Virtually every novel written today is about change. Virtually every one from the past is also about change in one way or another.
This of it this way. If nothing changed in a character’s life, there would be no story. It’s like the newspaper page filled with bad news. Unfortunately most good news is commonplace material that happens every day. The news that goes into newspapers is the exception.
In a novel the story starts when the character’s normal life is thrown out of whack by some event, expected or unexpected, that forces the character to change what he or she was doing. You might say that there are slice of life novels where little changes. (Key word – little) Even there change happens and on that hangs the slender thread of story that runs through such a book.
Even non-fiction is mostly about change. Biographies are about how a person became the great (whatever the subject is) in his or her field. History is all about change. Current events are about people clamoring for change or clamoring against it. Self-help is about change as well, the change expected to take place in the reader.
We keep saying people are averse to change yet what do they read about? Change. If you want to be a successful writer, you too will write about change, whether fictional or non-fictional.
