric  

Roth writes in the screenplay of The Curious Case  of Benjamin Button. “Everything looks the same,  

feels the same, even smells the same.  You realize what’s changed is you.”

The Giver opens with Jonas feeling frightened  by an unidentified aircraft from outside the  

community, but at the end, he’s excited to  head toward the world beyond. The opening  

and ending echo each other, but so much  has changed between those two points.

Stories would be boring if every scene and  chapter had the same emotional tenor. If the  

author is constantly pulling on the audience’s  heartstrings with tragedy after tragedy,  

it can feel like “trauma porn,” losing its  impact. A book that constantly presents  

scenes where the character is just going  about their day without any challenges  

can taste stale because nothing  is happening—nothing is changing.

One way to combat sameness is to  flip the mood from the beginning  

to end of a scene or chapter. Maybe a  chapter starts happy but ends sad. Or  

the protagonist achieves their goal,  but there’s an added complication.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows how a  group of young boys marooned on an island slowly  

descend into brutality. Toward the middle  of the novel, Ralph, the main character,  

looks out to sea in despair, thinking, “but  here, faced by the brute obtuseness of the ocean,  

the miles of division, one was  clamped down, one was helpless,  

one was condemned.” That moment is followed by  a short interaction with one of the other boys,  

Simon, who interrupts Ralph’s thoughts,  repeatedly telling Ralph, “You’ll get  

back all right,” giving him hope. The scene  ends with the two boys smiling at each other.

Not every scene or chapter needs change, but it’s  a good rule of thumb when you’re feeling stuck,  

or the story is losing momentum.  If there’s a lot of doom and gloom,  

give your protagonist a surprising  win. If things have been looking  

up and the character is full of  hope, throw in a moment of despair.

Sometimes the point of a scene is to show  frustration at a lack of progress. However,  

when you have a string of scenes  that don’t move the story forward,  

the pacing might feel too slow. Fast pacing  involves how quickly things change and how  

frequently the character takes steps to pursue  their goals or otherwise alter their situation.

One of Kurt Vonnegut’s rules of  writing is “Every sentence must  

do one of two things—reveal character  or advance the action.” Change on a  

sentence level entails introducing new  information or building on what you’ve  

already established. There’s freshness in  content and form, in diction and syntax.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith begins with  a suicide attempt—a darkly comical one.  

After opening with two scenes—the  attempt and the thwarting of the  

attempt—the narrator explains why the  character would do something so drastic:

Archie Jones attempted suicide because his  wife, Ophelia, a violet-eyed Italian with a  

faint mustache, had recently divorced him. But  he had not spent New Year’s morning gagging on  

the tube of a vacuum cleaner because he loved  her. It was rather because he had lived with her  

for so long and had not loved her. Archie’s  marriage felt like buying a pair of shoes,  

taking them home, and finding they  don’t fit. For the sake of appearances,  

he put up with them. And then, all  of a sudden and after thirty years,  

the shoes picked themselves up and walked  out of the house. She left. Thirty years.

Let’s go line by line here. First, we’re presented  with a statement about the reason for his suicide  

attempt. The second sentence presents a “turn,”  going against readers’ potential expectations  

in saying that it wasn’t sadness at losing  her love. Building on that second sentence,  

the third reveals it’s actually the opposite  and he didn’t love her. Then we’re presented  

with a simile about how his marriage feels  like owning a pair of shoes that don’t fit.  

The gut punch at the end of the paragraph is  that she left suddenly after thirty years.

We see the change in syntax throughout, with those  final two sentences composed of two words each,  

contrasting with the longer ones that came before.  Notice that the tone of the writing is largely  

consistent—it’s tragicomic, highlighting colorful  details, like the wife’s faint mustache, the  

vacuum cleaner, and his wife walking off like a  pair of shoes. The other elements of the prose—the  

content, the sentence structure—are modified  to provide novelty from sentence to sentence.

By contrast, if all the sentences  feel like they’re running in place,  

we lose a lot of that forward momentum.  Here’s me badly rewriting Zadie Smith:

Archie Jones attempted suicide because  his wife had recently divorced him. He  

didn’t love her. He had been with  her for thirty years. He had spent  

New Year’s morning attempting suicide with a  vacuum cleaner because he had lived with her  

for so long and hadn’t loved her. His  marriage was a shoe that didn’t fit.

The prose feels choppy because it’s  repetitive in both content and sentence  

structure. Rather than teasing out  the details, the paragraph gives us  

all the information upfront. It jumps between  ideas instead of easing into the transitions,  

and a lot of the poeticism and  voice is lost in those redundancies.

Changing up your prose on a line-by-line basis  ensures your readers hang on to your every word.

Think about one of your stories or a story  you admire. At each level—plot, character,  

scene, and sentence—identify a place where there’s  

significant change. What makes that  change interesting? Are there places  

that feel less interesting that could  be enlivened by some form of change?

Countless other elements contribute to  great storytelling, but without change,  

a story might not yield meaning—and humans are  meaning-seeking creatures. Change makes us think,  

gives us a puzzle to solve. We need change in  stories because our lives are forever evolving;  

we can never exist in stasis. Stories  speak to us when they reflect our own  

lived experience in some way, when they capture  the inevitable ebb and flow of time. We age,  

relationships start and end, the world reshapes  itself, and we must face everything anew.

It comes back to the purpose of  fiction. Mary Kole captures the  

idea beautifully in her book  Writing Irresistible Kidlit:

“Creators make art in order to give context to  life and understand it better. Audiences consume  

art in order to see new perspectives, heal, learn,  mourn, and celebrate. Humans use art to experience  

new things. We use art to feel better when we need  to see the light at the end of a long tunnel. We  

use art to get back in touch with our humanity.  We use art to refill our own creative reservoirs.”

What do you think is the key to  great storytelling? I’d love to  

hear your thoughts in the comments.  Whatever you do, keep writing.