Aspiring Writer Looking for a Mentor

[Devon Carver]

Hi, I'm looking for someone to mentor me about mythology and the Hero's Journey. Is anyone knowledgeable about these fields?

 

[pmmg]

Well...discussions on those topics come up again and again on the site. If you are an active member and get involved, something like mentoring will happen all on its own. Here, like anywhere, the more you put in, the more you get out.

I am not up for mentoring anyone, but I will give my thoughts on such topics as they come up.

 

[skip.knox]

Hi, I'm looking for someone to mentor me about mythology and the Hero's Journey. Is anyone knowledgeable about these fields?

What research have you done so far? Perhaps say what it is you *do* know, and that will help others decide if they can help with what you do not know.

 

[Jackarandajam]

@josephcampbell where you at, somebody looking for you over here.

 

[pmmg]

Mr Campbell is pretty tough to read.

Maybe someone who can explain him better than himself.

I'll sum up. Mr Campbell looked around at a lot of mythologies and went...hey....These seem to have something in common. He called that the monomyth, From the monomyth, he put together the heroes journey on the common elements heroes had across all those myths.

But he also meandered all over the place.


Personally, I would not want to tackle the subject as Campbell and mythology. I'd prefer to study either mythology, or the heroes journey separately. Campbell would probably squeeze the life out of mythology if he was my starting point. And I dont need to know the myths to follow a heroes journey template in writing.


This thread is in the wrong spot. Maybe writing discussions.

 

[Muan142]

Honestly, discussions of the heroes journey sort of start with an understanding of Platonism. Read The Republic cover to cover. Then the Phaedro. Listen to lectures on Plotinus. Read Aristotle’s Ethics, Politics, and Poetry. Then Augustine. Probably after that Nietzsche and Freud. Then Jung. Then Campbell. At the same time digest myths from every culture you can. The primary texts, not modernizations or interpretations. Theres a lot you can learn about technique from ancient texts. I know you want to jump in, but if you go right at it you end up with a very superficial understanding that isn’t going to work. It needs to seep into your blood. This isn’t something you absolutely need anyway, the monomyth comes out naturally if you’ve read enough stories and listened to enough music. Oh I forgot, listen to and study music. But understanding the heroes journey is good for analyzing what other stories are doing and why it works and adapting that into your own.

 

[Jackarandajam]

Hi, I'm looking for someone to mentor me about mythology and the Hero's Journey. Is anyone knowledgeable about these fields?

Maybe a more specific question.
Is there a particular mythology you're interested in?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Hi, I'm looking for someone to mentor me about mythology and the Hero's Journey. Is anyone knowledgeable about these fields?

Besides the fact that I am, this isn't an area where you need a mentor. What you need is to sit your butt down with a pile of books in your e-reader and by your side. There is a ton of interest in the Hero's Journey, and so there is a metric fu@ckton of articles and papers out there picking it apart. If you're a college student and have access to Morphius and JSTOR, you've got it made. (God, I miss JSTOR)

Also, Campbell isn't a hard read. Bit dense and bit boring, but readable and gleanable. If you're interested in writing a Hero's Journey structure, you need a copy of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Really, all of us should, just to cover our bases. It just released in e-book a few months ago, so you're in luck. It's searchable, now! lol

Now, you want mythology and the Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey is essentially just a type of story structure that has become cross-cultural over the millennia. It's the original 'the same thing, only different.' There are many elements that you'll recognize from other stories, only now you're learning where they go and why they go there.

Mythology. That covers an incredible amount of ground. Care to be specific? Clarity is gold in this business.

 

[skip.knox]

This happens regularly, and not just here. When I had all my history courses online, I would get emails from random students--often high schoolers--asking me to educate them (briefly!) about the Crusades, or the Black Death, or English medieval history. What research had they done so far, I would ask.

Crickets.

Or, in a somewhat peevish tone, a reply along the lines of that's why I'm asking *you*.

Here, we get things like, can someone help me with marketing? Or, how do I get an agent? Or other hugely huge topics. The troo noob is noob enough they don't even know the scope of the question they're asking. That's fine. We are all noobs with regard to something, and we likely have all asked such a question. It can be difficult not to become exasperated with the eleventy-fifth iteration, but that latest person doesn't know they're the latest in a long, dreary line. So we try to be nice. I'm not really up to nice today, so instead I'll offer this.

