The Heroine's Journey
I'm reading at the moment The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger.
Tired of the hero’s journey?
Frustrated that funny, romantic, and comforting stories aren’t taken seriously?
Sad that the books and movies you love never seem to be critically acclaimed, even when they sell like crazy?
It's a very readable book, fun actually, uses a lot of examples from movies such as Twilight, but for me the most interesting point she made was that the heroine's story revolves very much around... her friends! Whereas Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey (yes, I have the book but it's a bit more of a slog to read) is about a man fighting obstacles on his own and so on, our heroine relies very much on the friends, her network, to help her through. And keep her sane. And be a shoulder to cry on... And help her solve her problems... and all that kind of thing. It's a team effort.
I was thinking about that because in the Bluebell Road series, the friends (that is, the flatmates) are an important part of the story. The network of the heroine is important and features very much as part of the life of the characters. An interesting comment Gail Carriger makes in The Heroine's Journey is that in Harry Potter, while Harry is biologically male, it is very much the heroine's journey. Likewise, Wonderwoman is the hero's journey, so gender isn't relevant here.
It's well worth getting hold of a copy to see what she talks about, and, like the hero's journey, there are a ton of references to the classics and mythology. Gail breaks it down really well. There is also an interesting interview with the author on The Creative Penn website.
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