Originally posted April 5, 2007
According to Joseph Campbell, there are three phases to the hero’s journey in all great mythological stories: Separation, Initiation and Return. Looking at the novel I’ve recently started, I can see that the three phases are in place – I did this subconsciously. My character receives a call (literally), goes on the road where she goes through several rites of passage, and then returns home a stronger woman. What if my character didn’t come home or never left home in the first place – would I have a story? I’ve read that there has to be trouble for a story to happen. I suppose my character could get the call and let the machine pick it up – just stay home wondering what would have happened had she gone on the journey; watch American Idol and eat Sara Lee cheesecake. Not much of a story, I admit.
Years ago, I was working on a story about a rabid dog (I know, I know). I was trying to figure out which of my characters should shoot the dog, when I was introduced to “The Writer’s Journey,” by Christopher Vogler, based on Campbell’s philosophy. From Vogler’s list of archetypes, I could spot my hero, mentor, trickster, etc. According to Vogler, it was the hero who should face death as initiation – how could I have missed it? When I sent the story to an editor, she said it was cliché (imagine!). I’ve realized since then, that my hero did not have to “shoot the dog” to go through an initiation. Often an inner conflict is a more dramatically satisfying rite of passage than a spectacular one.
– Leslie Fox
Editor
Sari Krosinsky lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her partner and two cats.
She received a B.A. in religious studies and a M.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. Her poems have appeared in Poesia, Pebble Lake Review, The American Poetry Journal, Arsenic Lobster, Verse Daily, and others. Fiction Editor
Leslie Fox lived in Central America during her formative years and in New Mexico since the mid-70s – before it was cool.
She writes novels, short stories, plays, screenplays and creative nonfiction. Some of her short fiction has appeared in The Medical Muse, red. a journal of arts, Earth’s Daughters and Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection. She has a M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of New Mexico.Art Editor
Dianne Schlies is a practicing artist and has taught studio art since 1986. She received her M.F.A. from SMU at Dallas, Texas in 1990. She has studied or worked with David Bates, Mel Bochner, Squeak Carnwath, Harmony Hammond, Ed Harris, Joyce Kozloff, Mary Ellen Mark, Duane Michals and Robert Rauschenberg. Schlies presently teaches Drawing and 2-D Design in Albuquerque, New Mexico.