W
.L. Hawkin
Plotting Your Novel Using Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey
WW: I love your tag line for this series: “Meet the Hollystone witches—a Wicca coven who solve murders using ritual magic and a little help from the gods.” I’m curious about how you arrived at using the Mythic Hero Journey to structure your novels. WLH: Thirty years ago I ran into Joseph Campbell’s work and just started reading everything I could find by him. He became a mentor for me. What I found later was that his work on the hero’s journey, which is brilliant, is kind of inaccessible because he’s such a scholar, right? It’s deep reading. Then I read Christopher Vogler’s book—he took Joseph Campbell’s work and made it accessible to everybody. He’s a Hollywood screenwriter. His book is called The Writer’s Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers. It’s a really great book, and I find that if I have some inkling of a project I want to do, I start reading his book and it just all starts to fall into place. It’s a very inspirational tool. WW: You suggest that this model can be used for other forms of writing too—mystery and romance? WLH: It is a really flexible structure and I use it really flexibly myself—is that a word, “flexibly”?—maybe it is now. I know this structure so well in my head. Once you learn it you start analyzing movies as you’re watching—Oh, the cat’s out of the bag … I see what they’re doing there. Okay. I understand that. My favourite part of the whole hero’s journey is the ordeal scene where the hero looks like they’re going to die or lose. 12 WORDWORKS ︱ 2020 Volume III
WW: Where can I send readers to learn about your workshops? WLH: I have detailed outlines and flow charts including examples of the hero’s journey structure in movies at https://prezi.com/p/edit/v_k4w1ac-xps/ Anyone can see them there for free. WW: So generous, Wendy. Before I let you go, can you tell us about the latest covers? Beautiful! WLH: You know, it’s so amazing because the young woman who did those, Yasaman Mohandesi, I was doing a lot of work with her last year in mediumship and psychic development. I knew she was a graphic artist, so I texted her and said, Would you be interested in doing the covers? We sat down in a brainstorm Zoom meeting and came up with the series Tattoo Editions. I wrote a journal entry about the process here: bluehavenpress.com. Aren’t they stunning? WW: Yes, I agree! I love all three of them. Thanks for doing this with me Wendy.
