Writers in the Storm

Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Does it speak well for women, or badly, that while the classic Hero’s Journey involves 12 steps, the innovative Heroine’s Journey involves 13?

Is that because women take longer to reach their happily ever after? Or does it mean they have more fascinating avenues to explore than men?

 Actually, either gender could follow either journey. It started with mythologist Joseph Campbell…

…discovering that all the world's great legends tell a similarly-structured story. This hero’s tale:

(1) begins in the Ordinary World. He receives some kind of

(2) Call To Adventure and at first he

(3) Refuses The Call. But then after

(4) Meeting With The Mentor, he decides to embark and

(5) Crosses The Threshold into a special world. There he meets up with

(6) Tests-Allies-Enemies, and this prepares him to

(7) Approach The Innermost Cave where he faces an enormous challenge, the

(8) Ordeal. He prevails and earns his

(9) Reward, then starts traveling

(10) The Road Back home -- except along the way, he comes up against his

(11) Final Challenge-Resurrection, at which point he ultimately triumphs so now he can

(12) Return With The Elixir.

All perfectly good stuff that's beloved and used by thousands, or maybe even millions, of novelists and screenwriters who've read Christopher Vogler's summary of this lineup called The Hero's Journey.

But one screenwriter, Kim Hudson, kept wondering why that system didn't quite work for feminine archetypes…so she created The Virgin's Promise (a fabulous book, by the way).

Recognizing that every character who embarks on a journey of emotional growth isn't necessarily a virgin, nor a woman, she also calls it The Prince's Promise. But with either name, you get the impression that this protagonist is someone who hasn't had — at least not yet — a whole lot of room to explore the world.

And Chris Vogler loved Kim Hudson's premise. He wrote that the two systems, The Hero's Journey and The Virgin's Promise, work nicely for characters in the same story because the ideas are complementary rather than conflicting.  

Which means if you already love the 12 steps followed by the hero, that won't interfere with using the 13 steps followed by the heroine. (Or the prince; whatever works for you.)

This character’s story opens in the:

(1) Dependent World, where she's busy paying the

(2) Price Of Conformity. But then along comes an

(3) Opportunity to Shine, and as she tries this new behavior she even

(4) Dresses The Part. It gets tricky balancing her

(5) Secret World with the dependent one, which soon

(6) No Longer Fits. Only after she gets

(7) Caught Shining and can no longer be her old repressed self does she finally

(8) Give Up What Gets Her Stuck, which results in such upheaval that she sees her

(9) Kingdom In Chaos. No longer able to live her former life, she

(10) Wanders In The Wilderness until at last she commits to

(11) Choosing Her Light and becomes her true self, which means

(12) Re-Ordering her world. So now, at last, the entire

(13) Kingdom Is Brighter. 

Looking at just the labels for each step, it sounds a bit woo-woo. But when put into practice, it outlines a genuinely plausible path for a heroine whose greatest challenge isn’t related to desperate criminals and evil sorcerers and ferocious dragons, but rather to her children.

Her co-workers.

Her friends.

Her parents.

The kind of challenges that most of us face throughout our lives.

There’s sure nothing wrong with books where all the excitement comes from criminals and dragons. That’s why The Heroine’s Journey will probably never be essential to writers whose books focus solely on hard-core mystery and physical danger.

But for novelists who care about what’s going on inside the characters as well as outside…these 13 steps are gold. Because such a heroine is usually involved with other people who (often with the best and most loving intentions in the world) want her to stay where THEY think she belongs, rather than where she discovers she can truly become her best self.

We'll get into more detail on that next month at my WriterUniv.com class on "The Hero's Journey, For Heroines," but meanwhile I'd love to hear about ANY of the 13 steps above you’ve already seen a character taking. You might’ve included some in your own books without ever using those labels, or you might’ve noticed them in a movie or other story.

What do you think, faithful WITS followers? Have you used the Hero's Journey, or The Virgin's Promise in your stories? (wittingly or unwittingly). Tell us what you think!

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One person chosen from today's commenters, who describes any such step, will win free registration to the September class, and I’ll look forward to walking through whatever heroine’s journey you’d like to explore!

ABOUT LAURIE:

After winning Romantic Times' "Best Special Edition of the Year" over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing…if not more. Since then she's taught online and live workshops for writers from London and Los Angeles to New Zealand and New York, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who've developed that particular novel in her classes. With 42 titles there so far, she's always hoping for more.

