#170 – The One Thing You Must Have to Tell A Truly Great Story

The thing that everyone expects from a story but doesn’t exist

We’ve all heard the cliché and rolled our eyes a bit (or at least the cynical among us did): “every ending is a new beginning.” 🙄 How trite, right?

But the thing about cliches is that they’re cliché but also true. That’s what makes them what they are. And this particular one is especially true for great stories.

Think of the end of the first Star Wars movie A New Hope, when Luke Skywalker blows up the Death Star, it’s really only the beginning of a still ongoing epic saga and story within stories in that world. And A New Hope (in my opinion and the opinion of millions of other fans) is one of the best stories told in modern cinema.

But the end wasn’t an end. It was something better.

Because every great story—when told well—doesn’t end with a perfect conclusion (though they can). Instead, they end with a transformation. Something changes. In the case of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker went from a water farm boy to a hero.

In the case of a business story, it’s the launch of a product or new offering. In the case of a career story, it’s a new job, or approach, or a lesson learned.

A story actually isn’t complete unless there is some sort of transformation. The “and then, and then, and then,” style of storytelling that bores listeners (and maybe event tellers) beyond kindness lacks this one thing. Because when there is transformation in a story, it is propelled forward toward that change. There is tension, and specificity, and all the other delicious things you have in a great story.

At the end of most of my storytelling workshops I include a slide that says some version of, “this is just the beginning of your story,” because once you learn how to properly share it, you’ll find your story expand and evolve with you. Because the end is a beginning really. Even the most ultimate of ends sparks new stories—right now I’m thinking of Death Becomes Her, but there are so many others to reference.

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A Story Well Told

Honestly, go re-watch Death Becomes Her, it is a classic. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn? Shut up. Or go re-watch anything that has in the past sparked you or got you excited. The transformation that occurs when you go back to an old familiar story as a new evolved you is something special too.

Also heads up, I just got final pages for my kids book, Amoya Blackwood is Brave, and I am SO SO SO excited for you all to see it when it comes out later this year. Get ready to be sick of me, but also inspired and lifted by the wonderful story about a brave little girl who learns to be her bravest self.

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