Written Thoughts

Writer's Journey: More than just a pit stop

THE WRITER’S JOURNEY – MORE THAN JUST A PIT STOP

Last book of the semester to discuss – The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler - and I’m glad I left it for the end for a variety of reasons.

I’ve been a long time fan of Joseph Campbell (and Homer – talk about two ends of the timeline on the craft of storytelling). Having been brought up with a worn out copy of Bullfinch’s Mythology by my bed stand as a child, the mythic structure of storytelling can never be discussed enough. And though some might call Vogler’s take to be formulaic, I vehemently disagree.

For me, mythic structure is to storytelling as genome mapping is to the human body. In fact, I have often wondered if there might be some symbolism in the genome that reinforces humanity’s need for tales of heroic struggle and the cast of characters that accompany her/him on their journey to overcome great obstacles. We (people aka readers) all suffer at some point in our lives. Having a story told to us that manifests, even in symbolism, our experiences, gives us hope to continue, and causes us to pause and reflect on our own lives.

A very recent posting on SHU’s message board explored how tragedy can be a great motivator to write. The focus was on love lost and horrific employers. And I in turn had responded that bad relationships, monsteresque bosses, war, betrayals, deaths -- in the end, they're all different sorts of tragedies and their scars can definitely fan a spark in me to want to write.

And to read. From ‘both ends of the desk’, I’ve found a constant need in my life to find or create stories that tie into the human experience. The mythic structure, laid out by Joseph Campbell, Robert Graves, Christopher Vogler, John Truby and many others, shows how to make sense of the chaos of life so it can be shared with others in a way that will talk not only to their ‘human brain’ but to that deep seated part of themselves, that lizard brain, that little hurt child that sits dazed and confused attempting to create reason from the insanities of life.

When the hero fails, we can identify. As humans, we fail often. When the hero succeeds because of sheer determination, we can feel their accomplishment. Even if we have never had such success on a personal level. In our hearts, we do believe that if things had gone otherwise, we could have won. We could have saved the world, righted the wrong and been a hero.

Vicarious living? Perhaps. But over 5,000 years of storytelling has demonstrated that we need to experience other lives and adventures in order to make peace with our own.

I sometimes wonder if we write as a means to exude hope or fear. Two very basic human emotions. Maybe some tiny little part of our brains thinks that if we write, we can work things out for ourselves as well as providing cautionary tales for other.

In crafting the story for Critical Past, I strove for a mythic structure that would hopefully affect readers on a deep level, whether they related to Kate or Jon (my heroes). Here’s a breakdown of my characters, their archetypes, enneagrams and functions:

I just finished working a section of Critical Past where I strongly felt the presence of mythic structure in not just character but in plot as well. Before this piece, the good guys have struggled in the Ordinary World, they’ve been given the Call to Adventure by testing the new FTL and have fallen through the First Threshold into the Special World, a version of Earth that is contradictory to everything they know. Though the new Africa of my story certainly represents the crossing over, its fantastic nature also represents the first test for our heroes.

According to Vogler, the threshold crossing marks the end of Act One (for me this sort of Act structure works for books as well as films or plays) and the beginning of Act Two. Since I’ve just hit the 200 page mark, and expect this novel to be somewhere in the 600 page area, I am gratified that the story seems to be right where it should be. Vogler compares Act One to the “loading, fueling, taxiing, and rumbling down the runway towards takeoff.” Considering how much I’ve thrown on the heroes’ backs, I would say it is definitely time for flight. And I am excited to be underway.

One last side note. Vogler’s structure indicates that the mentor is usually introduced prior to this point in the story. (He does, however, state that it is never necessary for the pieces to go in the linear fashion he’s laid out). Although Burke likes to think he’s the mentor of Kate and Jon, the true mentor of this story – Heron, will not be introduced for a few more scenes. I’m going to need to be very careful to make it clear how influential Heron is in the growth of our heroes. Again, this is why I appreciate Vogler’s book. He stresses flexibility with the structure but provides a clear vision of how best to connect to the reader.

Which is something I sorely wish to do with Critical Past.

posted by No One You Know @ 9:21 AM