The Writer's Journey
Christopher Vogler wrote a wonderful book about writing based on the same understanding of narrative structure that mythologist Joseph Campbell used in his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces.
Vogler's book, The Writer's Journey, was aimed primarily at screenwriters because his job was dealing with film treatments. But it works just as well for other types of fiction. Even though it is not exactly the same journey in a romance story as it is structurally in an adventure or a mystery or a piece of literary fiction, many of the elements remain the same.
The first time I read it (and I have now read it upwards of ten times) I was struck by how I'd done instinctively the setting up part of the book. And even more deeply struck by where I always hit my brick wall.
It was stage 6, which I forget the descriptive phrase for now, but what it amounted to is -- here's where the whole world of possibilities opens up; choose the ones that will make your story.
And every time I am paralyzed by choice. The story could go this way or it could go that way depending on the choices I make.
It's easier in the beginning when you're just setting out and the conflict is being set up and the characters are just finding each other. And it's easier in the end when, if you've done things right, there is a logical inevitability to the story. Of course there may be surprises, but they shouldn't come out of left field. They should grow organically out of the plot even if they aren't initially obvious (or else how could they have been secrets?).
But stage 6 -- when there is so much potential, so many avenues to choose from -- there is always the chance of trouble. Actually trouble for me at this point is inevitable, too. This is where I really have to find out who my characters are. Because what they do and say here is really how the choices in stage 6 get made. If I don't know them, I have no idea which choices they will make.
It's taken me a long while to get to know Sadie and Spence well enough to write the particular part I'm working on now. Not because it's difficult and not because I didn't know what was going to happen. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I just didn't know their particular reactions to it. So I had to let them react. I had to let the words come out of their mouths and see what they had to say. See what they thought, what they felt. And sometimes there were dead ends because some of the things they said didn't really feel right. They didn't reflect the people that Spence and Sadie are.
It gets a little boring writing the same bits over and over. It's kind of like "take one," "take two," "take twenty-two." But eventually it turns out right. Eventually the choices they make are the ones that advance the story, that are true to who they are. And then we get to go on.
Finally, we're going on.
Vogler's book, The Writer's Journey, was aimed primarily at screenwriters because his job was dealing with film treatments. But it works just as well for other types of fiction. Even though it is not exactly the same journey in a romance story as it is structurally in an adventure or a mystery or a piece of literary fiction, many of the elements remain the same.
The first time I read it (and I have now read it upwards of ten times) I was struck by how I'd done instinctively the setting up part of the book. And even more deeply struck by where I always hit my brick wall.
It was stage 6, which I forget the descriptive phrase for now, but what it amounted to is -- here's where the whole world of possibilities opens up; choose the ones that will make your story.
And every time I am paralyzed by choice. The story could go this way or it could go that way depending on the choices I make.
It's easier in the beginning when you're just setting out and the conflict is being set up and the characters are just finding each other. And it's easier in the end when, if you've done things right, there is a logical inevitability to the story. Of course there may be surprises, but they shouldn't come out of left field. They should grow organically out of the plot even if they aren't initially obvious (or else how could they have been secrets?).
But stage 6 -- when there is so much potential, so many avenues to choose from -- there is always the chance of trouble. Actually trouble for me at this point is inevitable, too. This is where I really have to find out who my characters are. Because what they do and say here is really how the choices in stage 6 get made. If I don't know them, I have no idea which choices they will make.
It's taken me a long while to get to know Sadie and Spence well enough to write the particular part I'm working on now. Not because it's difficult and not because I didn't know what was going to happen. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I just didn't know their particular reactions to it. So I had to let them react. I had to let the words come out of their mouths and see what they had to say. See what they thought, what they felt. And sometimes there were dead ends because some of the things they said didn't really feel right. They didn't reflect the people that Spence and Sadie are.
It gets a little boring writing the same bits over and over. It's kind of like "take one," "take two," "take twenty-two." But eventually it turns out right. Eventually the choices they make are the ones that advance the story, that are true to who they are. And then we get to go on.
Finally, we're going on.
posted by Anne McAllister at 10:24 PM
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