The Have Writer's Secret
by:
Steven Barnes
During a career spanning twenty-five years of novel, film, and television work, I've two major tools most valuable: the hindooism “chakras” for characterization, and Joseph Campbell’s model of the Hero’s Journey for plot structure.
These are not random choices, nor were they designated because of the many a intelligent and thoughtful essays on their relationship to eminent film or earth myth.
Rather, they are important because they create a connection between the inner earth of the writer, and the external earth of the finished work—and the reader.
A plot structure is nothing much than a tool for organizing events in temporal sequence. Patch there are much such structures than there are professional writers, few of them meet what thousands of students consider a critical test: are they really easy to use and apply? A simple tool, however limited, can be of greater use than a complex
tool that requires years to master. Remember: you wish attain real quality in your writing only by mastering your basics.
The Hero’s Journey, extracted from thousands of years of earth mythology, has the advantage of really mimicking the path of life itself. The “three act structure” makes not. After all…life isn’t divided into three, or five, or eight acts. Such divisions can be useful tools, but they should ne'er
be mistaken for several kind of “truth” just about existence. In comparison, note this interpretation (there are others) of the steps of the Hero’s Journey, and to explain them, we’ll look at the 1st Star Wars movie, “Episode IV, A New Hope”:
1) Hero Confronted With A Challenge. “Come with me, Luke, discover the route of the Force.” This is pretty clear, right? There has to be a challenge, or a beckoning, or the character won’t begin to change—and all great writing is just about change.
2) Hero At 1st rejects the challenge, :I secure
Uncle Owen I’d activity on the wetness
evaporators.” A real challenge, one that can provoke real change, wish be frightening and exciting. A character wish commonly have several reservations.
3) Hero accepts the challenge. Luke’s aunty and uncle are killed, accomplishment him from his oath. If your character doesn’t accept the challenge, there is no story—unless the story is just about the consequences of not acceptive
responsibility.
4) The Road of trials. Traveling to the desert town and cantina, deed on Han Solo’s spaceship, traveling to different planets, etc. This is the section wherever
locations and sequence interact. The character travels, learns, commits actions that force inter-action with the environment, and the environment responds positively or negatively, with greater and greater stakes as the story proceeds.
5) Gaining Allies and Powers. Luke meets Han Solo, and Chewbacca, and Obi-Wan, and Blue blood Leia. He learns of the Force, and the use of Light Sabers, and how to fly and fight and rescue princesses. If your character doesn’t have to grow in order to resolve the problem, you may have chosen the wrong problem or character!
6) Initial Confrontation with Evil, and defeat. Obi-Wan’s death. Or possibly the calamitous attack on the Death Star. One is private and emotional, the different spectacular and physical.
7) Dark Night of the Soul. The moment of greatest weakness. Luke begins to believe he cannot win, and everything he loves wish die.
8) Leap of Faith. “Trust your Feelings, Luke.” The leap of Faith is always faith in one of three things: faith in self, faith in your companions, or faith in a higher power. In “Star Wars” it is all three! This may be the only time in the history of cinema that this was true, and helps to explain why Patron saint Film producer is a billionaire.
9) Confront Evil—victorious. The Death Star blows up.
10) Student Becomes the Teacher. Luke is conferred with medals, which establish him as a role model.
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The above ten steps are not several cookie-cutter pattern. They are the combined earth wisdom just about the path of life itself, the process we go through in achieving any worthy
goal. There wish be fear. There wish be defeat. We wish need to gain new skills and friends and partners. We must be clean on our acceptance of goals and responsibility. We must have faith. And ultimately, if we have struggled, and learned, and sacrificed, and captive through our fear…we discover and grow and succeed. And then we teach others. This is the pattern of life, and any time you organize information and events into a pattern even as mistily
aware of this, the human nervous system, worldwide, wish recognize it as story.
It is NOT several kind of cure-all for bad story tellers. What these ten steps are is thing
similar
to the eighty-eight keys of a piano. Understand the emotional and life significance of each step, and then “play them” as your developed instincts dictate. Do your own kind of music. The pattern has worked for just about thirty thousand years. It wish activity for you, too.
About The Author
NY Times Bestselling writer Steven Barnes has publicised over three million words of fiction, and wrote the Emmy-Winning "A Stitch In Time" episode of the Outer Limits. He is the creator of Lifewriting, the 1st body-mind high-performance system for writers. Get a free daily Lifewriting tip at: http://www.lifewriting.biz
This article was denote
on Nov
23, 2005