 

Tasha Seegmiller

I belong to several Facebook groups where people ask for and support the members in productivity, goal achievement, ownership and intentionality. Many of these are focused on writers, so when reporting on what the goals are, there are often people who say they want to create a solid outline for a WIP.

Nearly every time I see someone indicate this is their goal, I see a dozen replies of, “HOW?”

I tried to write as I went once. It was a red-hot mess and I swore I’d never do that again. And yet, I like the feeling of allowing a character to really guide me to where she wants to go, to reveal secrets and hopes in a way that I can’t anticipate until I really get to know my character, and I’ve never been able to get to know them well from filling out a profile for a story bible, and I’ve yet to come across a character sheet that really lets me get to know my characters.

So, I outline, leaving spaces and opportunities for what my characters will share as we journey through the book together.

The first thing to acknowledge is that there are LOTS of resources already out there for people who want to learn how to outline. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat – you can get an overview and see his beat sheets here.
• Jami Gold has also created an invaluable resource for different kinds of beat sheets
• Dan Wells’ 7-point plot method (series of videos)
• Sarah M. Eden’s 7-point plot for romance writers (presentation & sheet to help)*

* This was an absolute miracle in helping me plot my current WIP

But what I always have to do, after I know my characters and the places that are important to them, is ask myself three things:

1. Where is my character at the start of this novel?
2. Where do they want to be?
3. What is preventing them from progressing?

That’s it. And that’s hard. Where I tend to write (and read) mostly character driven works, the where is usually referring to a mental or emotional state more than a physical location. Do they start broken? Do they start with the idea that they have everything going for them? Is there something in their life, big or small, that, if able to attain, they could check the box of being content?

Once I know this, I can go to one of the resources I listed above and consider what kind of story the resource was intended to help with, and what kind of story I’m writing. If using any beat sheet, I can often learn a great deal about my character by understanding what kind of activity would qualify as her fun and games. For a character I previously wrote, it was redecorating a space. For a character I’m writing now, she destresses by jamming out to Janis Joplin.

Then I start thinking about conflicts. I’m of the opinion that a character can’t just be pushed around (literally or metaphorically) and hold a reader’s interest. We want a character to fight back, to be willing to fight, even a little, for where they want to be by the end of the book. But someone who tries something and always gets it is jerkishly annoying.

Again, I don’t always know exact details of how my character is going to deal with these complications – that’s for them to tell me. This is one of the reasons I refer to my kind of outlining as connect the dots outlining. My job in the outline is to get the big things into place, and see how detailed the picture gets when I’ve written my way from one dot to another, have this the end, and can sit back and look at the whole picture.

But an outline isn’t meant to JUST assist in drafting. 

After I have drafted to the best of my ability, I go back again, this time really paying attention to who is doing what when, where they are growing, if they are playing an important role to the story AND if what I said they were going to do is what they do. For this, I break out my colored sticky notes and give each main character one. I jot down 10-15 words of what is happening at a particular time and group them together by chronologically.

This is a do or die time for my characters because if their color only shows up once or twice, they either need to reveal that they are essential to the story or they’re out. The son who is only there to whine about missing his dead mom? Gone. The two best friends who say the same thing, drink the same thing, wear the same thing but have different names? Kill one.

Side Note: Almost every pantser I’ve talked to has said they create outlines, timelines, character profiles, etc. once they are done with the first draft so they can have a concrete understanding of the story they created.

Then I go back to my original outline and see if there were plot points that I thought were important when I first started and if they still are. Sometimes, in the act of drafting, I forget things. Sometimes they needed to be forgotten. But then I am keenly aware of the structure and the goals of the story and the characters and the role of the setting so that when I embark on revising, I am focused.

How does my outlining process resemble yours? How about differences?

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About Tasha

Tasha Seegmiller is a mom to three kids and coordinator of the project-based learning center (EDGE) at Southern Utah University. She writes contemporary women’s fiction with a hint of magic, and thrives on Diet Coke, chocolate and cinnamon bears. She is a co-founder and the managing editor for the Thinking Through Our Fingers blog as well as a board member for the Women's Fiction Writers Association. Tasha is represented by Annelise Robey of the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

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Suzanne Purvis

I’m thrilled to be back at Writers in the Storm to share a few more tidbits about building a successful synopsis. In fact, you can build a Sizzling and Scintillating Synopsis.

