The scene: In just over an hour, I’d be leading a breakout group with brilliant Harvard alumni entrepreneurs, tasked with teaching them about the role of transformation in story, a session I’d volunteered—yes, volunteered—to direct. What had I been thinking? What did I have to teach these learned professionals?

I’d been selected to serve as a writing coach for the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Thought Leadership Writing Incubator so clearly someone believed in my expertise. The problem was, in that moment, I felt like everything I knew seemed obvious. I didn’t feel like an expert.

What would I say? How would I say it? The topic that had initially excited me—the power of transformation—had itself transformed me from confident writing coach to insecure self-critic as a voice echoed in my mind, asking me over and over, “What do I know?

My Transformation(s)

As my palms grew clammy, I breathed deeply, reminding myself that I write and edit books for a living. I coach successful professionals—entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers, therapists, professors—on how to write their own impactful books. And I’ve helped my clients draw out their own transformation stories, bringing those stories to life on the page. Okay, inner critic I clearly do know something about the subject!

I still had to prove myself in that breakout session. I made a quick inventory of what I’d learned over the years about transformation through storytelling. Ticking off a list of points I could make helped calm my nerves:

• Transformation begins with a problem, challenge or crisis (more on that shortly).
• The narrative should illustrate a change in a character, an organization, a community or any and all of the above. It’s helpful to identify that end point—what that ultimate change is.
• All of this should be done in a way that illustrates the change (not just “telling” dogmatically), in order to truly engage readers.

Then I considered something even more empowering—there were compelling things I could add to that list, things I had not been taught, but had discovered about writing and storytelling on my own. And that small but powerful reminder that I had something unique to contribute—that I wasn’t just reproducing ideas, but producing original ideas—reignited my confidence and excitement. By acknowledging my own value and envisioning specific achievements that justified that value, I felt stronger.

Igniting Dialogue and Engagement

As I began my introduction, I noted the curious, attentive faces on the screen. They were listening. I knew that to fully make the material relevant to their own work, I needed to engage them directly in the learning process, as well. By asking questions, showing genuine interest in what they hoped to learn in the session, the experience of both learner and educator—just as with reader and writer—would indeed become transformative for us all.

One woman entrepreneur wanted to know how she could show transformation through flashbacks without confusing the reader about timelines. Her questions ignited our dialogue and engaged the group in discovery. To build upon this discovery stage, I offered an assignment to the group, which you’ll have an opportunity to experience at the end of this post.

What I discovered myself, after the session had ended, transformed my momentary throwback of insecure self-critic back to confident professional—and with new insights to boot. When we returned from our breakout session to the larger group, the participant with flashback questions shared what she’d gotten out of our discussion. The Director of the Writing Incubator, Rhea Wessel, Founder of the Institute for Thought Leadership, invited me to share what I’d presented in the session, further reminding me I do have valued knowledge and experience to share.

So what, you might be wondering, is that knowledge? What can you take from my brief transformation story to aid you on your own writing journey? Let’s break down the lessons here.

What Makes a Story Compelling?

I imagine you know that storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to draw readers into your article, blog post or book. And for thought leaders, storytelling is an especially useful tool to interest readers, keep them reading and bring your experience and expertise to life. But what makes a story compelling?

Certainly, a good story draws us in with details that make the experience come alive on the page and by eliciting emotion in the reader. Perhaps the details about my inner dialogue drew you in? Maybe you even related to that weird “imposter syndrome” moment that so many of us experience at one time or another in our professional lives?

Yet, possibly the most potent aspect of the story is my tranformation from confident professional to insecure goofball and back to confidence and new creative ideas.

So, what is transformation exactly? And why do you need it in your own writing? How do you introduce and embrace transformation in your storytelling for impact and effect? And how does it actually affect or change your reader?

What is Transformation in Story and Why is it Important?

Transformation, in simplest terms, is when something changes. Transformation changes something for the character(s) in your story—whether that’s you, a client of yours, an organization, or a stakeholder. They have a problem or challenge or goal, an obstacle gets in the way, and they somehow overcome that obstacle and get results. Sometimes those results include a dramatic shift in circumstances:

• A client of yours gains the confidence to ask for—and make a case for—a raise during a time of layoffs and gets the raise, despite budget cuts.
• You overcome your fear of writing to publish an award-winning book that offers colleagues new perspectives on a topic in your field.
• In writing an article, you think of a new solution to an employee attrition problem one of your clients is facing; you share it with the client; they apply this new method and improve employee retention by 30%.

In reading about that transformation, your reader a) realizes that something can change for them too—they see what’s possible for them; and b) may actually experience a vicarious transformation in the act of reading about it.

Why is transformation an important storytelling element? In writing nonfiction, your readers are often looking for change for themselves. They want to solve a problem, gain skills, or be more effective in their lives and their work. The transformation story helps them know this is possible, that you’ve helped other people (and/or yourself) experience this transformation your readers are looking for, and gives them a roadmap they can relate to.

