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Archive for July, 2009

Writing Is Our Own Hero’s Journey

The Hero's Journey As writers, we are called on to actively take steps along our own Hero’s Journey with each word we write. We begin each day’s writing session with the courage to take one more step along the unknown journey of writing our novel. We set our egos aside and let the creative ideas unfold on the page. And no matter which direction we take, no matter whether it takes us down an unknown garden path or through the dark forest, it will ultimately take us one step closer to fulfillment of our own Hero’s Journey. We step past our fears and into the stream of inspiration and creative flow and we feed our souls as we do.

As we help our characters find their way through the labyrinth of the Hero’s Journey, we find the courage to move forward in our own lives. Out of the confusion and limitation we may feel at times, we find the path that resonates for us and us alone. We walk that path and face the challenges along the way. We allow the support of wise mentors and friends in the form of our own inner wisdom as well as the people we meet who can help us. In the process, we find the courage within us to go forward toward what we truly want, living from a new level of authenticity and meaning in our own lives as we do.

We remember that each difficulty our character faces is a necessary rite of passage for him to grow and develop as a human, to become the person he has the potential to be. As we do this for our characters, we do it for an aspect of ourselves as well. And our writing helps our readers to believe that perhaps they too can succeed if they take the leap of faith and reach for what they have always wanted.

As we go through the process of helping our characters succeed on the Hero’s Journey, we see the value of courage and a willingness to face the challenges in our own lives with authenticity in the best way we know how. We see that staying stuck and stagnating where we are despite our inner urging toward change is just postponing the inevitable Hero’s Journey that we all are on. And so, we take the leap of faith and choose the path of growth. Our character’s unique version of the Hero’s Journey gives us the inspiration that taking a step toward our dreams might just be the best thing to do.

We can see what’s possible for ourselves as we join our novel’s characters on the journey of discovering a new level of truth and satisfaction in their lives. These are our Heroes and they hold out the promise that we can each do the same for ourselves.

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Follow the Hero’s Journey to Write a Great Novel

Follow the Hero's Journey to Write a Great Novel Every great story that has ever been told follows the basic mythological structure of what Joseph Campbell has called the Hero’s Journey. If you look closely at some of the most popular and satisfying novels and movies, you can see for yourself that this is true. This structure deeply resonates for all of us as humans because it reflects the inner process we all go through in our lives as we strive to be true to ourselves and create a life that is satisfying and fulfilling.

In this article, I’ll go over the basics steps of the Hero’s Journey that you can use to structure your novel so that the final result will be a story that feels satisfying and meaningful to you as well as to your readers.

The Steps of the Hero’s Journey

1. Reveal The Ordinary World of Your Character. Introduce your main character, the hero of your novel, and show us what his life is like at the beginning of your story.

2. Your Character Faces a Challenge. Something happens that forces the hero to make a decision that will change his life.

3. Your Character Initially Refuses. Initially your main character resists this change and the difficulties it will entail and wants things to stay the same.

4. You Character Decides To Change. Often triggered by an outside event, he makes a commitment to changing his life.

5. Your Character Gains Mentors and Allies. As your story progresses, your character meets people along the way who offer help and support.

6. Your Character Learns What He Needs To Succeed. He takes action toward achieving his goals and acquiring the skills he will need along the way. The stakes get higher as he proceeds.

7. Your Character First Confronts His Deepest Fear and Fails. He faces his greatest challenge but has not yet acquired the inner strength that is needed to succeed at his goal.

8. The Dark Night of the Soul. Your character experiences self-doubt and fears that he will never succeed. He is on the verge of giving up.

9. The Leap of Faith. Your character experiences a renewed inner commitment to his goal based on an inner faith that he can be, do, or have whatever he really wants.

10. Final Climactic Confrontation and Ultimate Success. Your character faces his biggest challenge and puts everything into achieving what he wants. With this final powerful effort, he finally succeeds and gets what he has wanted for so long.

When you apply the structure of the Hero’s Journey to your novel, the process of writing becomes much easier and more inspiring. It helps you to see where your main character needs to go and what he needs to face in order to make the story truly powerful and meaningful for you as the writer and for your readers as well. When you feel stuck and don’t know where to go next with your writing, the structure of the Hero’s Journey will always show you the next step.

For Extra Help Applying the Hero’s Journey Archetype To Your Novel

New Novelist: Hero's Journey Novel Writing Software

If you would like some additional guidance to help you apply the structure of the Hero’s Journey to your own novel idea, I really encourage you to look into a good novel writing software program such as NewNovelist 2.0. NewNovelist specifically uses the Hero’s Journey model to guide you step by step in developing your novel’s characters, setting, and plot in a fun, interactive way. For more details, you can read my review of NewNovelist here.

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Newnovelist 2.0 Novel Writing Software Review: Lots of Great Features at a Nice Price

If you are looking for a resource that will help you develop and write that wonderful novel that’s been floating around the edges of your imagination for so long, NewNovelist 2.0 novel writing software might be just what you are looking for. NewNovelist is a feature-rich program that uses the well-respected and useful structure of the Hero’s Journey archetype to help you create a novel that you will enjoy writing and that publishers and readers will love.

It’s Really Easy To Use

The program is easy to install and use and you can learn as you go which is a huge plus considering that some other novel writing software programs such as Dramatica Pro require a lot of time reading and learning before you can really start using them effectively. In contrast to programs like Dramatica Pro, it’s written in plain English so you will understand the program and its focus from the beginning. Because it’s easy to use, it makes the process of developing your novel really fun.

Helps You Craft a Well-Written Novel That Is Compelling and Meaningful

NewNovelist novel writing software helps you create a rich storyline that resonates with readers at a basic level. It uses the Hero’s Journey archetype as the foundation for structuring your novel and walks you through each step of character creation and plot development using this model as the foundation. The Hero’s Journey model is not limited to the ancient quest type of story that you might think of when you hear the term. If you analyze most compelling and well-written novels, you’ll see that they conform to the Hero’s Journey structure quite well. The program gives you the choice to develop your novel in a variety of genres as well, i.e. contemporary, historical, romance, mystery, suspense, etc. NewNovelist novel writing software is a great choice for writers who want a resource that will walk you through the process of structuring your story according to this archetype that mirrors the essential human journey through life.

Lots of Great Features For Novelists

NewNovelist 2.0 walks you step-by-step through the process of creating interesting and dynamic characters, developing a compelling plot that resonates for you and your readers, and imagining all the interesting details of your novel’s world. Although it offers a lot of guidance as you go through the process, NewNovelist also has the flexibility to allow you to write your novel your own way as well. NewNovelist also has the advantage of being a word processing program, which the other programs I have reviewed here are not. With this feature, you can use the software to organize your writing and you can easily work on any section of the novel you wish, following your creative inspiration for the day. The newest version (2.0) has a spell-checker, thesaurus, and dictionary. And here’s a cool feature: it will read your writing back to you so you can hear how it sounds. It also has a character name generator and a first line generator to get the creative ideas flowing. And when you are ready, NewNovelist will generate a final version of your novel in publisher-ready format. Another big plus of this software is the price; compared to the others I review here, you really do get a lot of useful features that will help you craft a compelling, well-written novel step-by-step. To see how NewNovelist works for yourself, click here and scroll down to the View Demo link at the bottom of the page.