The Hero's Journey

A great deal has been written over the years about the Hero's Journey. It can provide a blueprint for the writer in the construction of their novel.

Orphan --- Wanderer --- Warrior --- Martyr

As a writer, it’s your daunting task to take your character, and your readers, through these stages in the hero's journey by creating that wonderful plot around which everything revolves and evolves. Let’s take a brief look at these four stages and discuss some examples to provide a better idea of the progression.

ORPHAN: This can be a literal or a figurative situation for the hero. Sometimes it’s both. It puts the hero into a more vulnerable position, with no one to help them, so they have to think things out for themselves. Two examples are immediately obvious: Annie and Dorothy. These two characters are literal examples. One is living in an orphanage (like Lilly White in my most recent middle grade paranormal novel Skullhaven—pardon the shameless promotion) and the other resides with her Auntie Em. A more recent example can be found in the Harry Potter books.

Figurative orphans may be more common. Gordie LaChance in Stand by Me is one example. He lives with his parents (who are now totally consumed with the death of his older brother) and Gordie is more or less isolated and forgotten. He finds companionship with his friends and a degree of solace in his writing. Other examples include Homer Hickam from the movie October Sky, Carrie from Stephen King's novel by the same name, and Neil Gaiman's Coraline. In Finding Nemo, both Nemo and his father could be classified as figurative orphans, each of them searching for the other. In Lost in the Bayou, Robin Sherwood is a figurative (and perhaps literal) orphan. In the opening chapter, we learn that her parents have disappeared—fate unknown.

Within this “orphan” environment, the main character is presented with a problem, an obstacle, something that's wrong and simply has to be fixed. That’s where your wonderful plot begins. Usually this occurs with a “situation-changing-event,” such as Gandalf’s visit to Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit. When that occurs, they become a…

WANDERER: The hero, dissatisfied with their current situation (whatever it may be) embarks on a quest to resolve it and make it, or the world, better. Your hero may wander through many pages and numerous chapters, or they may only wander for a short time until they come up with a solution. When that happens, they become a…

WARRIOR: This is where things begin to change. Your hero comes up with a plan, figures out what needs to be done and how to do it. But it’s never easy, or at least it shouldn't appear too easy. There must be some struggling, internally and/or externally. Obstacles come flying out of nowhere, slowing and stopping your hero's progress. They have to summon their courage, use their brains, or figure out what can be done to overcome whatever, or whomever, is blocking their success. Typically there is a “darkest moment” where things take a drastic turn for the worse and success and a happy ending seems all but impossible. Your hero may have to make a huge sacrifice, and sometimes put themselves into the most dangerous situation imaginable. This is when they reach the status of…

MARTYR: This is the point where the hero risks everything, faces the danger and lays their life on the line if necessary in order to solve the problem and/or achieve their objective. They may have to dig down deep inside to find the courage to do what's necessary. As the writer, you need to make certain we feel their pain, their fear, their desperation. This is typically the climax chapter where the hero stands up and delivers. This is the defining moment, and the event that changes everything. The dark clouds separate, and the sun shines brightly. As readers, we are relieved that our hero has managed to escape the villain, the jaws of death, their loneliness, or whatever situation you (the writer) have placed them in. Problem solved. All is right with the world.

So there you have it. This is the basic progression. For a much more detailed explanation, check out Joseph Campbell’s narrative at the following LINK.

Your comments are always welcome!

Writing the Perfect Query Letter

It's been a while since we've done this. But we have so many new visitors that it's time once again. We're going to talk about the bane of all writers, the horror of horrors in the world of writing, the DESPICABLE QUERY LETTER.

Oh, we hate them. Yes. We do. But they are a necessary part in the wooing of an agent or publisher. So, since they are so important, we need to be able to do them well. We need to be able to do them so well, in fact, that the agent or publisher simply MUST request a sample of our work.

This is not virgin ground we're covering—not by any stretch of your so-very-creative imagination. There are tons of resources on the web dealing with how to write a query. And, for the most part, they all seem to regurgitate pretty much the same lecture and repeat that there are specific formats and rules for content that writers need to follow. And if the neophyte writer should carelessly wander off that straight-and-narrow path, they better have a really good reason for doing so.

So, let's take a quick look, once again, at the query letter. We'll break it down to the skeleton and start with that. Here's a shopping list of all the items you need to include:

Salutation.

