Words to Write by
Empowering the Powerless: Tim Waggoner’s Tips for Keeping Horror Heroes Active
Empowering the Powerless:Tim Waggoner’s Tips for Keeping Horror Heroes Active Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Horror stories and the hero’s journey – a match made in...
Lost in the Ordeal: Navigating the Hero’s Darkest Hour
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Eight: The Ordeal Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Think you know where your hero’s journey is headed? Think again. We’re diving...
The Road to Armageddon: A Workshop with Summer H. Hanford
The Road to ArmageddonAn Interview with Summer H. Hanford Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter How do you craft a journey worthy of...
Get Thee Characters to the Cave!
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Six: Approach to the Innermost Cave Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter Remember how we’ve occasionally side-eyed Christopher...
Fixing the Saggy Middle: A Workshop with Kristen Tate
An Interview with Kristen Tate Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter Looking for help with your novel’s middle section? While countless craft books...
Tests, Allies, and Enemies, Oh My!
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Six: Tests, Allies, and Enemies Subscribe to our Newsletter What really happens between “accepting the call” and facing the big bad? Christopher Vogler’s The...
Crossing the Threshold
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Four: Meeting with the Mentor&Stage Five: Crossing the Threshold Subscribe to our Newsletter So much has happened you haven’t even made it to the...
Writing Your College Application Essay
In today's episode we take a break from discussing and analyzing creative fiction to examining possibly one of the most important, and certainly most stressful, nonfiction projects in a...
Answering the Call to Adventure
How do you shift your book’s hero from their nice, cozy ordinary world into the adventure? According to Christopher Vogler’s, The Writer’s Journey, you have them answer the call....
Workshop: Plotting a Murder with Colette Clark
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Subscribe to our Newsletter Does the mystery genre follow the Hero’s Journey? According to historical mystery writer Colette Clark....
You are Now Leaving the Ordinary World
If you have read even just the first part of a blog post on the Hero’s Journey, you know the hero starts off in the Ordinary World before embarking...
Boy Bands & Archetypes
In our regular podcast, we’ve successfully made it through all of Vogler’s archetypes (from his book, The Writer’s Journey). Armed with this knowledge we decided to see if we...
The Role of the Trickster and Other Archetypes
Are we done with archetypes now? Almost! There are just three more archetype chapters in Christopher Vogler’s book, The Writer’s Journey, and we have issues with two of them. The...
Workshop with Madix: Writing and Revising LitRPG
What if writing the first draft was the easy part? Every week on serial writing websites like Royal Road, hundreds of authors will upload 5, 10, 20,000, or more words...
Female Shapeshifters and Other Questionable Archetypes
Everyone who’s read a blog post on the Hero’s Journey can spot the Hero and Mentor archetypes, but what about a Threshold Guardian, or Herald, or elusive Shapeshifter? Are...
Workshop with Elana Gomel: What to do if your Hero is a Girl?
In response to Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousands Faces, aka The Hero's Journey, folklorists and academics (many of them female) countered some of the major steps and archetypes...
The Mentor Behind Every Great Hero
The Mentor -- arguably the second most identified archetype from The Hero's Journey (after the eponymous hero). In his book, The Writer's Journey, Christopher Vogler has a lot to...
Workshop: Renee Creates a Monster-Hero
Last episode we explored the concept of the hero archetype as presented in Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. But analysis is one thing; we wanted to see if we...
What Makes a Hero
Whether every protagonist is a Hero is open to debate (and debate it we do in this episode) but on it we can agree that the vast majority of...
Workshop: Mapping Kim’s Novel to the Hero’s Journey
Writing Workshop with Kim & ReneeThe Writer’s Journey Subscribe to our Newsletter The Hero’s Journey Study Guide The Writing Workshop Exercise Map your Novel according to Vogler’s The Hero...
What We're Reading
Zen and the Art of Writing
Bradbury…(yes, that Bradbury!) wrote a writing craft book. Together, we’ll test his promise to “release the creative genius within you.” Join us as we pick apart the process (and–dare we say– hubris) of this lovable sci-fi author as he tells us what to do, but not always how to do it. Stay tuned!
Bird by Bird
We know you own it. But have you read it? Like really, really read it? It’s time to crack that spine and delve into the depths of your perfectionism, mental hang ups, and neuroses and get that butt in the chair. At least, a writer can dream, can’t she?
The Writer's Journey
Does a plot formula a good novel make? Let’s find out! You know it by many names: The Hero’s Journey; The Monomyth theory; Jungian Archetypes, etc. But Vogler deliver on his promise? By the end of this book, will you, too, be able to write a plot and craft well rounded characters everyone will love? Only one way to find out (sans reading). Good thing you have us. Right, Dear Listener?
Authors & AI
Oh Snap, we’re tackling the beast that is AI HEAD ON! No covering your eyes! No head in the sand! We’re going to look this beast in the eye and tell it who’s boss. . .unless we’re not the boss. Wait? Whose in charge here?
Subscribe To Our Newsletter
Subscribe to receive info on our latest news and episodes
The Writer’s Last Journey: Heroes, AI, and the Future of Writing