The Hero[ine]'s Journey

Some of you will know that I love to write. I've had three non-fiction books published, and my first novel has been accepted for publication.  I spend a lot of my spare time either writing, or reading and learning about how other people write.

My son is also a writer and we have a shared interest in fantasy as a genre. I adore reading fantasy, and would love to try my hand at writing one, one day. My son has recently introduced me to a series of lectures on You Tube by fantasy writer, Brandon Sanderson, and I'm finding them fascinating.

He has an entertaining lecture style and I've learned heaps from him, about worldbuilding and how to create a convincing magical system. Yesterday evening, I was watching his podcast about characterisation, and one of the things that came up was the hero's journey. This is a trope made famous by Joseph Campbell, and is a plot outline much loved by fantasy writers: Ordinary person is taken from his ordinary life by a wise mentor, goes on a great quest with some companions to achieve / find something, undergoing various ordeals and tests on the way, then comes back home, somewhat changed.

This week's quotation, by George Moore, really reminded me of this: "Man travels the world in search of what he lacks. And he returns home, to find it."

I believe that we don't actually need to undertake a physical journey, to be changed in this way. I think that the spiritual journey has much in common with this hero's journey. A person is dissatisfied with their everyday life, realising that something is lacking, and starts to explore new ways of being in the world. They meet a wise mentor (in my case, the Unitarian minister, Rev Hilton Birtles) read some wise books, talk with people a lot, and along the way, are changed. They then come home to themselves and the divine, and realise that the sacred was there in their lives all the time.