Telling Your Story Through Transitions

The eighth season of So You Think You Can Dance kicked off its tour in Orlando on Saturday night, and as I do every year, I searched youtube, forums, and tumblr for videos on Sunday morning.

Having done this for six seasons, I thought I knew what to expect: The season's best dances, introduced by two of the dancers. I was surprised, then, to find the introductions eliminated from the show, and that the dances transitioned from one to the next as though it was all one story. I've embedded an example below, in which The Circus Sets Up transitions into The Vulture Dance (the transition happens between 2:57 and 3:15.)

There are two stories here: The circus, and in Jesse Tyler Ferguson's words, "the classic vulture stalks boy, boy almost succumbs to vulture, boy kills vulture story that we all know so well." Tadd (hot shirtless man) and  Jordan (vulture) are in the circus, so how do they get from there to their own story? The transition shows that Tadd gives his mask to Jess (ringmaster), and that makes him weak/compels him to remove his shirt (thanks Jess!) That's when Jordan notices him, and their story begins.

You'll notice the transition wasn't that Tadd went home, ate some dinner, and then found Jordan on his porch. The story continues though, and even hinges on, the transition, and it still gets the characters from point A to B. Beyond that, it also develops character--it shows that Jordan's curious and didn't just happen upon Tadd, as the dance by itself suggests--and creates suspense.

All of this translates to writing. We need to get our characters from the fight with their mom to the fight with their boyfriend, and sometimes it's difficult to know what to put in-between. It's tempting to have them take a shower and move to the next exciting incident, but there's no reason that shower can't be exciting, too. Why are they taking the shower? Are they thinking about what happened/what could happen as they do so? What does their shampoo say about their character? Answering those questions and ones like them ensures that your story continues throughout the text.

How do you handle transitions?