Once you’ve gone through the fun and messy creative process of freewriting and generated a bunch of material, it’s time to figure out the heart of your story. The transformation that occurs in stories is called throughline. This driving force is something every story needs. In this episode, Roxan and Desi define throughline, discuss recognizing it in books and movies, and share ways to incorporate it into your writing. Warning: Identifying throughlines in stories may ruin your reading and movie-watching experience for a while.