A Tool of the Trade, Part 1
Author: Sandra Wales, Ed.D.
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: October 2005

Writing is a profession. Those of us who live to write and publish understand this even though the public does not. Writers have gathered tools for writing dredged up from other sources, but usually in the form of books about how to write.

Christopher Vogler’s book, THE WRITER'S JOURNEY, is a tool for writers. He has taken Carl Jung’s philosophy and Joseph Campbell’s work and threaded it through his thoughts on the writing process. As Vogler says, “The Hero’s Journey is not an invention, but an observation. It is recognition of a beautiful design, a set of principles that govern the conduct of life and the world of storytelling. . . .”

The discussion of Vogler’s book that follows is an attempt to show you, the writer, a tool to make your writing richer and more exciting. Whether or not you agree with Vogler doesn’t negate the necessity of reading his book. He evaluates and is a consultant for the movie industry. He has vast practical experience that most of us haven’t yet acquired.

Book One of THE WRITER'S JOURNEY is called mapping the journey. In this section, Vogler discusses the seven archetypes (personified symbols of various human qualities) that include the hero/heroine, mentor, threshold guardian, herald, shapeshifter, shadow, and trickster. Each type has a given role in the story although each type may take on other characteristics. The heroine can, at times, be a mentor to a lesser character as well as have a mentor herself. Thethreshold guardian may be a trickster and so on, which gives your characters life and dimension. We all know that the best stories are about heroines who have some flaw to make them human. In Vogler’s book, we discover that we’re not always a hero, a mentor, or a threshold guardian. Our characters should be as multi-faceted and as complex as humans. Sometimes other characters are the heroes for awhile.

Vogler explains that the heroine gives the audience a window to the story. We see the world primarily through her eyes although in the romance novel it’s typical to have other point of view
characters. The heroine has traits that we understand: she has a need to be loved, accepted, a need for revenge, and so on. It is the writer’s duty to develop a complex character with several recognizable traits complete with a flaw. Remember, the negative trait must be positive. A person can be stubborn and create problems for herself or others, but the flip side of that personality trait, the positive, is perseverance. When the heroine learns to use her stubbornness for her good or the good of others, then she’s experienced growth.

Vogler says that the heroine must be proactive and willing to sacrifice herself for others and/or the cause. The heroine faces real death or symbolic death in her journey. She can experience a piece of herself dying from a love affair gone bad or the loss of someone she loves.

In literature, unlike the romance novel, the hero usually faces physical death and may or may not die. The hero shows us how to face death.

Vogler discusses the different types of heroes: the loner, the group oriented hero, the unwilling and the willing. We can usually remember a movie with John Wayne in which he refuses to help someone because the odds are against them, but he finally acquiesces. He knows that without him they have no chance. With him they may make it. Through the ordeal, the well-crafted hero
experiences growth on many levels no matter how much background he’s had in the past. In romance novels, the unwilling lover, whether hero or heroine, creates the conflict that makes the reader turn those pages non-stop.

Vogler’s character that he calls the shapeshifter is intriguing and lends itself well to romantic suspense. The shapeshifter constantly changes. He can mislead the hero by pretending to be one thing when in reality he’s another. Interestingly, serial killers are good shapeshifters. The traits of a psychopath include the ability to appear normal. They are usually handsome, congenial, and are masters at deceiving their victims. Many times neighbors say that the captured killer was quiet, nice, and no problem in the neighborhood. Vogler says that the shapeshifter’s dramatic function is to keep the hero and the audience off balance through doubt and suspense. Sometimes the hero must be a shapeshifter. Undercover agents are a good example of a shapeshifter. Volger calls the second phase of THE WRITER'S JOURNEY, “Stages of the Journey.” In Stage One, which Vogler calls The Ordinary World, the writer’s task is almost overwhelming. Here the author has to lay the groundwork for the rest of the work with the hook to intrigue the reader. The writer must also set the tone, use foreshadow to suggest where the story will lead us, and deliver a massive amount of background information pertinent to the story without slowing the pace.

Vogler asks the writer to consider what the audience sees first. Is it the cover, the title, a portion of dialogue? The title should be a clue to the story. A good title can be a multi-level metaphor. Of course whether or not the romance writer has control over this is debatable. However, the writer does have power over the following. The opening image, whether it is a movie or a novel, is a powerful tool to create mood and suggest where the story will go, give the reader the theme, and alert the audience to the issues your novel will explore. The author has to decide whether the novel will start with dialogue or description. Does it need a prologue or would that slow the tempo? Who is the central character (or characters?)

The ordinary world is used, according to Vogler, to establish a baseline for comparison to the challenges of the heroine’s journey. If we have no basis for comparison, then how does the reader know the heroine has been taken out of her comfortable world and thrust into a world unique to her situation? The ordinary world of the heroine is ordinary because she’s learned to move around in it. When she’s thrust into an unknown situation, she must learn to function in this new world or she won’t survive. It is this battle that makes or breaks the heroine.

Vogler believes the ordinary world and the new world should be strongly contrasted to heighten tension for the reader. The writer establishes the special world via foreshadowing while still in the ordinary world. He explains that the opening of ROMANCING THE STONE is a fantasy of a heroine battling villains. This scene is part of a novel that the main character has written and is a foreshadow of what the character will encounter later.

“Every good story poses a series of questions about the hero,” Vogler states. Will the hero achieve the goal? Overcome the obstacle? Learn lessons? Accomplish growth? Overcome her
flaws? This overview barely touches on the complexities of Vogler’s work. It’s an important tool for the serious writer. Anything that helps bring quality writing to the forefront is crucial.

There is a wealth of material in Vogler’s book for the serious writer that will be further discussed in Part II of the next newsletter. It is a fascinating but difficult journey. However, so is writing.

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MCRW member, Sandra T. Wales, writes the Warrior Queen Series as Haley Elizabeth Garwood. Her web site is www.HaleyElizabethGarwood.com

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