I know the mere mention of a synopsis sends many writers to tears. And I’ve found the perfect antidote: Writers' Tears.

Yes, there's a real Irish Whiskey named just for us.

Alas, only available in the UK and Canada. :-(

So instead of leaving the country and slurping gallons of whiskey, you can use all your writerly expertise and build a synopsis that matches your extraordinary book.

Last time I was here, I provided a few helpful synopsis checklists, some info about adding voice, and ideas showing how to keep your synopsis tight and trim. You can check it out here.

Today, we’ll delve into getting your interesting, intriguing, unique characters into the synopsis with as few words as possible. Because don’t those darn synopses often demand a low word count?

Most of the time, a sizzling synopsis will begin with an introduction to your absolutely phenomenal main character. After all, the characters are the interesting vehicles that tell your story. And they’re the piece of your story that agents, editors, and contest judges usually want to hear about first.

The simplest way is to provide your character's name (which in itself can be intriguing and interesting) and then add 1, 2 or 3 descriptive words or phrases that differentiates your character from any other girl, boy, woman, man, alien, dog, etc.

And hopefully with these descriptors you can show why this character is the perfect character to tell your story.

For instance, from the movies. . .

Rocky Balboa, a down-on-his luck, small time boxer

A unique name, (Rocky Balboa)

an interesting occupation (small time boxer)

and a hint of conflict (down-on-his luck)

 

Here are a few examples of character introductions from students in my class. . .

From Lauri Corkum's WIP The Prism Protocol.

DANNI WALTERS, a disgraced and discarded CIA operative. . . 

Lauri sets up the conflict with just a few words, and she used great alliteration with disgraced and discarded.

 

From Becky Rawsley's WIP Merlin's Children.

TESS BOWDEN, a seventeen-year-old student is a self-confessed science-nerd and magic-sceptic who has the unwelcome ability to see demons.

Becky’s WIP is YA, and often I recommend adding in the main character’s age or grade to show the genre.

Look at the conflict for this character.

She’s a science nerd, magic skeptic, but can see demons. Wow.

And look at the title Merlin’s Children.

Tess is going to be wrapped up with magic and Merlin; yet, she’s skeptical of magic and believes in the facts of science.

Seems like the perfect character to go on this journey.

 

We’re not yet looking at what the character wants or why.

That comes next.

For now, all you want to do is get that irresistible character(s) on the page.

According to Donald Maass in Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook . . . 

". . . a multidimensional character will keep us guessing . . . we are more likely to identify with them .. . because there is more of them to see."

With your descriptive adjectives, you can add that multidimensionality in just a few words. It’s not impossible. :-)

So, in your synopsis, you’ve introduced your main character, then you’ll share your setting, your plot points and of course, your ending. But along with your fabulous character, you’ll want to make sure you show your character’s arc. Don’t worry it’s not as daunting as it sounds.

Character Arc

If you cover these next stages in your synopsis, you’ll show your character’s arc.

First Stage:

At the start of your story, WHO is your main character? What kind of person is he/she?

What is his/her approach to life?

And you’ll show this with your interesting character introduction.

Second Stage:

Describe how your main character is thrust into a situation where he/she is pressured to change.

This is usually shown with your inciting incident.

Third Stage:

Does your main character decide to take a leap of faith and change? Of course they do. Show the how and when.

Does he/she adopt a new approach or take some uncharacteristic action? Or does she hold true to who she is and become more entrenched in her attitude or approach?

Fourth Stage:

At the end of the novel, is the main character better off because of the choices he/she has made? Does the reader feel he/she has done the right thing? Or in the case of a tragedy, the main character could be far worse off.

If you include these four stages in your synopsis, you can’t help but show your character’s arc.

Hopefully, these suggestions will make it easier for you to write a synopsis without tears.

And if you’re looking for more help, check out my September class at Lawson Academy -- The Sizzling, Scintillating Synopsis

Feel free to share your intriguing character intro in the comments or ask any questions regarding writing a sizzling synopsis.

Suzanne Purvis is a transplanted Canadian living in the Deep South, where she traded “eh” for “y’all.” An author of long, short, flash fiction for both children and adults, she has won several awards including those sponsored by the University of Toronto, RWA, Bethlehem Writer’s Roundtable, and Women Who Write. You can find her work in print anthologies, magazines, ezines, and ebooks. www.suzannepurvis.com