Make sure to say "Dear" and make doubly certain you have the agent's name spelled correctly. Failure in this initial area can result in an instant trip to the circular file, regardless of how well the rest of it is written.

Introduction.

This is where you tell the agent the genre, the word count and the title. Here's an example.

Since you have an interest in middle grade fantasy, "Parry Hotter and the Half-Baked Prints" should be right up your alley. It is complete at 1,000,000 words.

Any creativity you can add to this section without over-reaching and ending up too cutesy can help encourage the agent to read on.

Body.

This is the meat and potatoes. This is where you really need to get the agent's attention. Even though you mention supporting characters, this section needs to be centered around the main character. All events should relate to that character. Also, keep the stages of THE HERO'S JOURNEY in mind as you write this part. (Orphan, Wanderer, Warrior, Martyr). For a more descriptive explanation of that, check a previous blog post HERE.

As Steven King said, "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." Keep that in mind and don't overuse them in the query, just as you don't overuse them in your writing. Avoid cliches, too. An agent can spot those as if they were printed in red ink, in bold type, italicized and underlined. Also, since the query isn't a synopsis that lays everything on the table, you want to end with a cliffhanger of sorts so that the agent simply MUST find out what happens next. That will encourage a request for a sample, which is the sole purpose of the query.

Credits.

If you are published or have other notable accomplishments, this is the area to list that information.s.

Closing.

This is where you hurry away by simply saying thank you and that you will be happy to send a partial or a full at their request. Then you say "Sincerely" and type your name. You're done.

BUT DO NOT HIT THE SEND BUTTON YET!

Go fix yourself a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea. Have a Dove bar or a Ferero Rocher, a Ghiradeli square, or a Lindor Truffle. Wait five minutes or so and then go back to that document and read it from beginning to end. Correct any typos, grammar, phrasing, order of sentences, adverbs, cliches, punctuation, word choices, whatever you need to fix to make it The Perfect Query Letter.

Once it's perfect, check the word count. If you're over 250 words, you need to compress things a bit. Total word count for a query is typically around 250 words. If your novel is over 70,000 words, you can expand on that number a bit, but 300 words is typically the point of no return.

After fixing everything and making it absolutely perfect, do not send it to the agent of choice. At least not yet. Send this version to a writerly friend, or post it on Absolute Write for other writers to pick apart. Whatever you do, don't be in a rush to send it until it has been given the seal of approval by at least two or three other writers. Then you can send it. But check it again before you do and run that spellchecker program on it one last time.

And that's a summary of How To Write a Query Letter.

Feel free to leave a comment below. And speaking of below, don't forget to enter our contest to have your book featured on this blog at the top sidebar position for the rest of the month. Scroll down to check it out.

Your Query at 30,000 Feet

To continue our topic of yesterday, I wanted to offer you a little writing exercise that will incorporate the Hero's Journey and your query letter. As we know, query letters are one of the hardest projects to tackle. Many times we are so interested in giving the agent the entire plot that we include a lot of unnecessary information and actually fail to capture the real story. Getting mired in the minutia, trying to reveal all the sub-plots and all the characters and their relationships, isn't the direction your query needs to take. Your query may be more effective in getting an agent's attention if you step back and take a look at it from a 30,000-foot level.

So here's the exercise: Think about your story and condense it to four sentences. This isn't going to be easy, but it will help you condense the story to its bare essence, and it may prove valuable as a starting point when you write (rewrite?) your query. The sentences should include:

1. ORPHAN: Who is the main character and what happens to toss them into a new situation? Examples: With Dorothy it was the tornado that landed her in a whole new world. In The Hunger Games, it was the reaping that placed Katniss in a new situation. What happens in your story that changes the playing field?

2. WANDERER: What does your character do once their lives change? (Bilbo Baggins sets off on a journey to find the ring. Coraline goes through the door in search of her missing parents. Etc.)

3. WARRIOR: Who or what is the character fighting? What is at stake? How are they planning on changing the situation? What happens if they don't?

4. MARTYR: What does the character have to do to make things right. What sacrifice will they have to make in order to fix everything?

If you'd like to leave a comment with your four sentences, feel free to do so. Then others can comment as well and perhaps add some additional insight. Have fun!