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 say about the mentor: why they are important, what they do, what kinds of mentors there are, and whether you...
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 could use the ideas to create/develop an actual protagonist. Renee's has a Frankenstein story idea (she so badly wants to read...
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 protagonists in genre fiction are heroes (if not always heroic). In today’s episode we go deep into Christopher Vogler’s chapter...
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 Journey. Last episode we mapped all 12 steps of Christopher Volger’s Hero’s Journey (as presented in his book, The Writer’s...
Mapping the Hero’s Journey
We’ve officially started our new book, Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. And boy is there a lot in the first two chapters! First (or first after Kim’s rant) is an overview of the Hero’s Journey, yes, dear listener, we cover all twelve steps. And as examples for those steps we...
The Writer’s Journey. Let’s Do This.
We’re on the last chapter of Judith Barrington’s book, Writing the Memoir, “Practical Advice on Critique Groups,” plus the dos and don’ts of giving and getting feedback. It’s practical and useful and everything we’ve come to expect from Barrington. But before we close the book on memoir, we give...
Remembering the Day When…
Your memoir is about you (obviously) but it’s not just about you. In this episode we cover Judith Barrington’s chapter on how (and why) to bring events from the real world into your memoir. And in our writing exercise we try it out by remembering our own lives during...
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 that Campbell claimed were universal. In today's workshop we explore the some of the ideas of The Heroine's Journey with author...