Transformation — August 17, 2025
Snowy Egret on the rocks — Nov. 2018 photo
“This diamond ring doesn’t shine for me anymore. This diamond ring doesn’t mean what it did before.” – Gary Lewis & The Playboys
Every novel tells a story. Songs sometimes do too. The writing gurus say it’s not what happens in a story but how people change as a result of what happens that makes it resonate. Like the Gary Lewis & the Playboys’ song, This Diamond Ring from 1965. In it, the narrator is trying to sell a diamond ring given back to him by a girlfriend who’s moved on. He’s grieving a love that wasn’t “true”. He’s changed. He doesn’t believe in love in the same way he once did. Maybe next time he’ll choose his love more carefully. If there is a next time.
So why do novelists need 200 pages or more to show how their characters change when a song writer can do it in two minutes and fifteen seconds? Think of your life or the lives of people you know. Most of us live in a groove and it takes a rare event or insight to make us change. There are turning points where we might shift in a certain direction. We might resist or have doubts. Change comes at a cost we might not be willing to pay. It’s the complexities and subtleties of the journey that make the ultimate transformation interesting. It doesn’t happen all at once.
So yes, you can tell a story in two minutes, or you can choose the longer route. You can give the short version in a nutshell or you can elaborate on the complexities of the journey. But you’ll likely find that at the end your character has gone through a profound transformation. And for the listener or reader that is what makes the song or novel a satisfying experience.