One of my very favorite cartoon strips comes from Charles Schulz (Peanuts). In it, the little red-haired girl is at her desk in school, taking a test. The test question reads: Explain World War II.

The final panel has this timeless addendum: use both sides of the paper if necessary.

 

[Devon Carver]

Besides the fact that I am, this isn't an area where you need a mentor. What you need is to sit your butt down with a pile of books in your e-reader and by your side. There is a ton of interest in the Hero's Journey, and so there is a metric fu@ckton of articles and papers out there picking it apart. If you're a college student and have access to Morphius and JSTOR, you've got it made. (God, I miss JSTOR)

Also, Campbell isn't a hard read. Bit dense and bit boring, but readable and gleanable. If you're interested in writing a Hero's Journey structure, you need a copy of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Really, all of us should, just to cover our bases. It just released in e-book a few months ago, so you're in luck. It's searchable, now! lol

Now, you want mythology and the Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey is essentially just a type of story structure that has become cross-cultural over the millennia. It's the original 'the same thing, only different.' There are many elements that you'll recognize from other stories, only now you're learning where they go and why they go there.

Mythology. That covers an incredible amount of ground. Care to be specific? Clarity is gold in this business.

Dear A.E. Lowan,
Thank you for responding to me. I have read The Hero with a Thousnd Faces. It's one of my favorite books. The reason I'm interested in it is because I want to write a new mythology that's timeless, capable of being understood by anyone, regardless of what time or culture they come from.

Sincerely,
Devon Carver

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Dear A.E. Lowan,
Thank you for responding to me. I have read The Hero with a Thousnd Faces. It's one of my favorite books. The reason I'm interested in it is because I want to write a new mythology that's timeless, capable of being understood by anyone, regardless of what time or culture they come from.

Sincerely,
Devon Carver

A lofty goal, indeed. If that's what you intend, you have a lot of work to do. Tolkien had similar goals, to create a mythos that was for Britain. Britain - in any of its forms - has had literature repeatedly stolen and claimed by others. Tolkien figured the coast was clear, and so we have The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

And an apocrypha with entire languages in it.

The amount of work you'll need to do this is intimidating, but it's mostly because I'm making some assumptions about your experience with folklore and legend. But! a pretty reliable metric is that the higher your goals, the deeper your knowledge. And with mythologies like you want to create, get a shovel because you're going to be at this for a while.

So, why mythology? Why not just rehash old conlangs instead of putting in every free second? It's a lot easier.

 

[Devon Carver]

Besides the fact that I am, this isn't an area where you need a mentor. What you need is to sit your butt down with a pile of books in your e-reader and by your side. There is a ton of interest in the Hero's Journey, and so there is a metric fu@ckton of articles and papers out there picking it apart. If you're a college student and have access to Morphius and JSTOR, you've got it made. (God, I miss JSTOR)

Also, Campbell isn't a hard read. Bit dense and bit boring, but readable and gleanable. If you're interested in writing a Hero's Journey structure, you need a copy of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Really, all of us should, just to cover our bases. It just released in e-book a few months ago, so you're in luck. It's searchable, now! lol

Now, you want mythology and the Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey is essentially just a type of story structure that has become cross-cultural over the millennia. It's the original 'the same thing, only different.' There are many elements that you'll recognize from other stories, only now you're learning where they go and why they go there.

Mythology. That covers an incredible amount of ground. Care to be specific? Clarity is gold in this business.

A lofty goal, indeed. If that's what you intend, you have a lot of work to do. Tolkien had similar goals, to create a mythos that was for Britain. Britain - in any of its forms - has had literature repeatedly stolen and claimed by others. Tolkien figured the coast was clear, and so we have The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

And an apocrypha with entire languages in it.

The amount of work you'll need to do this is intimidating, but it's mostly because I'm making some assumptions about your experience with folklore and legend. But! a pretty reliable metric is that the higher your goals, the deeper your knowledge. And with mythologies like you want to create, get a shovel because you're going to be at this for a while.

So, why mythology? Why not just rehash old conlangs instead of putting in every free second? It's a lot easier.

