Christopher Vogler’s Hero’s Journey is a basic “four act” mythic story structure that can be used to describe everything from the legend of King Arthur to Alien. There’s something about this narrative structure that resonates with us on an elemental level, that makes us feel complete and satisfied.
While the hero’s journey often takes an external form--it’s an actual physical quest with physical dangers and physical rewards--it doesn’t have to. The story structure works just as well with purely emotional journeys, journeys of character. In fact, even when there is an actual physical journey, there is an internal journey that mirrors that physical journey, with the hero growing and changing even as he moves through the world.
Because romance writers write stories that are focused on romantic conflict and character growth, we have to heighten the importance of that internal journey and make it the dominant narrative arc. For many of us, Vogler’s steps seem unnecessarily complicated, rigid, and downright foreign. So we will use a slightly modified rendition of the Hero’s Journey, called the Heroine’s Journey. It describes the elements of the hero’s journey in terms that are easier to connect to the sort of character growth that we portray in romance and women’s fiction.
Specifically, this modified four-arc structure with reference to familiar romantic comedies (such as “Working Girl” and “While You Were Sleeping”)will be described. In addition, the instructor will walk participants through the process of defining their own heroines’ journeys using a strategy of “backwards mapping”: starting with the ultimate turning point and working back to where the story must begin.
Syllabus:
Week One is generally lecture based.
(1) The Hero’s Journey and Why It Works
I will describe the steps of Vogler’s “Hero’s Journey” (with examples) and explain why the two-crisis model of the Hero’s Journey is so effective.
(2) The Heroine’s Journey
I will describe the four acts the define the Heroine’s Journey and the key turning points that shift us from one act to the next. I will use two movies (“While You Were Sleeping” and “Working Girl”) to illustrate the acts and turning points.
In Weeks 2, 3, and 4, the workshop becomes a workshop. Students will create (as in actually write - in at least a summary fashion) three pivotal scenes in their stories, three important steps along the Heroine’s Journey, using a “backwards mapping” approach (start at the end, and see what you have to do to get there).
Each week, will start with a “lecture” on the nature of the scene they are writing and are working on, the elements that they need to consider, and some tips about how to go about crafting such a scene. Students will be invited (though certainly not required) to post their scenes; feedback on each student’s work will be provided by the instructor, and hopefully other participants.
Prerequisites: Watch “Working Girl” and/or “While You Were Sleeping” before the class begins, and have a story idea you want to build. |
Wendy Lyn Watson teaches constitutional law to college students by day and writes deliciously funny cozy mysteries, with a dollop of romance, by night. I Scream, You Scream: A Mystery a la Mode--the first of a series about the owner of an ice cream parlor in a small Texas town who solves murders in between scooping sundaes--was an October, 2009 release; the second book in the series, Scoop to Kill, will follow in July of 2010. She is a long-time member of Romance Writers of America (and a past Golden Heart finalist)and a member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. While she does not commit--or solve--murders in real life, her love of ice cream is 100% true. She’s also passionately devoted to 80s music, Asian horror films, and reality TV. You can find her on the web at www.wendylynwatson.com. |
