Category: Articles and Essays
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Plot: Stages of Evolution and Revelation
“A hero ventures forth from the world of the common day into a region of supernatural wonder.” –Joseph Campbell, “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” Every story is about the extraordinary, the uncommon experience or event that occurs in the constancy of ordinary time. Nearly, if not always, this occurrence upsets the routine of the…
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Preparing for the Journey
“At heart, despite its infinite variety, the hero’s story is always a journey.” —Christopher Vogler, “The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers” It helps to have a map, itinerary, or even hotel reservations when setting out on a journey. The writer works with symbols that settle reader in for the journey.
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Yearning for Change
The Trickster archetype wants change. The character who carries this role operates like a court jester. Seen as a fool whose words were spoken in jest, the court jester of medieval times addressed taboo and controversial issues, topics about which common citizens, lacking freedom of speech would and could not dare speak.
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Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!
Much like Paul Revere announced the British were on their way to do battle in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, the Herald archetype in storytelling announces change and transformation to the major character. The Herald places the protagonist on a state of alert, tells him or her how to read the signs, “One if by land,…
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Who Am I: What Do I Really Want?
According to Jungian theory, the shadow aspect of one’s personality contains any, and everything that falls out of alignment, stands apart, from the ego ideal. The writer must examine the central character’s values, those held by her or his family, mother, father and culture, to gain a sense of how the Shadow archetype might manifest…
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Illusions, Deceptions, and Various Manifestations of Doubt
The Chameleon or Shapeshifter archetype relates directly to the Jungian archetypes of anima and animus. Anima is the feminine aspect all men hold and animus is the masculine aspect every female carries in her psyche. Anima and animus reside in the archetypal unconscious that belies the individual unconscious layered by shadow. Anima and animus speak…
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Transformation: Making the Ordinary into the Extraordinary
Just as all good stories contain aspects of redemption, and death, so too transformation forms the engine propelling the narrative. A major character or protagonist is like the Prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament. God used Ezekiel to teach the Children of Israel how to suffer. Protagonists of our stories show readers, in much the…