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. 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.