A journey through a young writer's heart
And here I
am, once again, embarking on yet another adventure. I begin to see a pattern
here. It seems to be my kind of thing to go on adventures. ;-P Fortunately it
never gets old and every time it's a new and unique experience. Just like the
heroes in our beloved stories I am curious to see what's out there and make my
own way in the world. I love to travel, see new things and take them in, which hopefully
also feeds into my writing.
This time my
voyage is special indeed: It is geared towards becoming a writer. I say
'becoming' because I still can't quite claim this title for myself. I
still feel I have to earn this most honourable title. For now, I'm just a
fanciful scribbler. I will have to complete all the stages of the hero's/writer's
journey to return with the elixir of wisdom that only a year doing this Professional
Writing MA will give me, so I can strike out on a new adventure entering the merciless
corporate world out there.
But let's
stay in the here and now and let me give you a short explanation of 'The Hero's journey',
which is basically a structure for storytelling derived from ancient myths. It
consists of twelve stages that mark various events within the story. In his
book, The Writer's Journey - Mythic Structures for Writers, Christopher
Vogler argues that writers and quite frankly anyone of us may undergo such a
journey; hence, that this structure can also be applied to the stories of our
lives as well as our characters. As a story addict I can only agree. ^^ It is
quite easy to apply this theory to my experiences in another country doing a
degree to pursue a career in writing.
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I left the Ordinary
World - Austria (stage 1) and followed the Call to Adventure (stage
2) to come to Falmouth to study a Professional Writing MA. It always feels
magical to me to come over to the UK and live here. Even the second time around
(and having lived in Ireland twice as well) it still feels like I'm going to
the land of my dreams (probably the closest thing to Middle Earth next to New
Zealand ;-P). Here in the UK I feel more like I will actually be able to live
my dream whereas in Austria I will always feel confined in a way. This is not
to say that I don't miss certain aspects of living in Austria but there are
more opportunities for me here. And it is part of the "hero's burden"
to want more than just the Ordinary World and to leave the confines of his or
her home behind to explore the world. The hero's need to push forward drives
the story on. By coming here, I keep pushing myself in the right direction and move
forward in the story of my life.
You could
say I left out stage 3 Refusal of the Call, though, I have to admit that
I had tiny doubts before I came over. There would be an annoying little voice
in the back of my head asking, if I was really up for this challenge. But this
shouldn't even be worth mentioning, since I never actually listened to that
nasty little bugger and was more than happy to take up this challenge. To do
anything else would have been impossible for me and I am endlessly grateful for
this chance. So, let's conclude that I skipped stage 3. ;-)
I suppose
where I am right now is somewhere between Meeting with the Mentor and Crossing
the Threshold. I finally met my fellow writers on the course and the writers
who will be teaching us. They're all great people and we were already thrown right
into it and had to work together on a creative project. At the start of the
week we were just 21 strangers in a room with a common passion for writing but
by the end of it we had all become writing buddies and friends.
Around the
topic of arrival, we had to write short memoirs of a moment we had arrived
somewhere in our lives. The result was a diverse mix of stories of arrival.
Titled 'Something to Declare', our stories were aired on the local radio
station, after we had the chance to work in a recording studio giving voice to
our own texts. It was an amazing experience and I enjoyed every last bit of
it. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to radio plays and adaptations for radio on BBC
Radio 4 in the last couple of years, so I was particularly excited about this
project. You can have a listen here, in case you've missed it. ;-P
I think I
am still at the verge of Crossing the Threshold and I am still getting
to know my Mentors. All I can say for now is that I am eager to see what will
happen in the next stages and following this week's creative project I am
confident that I am indeed up for this challenge!
Check out our blog about Something to Declare to read more about our project along the way or find us on Twitter @StoDeclare!
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