From Feb 2017
I'm working my way back through the fundamentals of storytelling, watching critiques on movies as well as refamiliarising myself with Campbell's Hero's Journey principle.
I see this stage of my dubious career as an author as a step over a threshold. Signing a contract and trusting your work to a publisher is not unlike a leap of faith, but people forget part of the journey is returning home changed for the experience, be it for better or worse.
If you've ever wanted a beautiful version of the journey, I recommend Michael Ende's The Neverending Story. The movie adaptation doesn't quite nail it, the book itself is poetic and more profound in its message. The unlikely protagonist, pudgy and unremarkable Bastian Balthazar Bux, gets far more than he bargains for by stealing the book. Far into his adventures in Fantasia (beyond where the movie leaves you) our hero quite literally loses himself and his identity. And our damsel in distress, the supposedly helpless Childlike Empress, has to do much more than wait in her Ivory Tower for the hero to save her. Bastian returns to the realm of normality a different boy, having made sacrifices to save himself long after he saves Fantasia from the Nothing.
The main reason these stories resonate with us is the fact the hero with a thousand faces is linked to the human journey. We face these challenges more often than we realise, reconciling with friends we've fought with, reconnecting with estranged family members. Owning up to our own mistakes and flaws. Taking on a task that seems insurmountable and succeeding despite all the hurdles in our path. Every life is a road of trials in of itself.
I'm relatively okay with this part, where the unknown beckons, though I recoil at times out of genuine fear of exposing myself. I'm in a limbo stage right now, further ahead but still waiting for the next trial to begin. How I'll be on the other side is anyone's guess. I'll be changed either way, that much is certain.
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