Dear A.E. Lowan,

Thank you again for responding to me. I chose mythology because it's timeless. Just look at Greek mythology and how much it's inspired artists and storytellers all over the world for millennia. Also, I don't know what you mean by rehashing old conlangs.

Sincerely,
Devon Carver

 

[Finchbearer]

Hi, I'm looking for someone to mentor me about mythology and the Hero's Journey. Is anyone knowledgeable about these fields?

I’d suggest looking into Tolkien and his approaches to using Anglo Saxon and Norse mythology to influence his writing style. He was also inspired by Arthurian legend which is pretty much the original heroes journey. Tolkien also started a new and exciting era of fantasy fiction writing.

 

[skip.knox]

If you read a particular mythology--let us say Greek--then what you yourself come up with is going to be conditioned by that. You'll either imitate it, extend it, or contradict it.

How many mythologies do you mean to study before you start writing?

What, in your opinion, constitutes sufficient study? One book? A hundred books? Reading just the myths themselves or also adding commentaries and academic studies?

Finally, what to your mind is a mythology? Are you talking specifically about gods and stories concerning gods? Or does it extend to popular beliefs (superstitions), stories about legendary heroes, and so on?

What you propose to do is ambitious enough; it would be good to try to be more specific about the scope.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Dear A.E. Lowan,

Thank you again for responding to me. I chose mythology because it's timeless. Just look at Greek mythology and how much it's inspired artists and storytellers all over the world for millennia. Also, I don't know what you mean by rehashing old conlangs.

Sincerely,
Devon Carver

A conlang is a constructed language. Yet another skill that is not in my wheelhouse. Tolkien took a passionate and brilliant obsession with the literature and folklore that surrounding societies had, but Britain, for various reasons, did not. So, he set out to fix that, and as a result we have the languages of the Lord of the Rings.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Language-Invention-Horse-Lords-World-Building-ebook/dp/B00TY3ZMVG/

 

[Ban]

One of my very favorite cartoon strips comes from Charles Schulz (Peanuts). In it, the little red-haired girl is at her desk in school, taking a test. The test question reads: Explain World War II.

The final panel has this timeless addendum: use both sides of the paper if necessary.

An emperor, a painter and a pasta-hating Italian walk into a bar with their motley entourage. Inside they cause a ruckus, until a man in a wheelchair, a chainsmoking bulldog, the world's most French Frenchman and a Georgian bankrobber kick them out with help from their own posse.

All in one paragraph! Didn't study Europe for nothing

 

[Devon Carver]

I’d suggest looking into Tolkien and his approaches to using Anglo Saxon and Norse mythology to influence his writing style. He was also inspired by Arthurian legend which is pretty much the original heroes journey. Tolkien also started a new and exciting era of fantasy fiction writing.

Dear Finchbearer,

Thank you for responding to me. I have looked into Tolkien's work and have read much of it. I love Tolkien's work very much, and it will influence my writing.

Sincerely,
Devon Carver

 

[Devon Carver]

A conlang is a constructed language. Yet another skill that is not in my wheelhouse. Tolkien took a passionate and brilliant obsession with the literature and folklore that surrounding societies had, but Britain, for various reasons, did not. So, he set out to fix that, and as a result we have the languages of the Lord of the Rings.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Language-Invention-Horse-Lords-World-Building-ebook/dp/B00TY3ZMVG/

Dear A. E. Lowann,

Thank you for responding to me. Why did you recommend rehashing old conlangs?

Sincerely,
Devon Carver

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Dear A. E. Lowann,

Thank you for responding to me. Why did you recommend rehashing old conlangs?

Sincerely,
Devon Carver

Not so much recommend as mention is an option. And because it's easy. And when you're looking down the barrel of a plot gone amuck, easy can look pretty good.

 

[Jackarandajam]

One of my very favorite cartoon strips comes from Charles Schulz (Peanuts). In it, the little red-haired girl is at her desk in school, taking a test. The test question reads: Explain World War II.

An emperor, a painter and a pasta-hating Italian walk into a bar with their motley entourage. Inside they cause a ruckus, until a man in a wheelchair, a chainsmoking bulldog, the world's most French Frenchman and a Georgian bankrobber kick them out with help from their own posse.

I KNOW I KNOW. funny though.