A Tool of the Trade, Part 2
Author: Sandra T. Wales
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: November 2005

In last month’s newsletter, we examined Christopher Vogler’s book The Writer’s Journey regarding different types of characters and the journey that each must make. We’ll take a further journey ourselves led by Vogler.

Most writers have been taught that their characters need inner and outer conflicts to be whole and believable. Vogler uses the terms inner and outer problems. The hero will be flat and uninteresting without inner demons to conquer. The hero needs to defeat the fiends within himself in order to continue through life on a higher plane.

Since Vogler comes from the movie industry, he uses film terms. He says the author must decide how the hero will make his entrance. Whatever is chosen should reflect the hero’s personality. Do we see him in the midst of a party? Alone? Walking the beach or dodging taxis in a big city? What do these actions and places say about the hero? Always, the writer should strive to make this a compelling moment to keep the reader engrossed. The reader needs to identify with the hero so that we’re interested in his story, but also our own. How would we react in the same situation? Could we succeed? Will the hero succeed?

Vogler says that the writer achieves identification of the reader with the hero though “universal goals, drives, desires, or needs.” Although the writer may wonder how commonplace goals can be made interesting, it’s because they’re universal that makes it compelling for the reader. Also, a hero may be lacking something—a family member, a secure job, or any number of things that can happen to ordinary people. Sympathy is created for the hero, which if the hero doesn’t solve the problem, turns to disgust. Vogler continues to describe the wounded hero, whose injuries may or may not be visible. The writer must also establish what’s at stake for the hero. What does he stand to gain or lose? Will he survive the ordeal? Will he be the human embodiment of the writer’s theme?

Vogler’s Stage Two of the hero’s journey is “The Call to Adventure.” The author’s task is to get the story rolling. Sometimes the call to adventure is called the inciting incident, the trigger, or the catalyst. An event occurs that calls to the hero or heroine and may be a message or an
incident that comes from outside the hero’s control such as war, an accident, or kidnapping. The calling may be within the hero and can be a dream, a vision, the unconscious, or a need that builds until the hero must act. Carl Jung’s mysterious force of synchronicity (a series of unexplained coincidences or fate) may force the hero to seek change through the adventure.

Vogler believes that a good story should have the following elements: the temptation of the hero, a herald of change character who gets the story moving with an invitation or a challenge, reconnaissance in which a villain enters the hero’s world and alerts him to a problem, disorientation for the hero in which discomfort causes him to act, a lack or loss in the hero’s world, and in some stories, there are just no more options for the hero but to act. Some heroes have warnings, some don’t. There are sometimes multi-levels of calling in which the hero must solve several problems that are often interrelated.

Not all heroes jump at the opportunity to face growth or death. Change is difficult for most people including the hero. Vogler discusses this in Stage Three: Refusal of the Call. The hero tries to avoid the difficult adventure until the stakes are raised either by his family being threatened or himself or his country. The list is endless. The call is finally answered by the hero after a series of weak excuses. If the hero persists in denying the call, it is tragic. He can try to live in the past and deny the reality of now, but his problem will worsen. Vogler discusses conflicting calls in which the hero faces two calls to adventure at once. How does he decide which one to choose? That’s for the author to determine.

The hero may be tempted sometimes to “sell his soul” by acceptance of a call to adventure that is detrimental. The hero, who declines the call because of his strength of character, creates a positive refusal rather than a negative one. The hero can be willing and jump into the adventure
immediately only to become a threshold guardian through testing and success. Vogler continues with the secret door that is closed by the threshold guardian only to be opened by the hero. Usually it helps the hero solve his problem, but not always.

Stage Four of The Writer’s Journey is the Meeting with the Mentor according to Vogler. The obvious mentor who has permeated our culture is Obi Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars movie. He teaches the young hero how to survive the forces of evil that they’re about to meet, is a source of wisdom, and consults. Luke Skywalker’s impatience sets up a mentor-hero conflict to further strengthen the dangers of the adventure.

Crossing the First Threshold is Stage Five of the hero’s journey. Here the hero commits to the adventure even though as he approaches the threshold, he doesn’t want to get involved. Something or some incident forces him to continue. It can be an external conflict or internal, but no matter—this is where the adventure begins in earnest.

Threshold guardians try to block the hero’s way, but he must get through anyway. Sometimes, Vogler says, this step signifies that we have reached the border of two worlds. And, sometimes, the landing isn’t smooth. A bruised hero may be exhausted, frustrated, or disoriented. From this point forward, the hero’s world is a marked contrast from the one he knew before. He is tested, makes allies and enemies, finds his sidekick, forms teams to help him, and learns new rules for this peculiar world.

The remainder of Vogler’s stages include Stage Seven: The Innermost Cave; Stage Eight: The Ordeal; Stage Nine: Reward; Stage Ten: The Road Back; Stage Eleven: The Resurrection. Space prohibits further in depth study of Vogler, but I recommend his book for the serious writer. Vogler includes a detailed analysis of the Titantic movie which is an excellent way to explain his philosophy of how to develop a strong story.

The craft of writing in any of the romance sub-genres is serious business and, as most writers know, learning to write is a never-ending process. Authors pull information to help improve their writing from many sources and through this melding, create their unique voice. Vogler says that The Writer’s Journey is a guide, nothing more. Parts may or may not suit your work. That is for you to decide.

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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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