Lightbulb moment! I spent some serious time yesterday working on my latest manuscript. Since I was beginning to lead my main character down the path to his major ordeal within the story, I decided to take a break to test how well he is traveling the classic "hero's journey.” I pulled out Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey and reviewed the stages he suggests for such a journey, based on the wisdom of Joseph Campbell.
It felt great to refresh myself about the classic formula for story writing that has been in place for centuries, one that has produced most of the greatest stories of all time. I found it fairly easy to attach my current chapters to several of those stages and found that I can now plot out the necessary story elements I’ll need in order for my "hero" to complete his journey. Since my present manuscript is actually a rewrite of a portion of my original story about Heaven’s Wait, I already have a list of chapters that need to be matched to the remaining journey elements.
With the help of my new writing application, Scrivener, I can assign journey stages to my chapters as part of the chapters’ synopses. I’ll actually be tracking two journeys: one for Innocents’ current hero, and one for RJ, hero of my first book, RJ’s Story. RJ continues to play a key though lesser role in Innocents, but the role is still worthy of tracking. I want to make sure both characters do the book justice by traveling paths that are both creative and in line with a winning formula.
Since organization is so much my thing, I am going to enjoy this process!
Learn more about The Writer’s Journey at: http://www.thewritersjourney.com/
And check out the writing app Scrivener at: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
Monday, October 8, 2012
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