Two Aspects of Transformation

I like to think of transformation as having two basic aspects—internal transformation and external transformation. With internal transformation, something changes inside the character.

The thought leaders in the writing incubator were writing nonfiction articles and some intend to write books as well. So their characters might be:

• An individual client
• A company or other organization
• Themselves
• A colleague

Internal transformations for these characters might be:

• New insights
• A new perspective on their problem(s)
• A new skill acquisition
• A shift in mindset

Examples of external transformation include:

• 

  A shift in corporate culture, such as an organization becoming more welcoming and supportive of new ideas.

• A shift in the values of a company, as evidenced by processes, systems, rules, or mission that engender and support those values.
• A new process within an organization that improves the efficiency and outcomes.
• A systemic change, such as involving new stakeholders throughout various phases of a project.

The story I shared in this post offered an example of internal transformation, but your story may well include examples of both aspects of transformation—internal and external.

Transformation—Before and After

Transformation implies a conceptual journey, with a starting point and ending point, as the reader is taken from a point of origin to the outcome. How might you illustrate that journey in your writing?

Point A: When illustrating a transformation, you want to think about the character, organization, system, challenge, problem and/or environment before the transformation. Where were they before the obstacle or challenge arose? Usually, that means an inciting incident or crisis.

What is the inciting incident? For example, two of your team members suddenly quit within a week of each other. While this unexpected loss might leave you scrambling to replace them on the project, it may also cause an internal crisis within the organization:

• Why are we losing people?
• What can we do differently to retain our employees?

Maybe there is also an internal crisis in you: Am I as effective a leader as I thought? Am I personally saying or doing things that cause people to quit? Or am I not taking an active enough role in changing the system?

Point Z: What is the big transformation? For example, we develop a new program to support employee retention and attrition goes down by 50% in the next year.

In between: What are the steps we took to get from A to Z and what are some of the mini-transformations along the way?

Thinking in this broad outline can help you write your transformation story.

How Does the Transformation Story Affect Your Readers?

Here are some of the ways a transformation narrative affects your reader:

• Researchers have found that stories impact both the language centers of the brain and the areas of the brain that would be afffected if the actual events occured! We truly live (and learn) vicariously through story!
• The brain processes images and detects meaning at warp speed (as quick as 13 milliseconds per minute). Creating an image in the reader’s mind creates immediate learning and makes the lesson memorable.
• Well told transformation stories evoke emotion and emotion facilitates memory. Those emotions engage the reader more deeply, the experience is memorable and readers can access and use the information more easily in their own lives than if they were just told a series of facts.

Some Important Notes for Transformational Storytelling

My article grew quite long as I added more tips for compelling writing in transformational storytelling. In the interest in providing a digestible length article, I’ve moved some additional points to a follow up post where you can read more about:

• The role of scene in transformational storytelling – this will help you draw readers in from the first word!
• How to avoid getting lost in flashbacks when illustrating transformation – one of our breakout group participants had the excellent impulse to use flashbacks in a memoir-ish story to show a character’s transformation. She was rightly concerned about reader confusion. Learn the advice I gave her to make flashbacks work without losing the reader!
• How to draw readers in with “show; don’t tell.” It’s a maxim I’m sure you heard before and I give specific examples to help you find effective ways to bring the writing to life on the page, allowing your reader to draw conclusions, which is more engaging and “real” than dogmatic generalizations.

Read the follow up post with additional tips for transformational storytelling here. Note: you’ll find the exercise below repeated int he second post if you want to skip right to my additional tips.

Transformation in Story: Your Assignment Should You Choose to Accept It

Here’s an exercise I shared with the breakout group of Harvard Alumni. Try it yourself and see how it improves your own writing. Answer the following questions:

1.  What’s the inciting incident (problem, challenge, crisis or obstacle)?
2. What’s the “before” situation (internally/externally for the client, you or organization)? Note: When you actually write the story, you may decide to introduce the “before” situation prior to the inciting incident. Alternatively, you can start with the inciting incident (or challenge) and backtrack to the “before” situation.
3. What is the “after” picture—the results achieved at the end of the story, which can be both internal and external (or pick one)?
4. List the steps taken and the results in each step—the mini-transformations.
5. What’s the final big transformation—internally, externally or both? For example, there may be an internal change for the character, such as increased confidence, and an external change—the tools presented resulted in funding for new basketball and pickleball courts in a neighborhood where teens who’d been cooped up indoors now had space to play outdoors, get exercise and learn new skills. Consequently, their grades improved and they got in less trouble.
6. How will your transformation story resonate with your particular audience and what they are specifically looking for?

Your turn. What questions do you have about transformation and its role in storytelling? Did you try the exercise? What did you discover? Share your questions, insights or challenges in the comments below and I will respond!