The Hero's Inner Journey

Merry Christmas to my Seeker sisters and all our Seeker friends! I hope you have a happy and blessed holiday, visit with family and friends, eat lots of goodies but not gain an ounce and anticipate a successful writing year ahead.

Before I finish the last of the gift wrapping and bake a batch of cookies, I’d like to share some really great information from a set of DVD’s I’ve just listened to. They’re called The Hero’s Two Journeys by Michael Hauge, author of Writing Screenplays that Sell and Chris Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey. Even though the workshop is designed more for screenwriters and playwrights, novelists can benefit, as well. I sure did, and no, they’re not paying me to say that!

The two journeys are the hero’s outer journey and his inner journey. The outer one is the plot, the journey of achievement. It’s the visible story. The inner journey is the internal growth, the story of fulfillment.

Hauge talks about how during the course of the story the hero progresses from fear to courage, from being defined by others to being defined by himself. That’s what hero’s do—they grow inside and become better, stronger, wiser etc. More heroic, obviously. The obstacles to this growth come from within the hero.

When the writer begins to develop her character, she needs to give him a longing—a deeply felt desire. But the character is only paying lip service because he’s really too frightened to go after it. They lack the courage to go after it. An example that may hit too close to home—a writer who wants to be published more than anything in the world, but lacks the courage to submit his manuscript because he can’t handle the possibility of rejection.

The character has already suffered a wound and hasn’t gotten over it. She suffers this unhealed source of continuing pain throughout the story. This suffering may be from an event or an on-going situation.

Out of that wound comes a fear that the character tries to protect herself against. He can’t get too close to another character. Out of that fear comes the character’s identity. She says in effect, “This is who I am,” but she’s really not presenting her true self—her true essence. She’s putting on a persona, a false front, a mask, the armor that keeps us from experiencing the pain of who we are and being wounded again.

Her armor protects her, but it doesn’t allow her to be who she really is. So the growth occurs when the character gives up her armor. Her inner journey is from identity to essence, from death to life. It’s a process, not a moment in time. And this is a tug of war between protection and risk.
All this intertwines with the hero’s outer journey.

Hauge identifies four character types: the hero, reflection (mentor, sidekick, best friend), nemesis and romantic interest.

The romantic character is the object of the hero’s pursuit and the reward from moving from identity to essence. The hero and heroine both see beneath each other’s identity and understand their true essence and beauty. It’s the other’s essence that they find so attractive.

He sees the character going through six different stages in his inner journey.

Stage 1—He’s living in his protective identity.
Stage 2—He gets a glimpse of his true essence and what life could be like if he lived in his essence.
Stage 3—He moves toward his essence without losing his identity. He’s not fully committed.
Stage 4—He’s now into essence, fully committed, but in fear.
Stage 5—He and the heroine now separate and all is lost. The outside world has intruded. He tries to retreat to his identity, but it doesn’t work any longer. He realizes he must have his romantic partner.
Stage 6—He’s living in essence. His journey/destiny is complete. His identity is dead, but his essence lives. He now defines himself. And he gets the girl. The End.

Merry Christmas!