The Key to Great Storytelling

“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…