In many writing workshops, you hear babble about character development, about characters growing, about characters changing. Somehow and somewhere, someone taught millions of novice writers that a story is about a character changing. The result? We now have millions of stories in which characters develop, grow, and change in most ridiculous and unconvincing ways. Is there an alternative to an all out metamorphosis? Janet Burroway says this about change:
"Often the notion of change is mistaken by new writers to mean change that is abrupt and contrived, from Scrooge to St. Nick-- yet this rarely happens in life or in realistic fiction. Rather, change can be as subtle as a step in a new direction, a slight shift in belief, or a willingness to question a rigid view or recognize an unseen value in a person or situation."
In my novel Momentary Mother, which takes place over two weeks, the protagonist sees her mother in a new light on the very last page of the book. The protagonist experiences a glimmer of hope on that last page that was nonexistent on page one. There it is: a remarkable change.
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