The Hero's Journey / The Writer's Journey

THANKS TO SARAH WALKER-HOWE WHO SENT ME YESTERDAY'S BLOG. Thank you, thank you, thank you.


When I saw Bill Moyers speak with Joseph Campbell about the Hero's Journey and storytelling (when I was a kid, before I was seriously writing, though telling myself stories at night), the interview blew my mind open -- like an explosion.

Then, much later, I heard about Christopher Vogler and his The Writer's Journey. I heard praise, then attended a seminar where he spoke and bought his book (autographed and I think I lent it to someone and never got it back), but I've read and reread that book. I know the mythic structure steps.

What also rang a chord with me is that I'd finished a book the day before I heard Vogler speak. I went home after the seminar and figured out the three acts of my novel and looked for the mythic structure. There it was. The threshold guardian. The approach to the innermost cave. In my pantzer fashion, I had told a "mythic" story.

Wow.

So this is one of those books that I would take to a desert island with me. That I refer to several times a year. That I work with every time I plot.

Once I have ideas for plot events, I use this to refine it...like I'm doing with Heart Fate, Tinne Holly's story. With luck and sweat, I'll have the synopsis done and ready for critique by some friends by Sunday night.

There's been plenty of articles on the Writer's Journey, on Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces (I think that's the book), on Following Your Bliss. You can get info off the web, but if you think it would work for you, buy the book.

May your bliss infuse you today.
Robin