Post by Steven Barnes on Sept 23, 2004 12:48:15 GMT -5
LIFEWRITING NEWSLETTER
Fall, 2004
This is the last Lifewriting Newsletter I’ll be doing from the Northwest, and as such, there is a flavor of change about it. I originally moved to Washington from California nine years ago, on the theory that I would never know who I was if I lived my entire life in one place. Whether that was accurate or not, the changes witin that time period are so profound that I cannot begin to catalog them.
One thing, however, seems clear to me: the entire “Lifewriting” idea that I’ve been playing with for some fifteen years now seems to be a mature technology. This I was uncertain of until the recent teaching gig at the Maui Writer’s Workshop. For those of you unfamiliar, the Maui Writer’s Workshop takes place every labor day on the eponymous island, in a setting of unbelievable beauty. And some of the very finest students and teachers in the world collect there for ten days of grueling work.
Here, for the first time, I presented the complete “Lifewriting” model, and the response was phenomenal. That response has encouraged me, at last, to plan to write the book on the subject that I began almost ten years ago, and put down because of Chris Vogler’s terrific book “The Writer’s Journey”. Chris’ insights into the link between Campbell’s model of the Hero’s Journey and the craft of writing were dead on the money, and I thought nothing else needed to be done.
But I see now that connecting those two things was only the beginning of what the universe wanted me to do…this goes way beyond.
So…I wanted to do a couple of things here. First, to lay out the basic framework of the complete theory. Then, over the next however many newsletters, to explain and explore. I want to invite those on this list to post to the discussion group, or the mailing list (both of which can be found at http://www.lifewrite.com) any comments, questions, or requests concerning all of this. I feel as if this knowledge is flowing through me, not coming from me, and I want to have as little ego as possible about this.
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Of course, first we begin with the Hero’s Journey. For the uninitiated, this can be expressed as:
1) Hero confronted with a challenge
2) Hero Rejects the challenge
3) Allowed (or force) to accept the challenge
4) Hero sets out on the “road of trials”
5) Meets allies and gains powers along the way.
6) Initial confrontation with evil, during which he is defeated.
7) Entering the dark night of the soul. This is when it seems that all abilities are insufficient to meet the task at hand.
8) Takes the leap of faith. This is always faith in one of three things: a) a higher power, b) friends and companions, c) in self.
9) Confront evil again, and this time evil is defeated
10) The student becomes the teacher.
Now, then. The theory is that this pattern can be found all over the world, in all world literature and spoken story, because it represents the actual course of the human life.
The implications of this are obvious, I hope: we can use it not only to describe the pattern of a piece of fiction, but also to diagram the process of writing itself, or the process of our lives.
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But this is only half of the puzzle. People often debate which is more important: plot or characterization? But this is a trick question. Plot IS characterization. A plot is nothing more than what a given character does in a given situation. So what is the best way to address this? I choose another piece of ancient wisdom, the yogic chakras. They suggest that there are seven basic levels to the human personality, which must be addressed in order, to create a healthy human being.
1) Survival
2) Sexuality
3) Power
4) Emotion
5) Communication
6) Intellect
7) Spirit.
If this is too much to try to remember, just think of the “Big Three”—body, mind, and spirit. Now, again, this is not only the structure of characterization, it is also the way a writer must organize her resources in order to create or complete a project. Or what a human being must handle in order to be a free and autonomous citizen/philosopher.
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Imagine an equilateral triangle. Such a thing exists ONLY in the imagination. In reality, you can never create one—there is always variance. The same is true of our lives. We can try to keep them “perfectly” balanced, but such balance only exists in a Platonic, idealistic sense. Still, if you imagine a triangle, with each of the different sides representing an aspect of your life, if you are honest you’ll see it skew badly in one direction or another. The goal is to make it as close to even as possible, not beat yourself to death because it ain’t perfect.
This doesn’t require spending equal time on all three. But it does, I think require a minimum expenditure in each direction, just to maintain a forward progress. What is the minimum with the body? I’d guess about twenty minutes. Link the “Five Tibetans” and the “Five minute miracle” (checking in with your body five times a day, at every hour divisible by 3, for a minute of breathing practice) and you have a pretty decent basic program. Around an hour a day, and you max out the cost/benefit ratio.
Minimum with spirit/emotion? I’d say around an hour. Meditation and time with your loved ones is precious. But twenty minutes is better than nothing.
Minimum with mind/career? I’d say around an hour, again. Balancing checkbooks, reading mind-improving material, etc…it feels right to me, but twenty minutes is better than nothing.
So what we have is a range of 1-3 hours to keep your life, heart, body, and spirit healthy and moving forward. A person who consistently falls beneath this range is probably going to run into serious trouble in her life.
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The “Golden Hour” concept is a way of insuring that every day you can move toward your goal. For a writer, that might be 1/2 hour of exercise or meditation (on alternate days). During this time, a “book on tape” might play in the background. Then in the second half hour, you might alternate days of creating rough draft and polishing. If you don’t stop to correct or spell-check, you can learn to do 1000 words in a half hour. The next day you correct it. The result? You can train yourself to write 3000 words a week. That’s 150,000 words a year, folks, a big, meaty novel. In just 1/2 hour a day, IF you learn how to set up your subconscious.
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What are the other applications of this idea? Endless. All you have to do is see where you are in the hero’s journey, to determine the resources you are likely to need next. Then take a look at the way you are balanced/imbalanced in your life (the chakras, or the triangle of balance). Wherever you are most imbalanced, that’s where you are bleeding energy, and that is why you are stuck. Close your eyes and look at that triangle. Which way does it lurch? Be scathingly honest with yourself, and looking at both of these tools, Hero’s Journey and Chakras, will show you where you need to work to continue your forward progress in life, or deepen your satisfaction with your job, family, and health.
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This is non-dogmatic. It requires no religious beliefs, and is extremely testable. No one created it: the truth or falsehood of these ideas has been sitting in plain sight for thousands of years.
Once you see these two halves, and the method of joining them (“The Golden Hour”) you can modify it in a thousand ways, but please please please always come back to the balance point.
At any rate, this is the complete system. I’ll begin to address aspects of it in the months to come, as well as finally write that book.
Just wanted to share!
Much love to you all,
Steve
