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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

A writer’s journey through the hero’s journey #amreading #amwriting

13/4/2021

4 Comments

 
What an honour to be name-checked in Charli’s post introducing the latest flash fiction challenge on rethinking the hero’s journey. Having been obsessed with my reservations about this story structure in the past, and equally obsessed with recording random ideas for the blog, I went to my drafts folder to look for something I could revise. Step forward Unheroic characters, grief, ambivalence and mourning. Right, okay? Except I find I’m no longer so obsessed. Never mind, some of what I dictated so earnestly a couple of years ago can be salvaged.
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In my 2018 post on Narrative structure, psychoanalytic theory and the grief that never goes , I outlined some of my reservations about the hero’s journey story structure, regarding the label of hero; the implication of choice; and the feel-good nature of the resolution. But I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater (a cliché that brings back fond memories of one of my psychology teachers). It might be an impossible dream, but I had hoped to find a narrative structure as gripping as the hero’s journey that recognises the non-heroic and gives a stronger role for ambivalence and mourning.
 
I found that in my reading of The Summer House as a dialogue between denial, manic reparation and true mourning. Is that the hero’s journey or something else?
 
I felt on firmer ground with my review of Should You Ask Me: a lovely story about a young police officer, injured in the Second World War, discovering unexpected solace in the ramblings of an elderly woman making an unlikely confession of murder. As he coaxes the story out of her, she insists he reciprocates with his own tragic tale. In the process, the young man and the older woman achieve some release from the lies and guilt that have haunted their lives. In hero’s journey terms, it’s about leaving the cave. It’s rather like a therapy – or co-therapy – without the anxiety-inducing boundary violations usually associated with therapy-lit.
 
I’d been reluctant to apply the structure to my own real life, until reflecting on my lengthy psychotherapy, as described in a post last year: The therapy journey and narrative structure.

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When I’m in a different frame of mind, I might write more on how and why I consider the protagonist of my forthcoming novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, to be heroic. I also think the hero’s journey story structure fits her narrative arc. As it ought to, for a novel with ‘home’ in the title, but that’s not how I envisaged it from the start.
 
I’m teetering on the edge of overwhelm right now, and have made it harder for myself by wanting to use my existing material but not spend the time it needs to make it sing. (And wanting to make sure I safeguard time for online choral singing.) So I was pleased when the prompt rescued me from taking myself too seriously and led me into silly territory for my 99-word story. It’s a BOTS, but I’ve never been potholing and doubt I ever will.
The elixir of pyjamas and citrus juice
 
HJ called to Writer. Writer rejected the call. “I’m a free spirit,” she claimed, plonking her characters in a featureless landscape without a map. Seeing them floundering, Ally asked questions. Listened. Reframed. Writer refused to control her characters, the novel more unwieldy with every draft.

Frustrated, she abandoned fiction for caving. When falling rocks blocked the exit, Buddy prescribed guided imagery to combat panic. “You’re home, safe in bed. What are you wearing? What are you drinking?” Writer envisioned pyjamas and citrus: PJ and OJ proved her elixir. She’ll plot the Protagonist’s cum Ordinary Person’s Journey if she survives.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
4 Comments
Charli Mills
15/4/2021 01:38:01 am

Love where you went with your flash, Anne! I appreciate the growth you nudge in me through thoughtful and open dialog about the HJ. Ultimately, we need some sort of framework. Even the earth is round and has dimensions. Maybe allowing our characters fllounder allows us the chance to become the Mentor, Cave and Elixir. The silliness of pajamas and citrus juice is actually a breakthrough!

Cheers (with juice) to all you are doing with preparation for book launch.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
16/4/2021 02:33:46 pm

Thanks, Charli, it's making me think about how it's having boundaries that enables us to play. And I wonder about the difference between planners and pantsers – the latter are probably closer to planners than they imagine if they have a strong sense of story structure, whether that's implicit or explicit.

Reply
Norah Colvin
9/5/2021 11:48:15 am

It's funny how sometimes we think that reworking an existing piece will take less mental effort and time than creating afresh. It's frustrating that it often doesn't.
Plonking characters onto a featureless landscape without a map must be like (I imagine) looking at a blank canvas without an idea. Where to start? Where to go? What to look out for? Charli mentions boundaries and I think that's true too. Often we need to know the rules to know how to break them - even HJs - they are lost without them.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
9/5/2021 03:59:02 pm

I wasn't even looking to save time, merely to find a home for something that I've waited far too long for a home. It might have been better to start with a blank canvas but I agree, boundaries help preserve our sanity.

Reply



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    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
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    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

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    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

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    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
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    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
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    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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