Friction Addiction

I haven’t been posting on Ye Olde Blog as much as usual, but I have the best excuse: I’ve been spending most of my spare time mapping out my novel.

As important as the experience of NaNoWriMo was for me, the finished product was not a masterpiece. It was, however, a jumping off point to what’s proving to be a wild, not to mention educational, ride.

While rewriting, I’ve consulted a good many books on writing and story. They’re all useful to some extent, but for whatever reason, they haven’t done much to stoke the fire in my belly.

I’ve always known that if I ever wrote fiction again, I would use mythic story structure, whether deliberately or not.  Myth, archetype, Jungian psychology, Jospeh Campbell - reading that stuff is like whacking a great big gong inside my body.

So a few years ago, when I heard of The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler, the title of which is homage to Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, I was really excited.

Imagine my bummer when, a few weeks later, the book was on the shelf and I was searching again. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a great book. But something about the somber,  Encyclopedic way it’s written doesn’t engage my creative mind.

Then last week I found The Key: How To Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth, by James N. Frey¹ and I haven’t stopped writing since. It’s the same information as in Vogler’s book, but Frey’s presentation of it is apparently tailor-made for my persnickity right brain.

Seriously, I couldn’t sleep last night for the non-stop brain babbling. This monomyth stuff is Muse crack.

Why did this book set on fire what others had left cold? Probably because it appeals to my nonlinear psyche, which is where creativity lies.

Most books instruct you thus: “Sit down at your desk and do the following in order: Pick an Idea. Create a Cast of Characters. Outline Your Plot’s Beginning, Middle and End. Write Out Each Scene. If you are consistent, you will eventually have a Novel.”

That kind of linear 1+2=3, while great for accounting, is a fiction flatline for me.

My creative process, I’ve learned, is not walking a line but riding a spiral. I grab the tail of an inspiration, a “germ of an idea,” and go where it takes me. I have to let it go wherever it wants; if I try to direct it, it sputters and stalls.

Mythic structure, apparently, is jet fuel. And the faster I go, the hotter it gets. My Muse says I’m spoiling her for other writers.

Technorati Tags: writing, creativity, James N. Frey, monomyth, The Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell, archetypes

1. Not to be confused with disgraced James “Faker” Frey of A Million Easy Pieces. [↩]

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