This is the fifth and final blog in a series about storytelling – 5 in 5 days.  Everyone seems to get it that storytelling is important, because we’re awash in data and information and can’t remember it all.  But we do remember stories.  That’s because they are how our brains work.  For example, they are why we all feel that it’s safer to drive than fly, even though the statistics prove the opposite.  We remember the horrifying stories of plane crashes, and forget the stats.  Our brains are constructed that way.  

Want to Tell a Memorable Story? Allow your Characters to Change.

At the heart of a great story is a hero that changes, that learns, that suffers, that grows, that changes.  We love ‘coming of age’ stories for that reason, and of course love stories not just because there’s a ‘happily ever after’ but also because the hero or heroine has learned something, or grown in some way, and accepted a new reality in order to win the person of his or her dreams. 

Stories about second chances, about comebacks, about sadder-but-wiser people – all of these compel our interest.  Allowing your characters (or your company or your idea or your product) to change is hard because your instinct (and the advice of your legal department) is to protect your baby and keep it the same.  But change wins us over.  It’s so much a part of human experience, that to keep it out of your stories is to restrict them unnaturally and to deny them life. 

Change is hard, in life and in stories, but it’s essential.