Aloha!
I will be running a workshop on How to Write Archetypal Fiction, Thursdays 7-8 PM starting Sept 6. These will be at Small Town Coffee. This will cover the ground I have been gradually describing in this blog.
I actually am a doctor, but of medieval literature not medicine. I have a BA, MA and PhD, which we used to say means "Piled Higher Deeper." Maybe it's true, but I certainly have a lot of information about how a great story is put together, which I learned while studying each century of English literature from the 9th c. to the 20th century.
But what is it good for? Over the last thirteen years I have figured out that classic story structure conceals coded instructions on how to live your life so you feel successful and happy.
The first workshop (Sept. 6) is a free overview of the three archetypal journeys -- one to fame and fortune, one to re-union with Mother Earth, and one to wholeness and the happiness it brings.
Each covers the same seven steps in different ways, and together they make a tremendous tool-box for the writer, or for anyone involved in a struggle for fame and fortune, for reunion with Mother Earth, or for wholeness and happiness.
Sept 13 the 21-Thursday Workshop starts. On each Thursday from 7-8 PM at Small Town Coffee, there will be readings from whoever will participate, a chance to comment and react to the writer, and short presentations of different steps in the journeys. I'll read from the story I am writing if no-one else volunteers, and I will undertake responsibility to prepare and perform the presentations.
Each journey covers 7 steps, and there are three journeys, so it will take 21 Thursdays to cover them all.
The first 7 Thursdays (Sept. 13 - Oct. 25) will be spent on the ever-popular Hero's Journey to fame and fortune, which is the basis of most stories written or filmed in Western civilization.
The next 7 Thursdays (Nov. 1 - Dec. 20; no workshop Thanksgiving Day) will cover the Heroine's Journey, which is the Vision Quest or return to the Earth to contact the spirit(s) that dwell therein.
The final 7 Thursdays are all in 2013 (no workshop Dec. 27; Jan 3 - February 14). They will cover the spiritual journey to wholeness and direct experience of the Sacred.
The last one, on Valentine's Day 2013, will be a Lover's Special about living with personal wholeness and how it changes who we are in the world by awakening in our hearts a burning need to help others on their way. This makes us better partners and better parents, because we want to help. The gifts we give shine because they are not grudgingly given.
Since I have spent twenty years figuring this out, and will draw continuously on my 3 degrees in English literature, I will require a small fee -- $25 / class, divided by the number of people present (not including myself). So, if 5 people show up, that's $5 each. If 25 people show up it will be a dollar apiece! I will remind everybody about this before we start each class.
See you at Small Town Coffee, Thursday Sept. 6 7-8 PM for the free overview of the three journeys. This alone can give you a hundred handy hints on how things work in literature as in life, that you can put to work in the pages of your story, and in your experiences in the world.
Dr. Matt
