The Hero’s Journey and the Tarot Major Arcana

Posted C. LaVielle6 CommentsPosted in Tarot

Christopher Vogler literally wrote the book on the Hero’s Journey—with lots of help from the Myths of several cultures and Joseph Campbell. The Writer’s Journey gives the recipe for recreating this universal and timeless tale. His ingredients are a list of stages in the journey (pieces that must appear in the plot line) and a list of archetypes (character types that are necessary to drive the plot). Put ‘em together and, “bippity, boppity, boo”, you’ve got a story!

The Stages of the Hero’s Journey
1. The Ordinary World
2. The Call to Adventure
3. Refusal of the Call
4. Meeting with the Mentor
5. Crossing the First Threshold
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies
7. Approach to the Inmost Cave
8. Ordeal
9. Reward (Seizing the sword)
10. The Road Back
11. Resurrection
12. Return with the Elixer

The Archetypes
Hero
Mentor
Threshold Guardian
Herald
Shapeshifter
Shadow
Ally
Trickster

So, I got about this far in telling my Nearest and Dearest what the next blog was going to be about and he went ballistic. Way shortened version: “I hate it when people insist on taking a beautiful thing and breaking it down into its parts. It takes away the mystery and totally ruins it. A thing is more than the sum of its parts! Can’t you just leave it alone and enjoy it?”

Of course you can. A deep understanding and appreciation of this story arc is hardwired into the psyche of every culture on earth. This is the basic plot line of most of western literature. But that’s also why it’s so important for a storyteller to know how to tell it. Unfortunately, following Vogler’s recipe doesn’t guarantee a great story—you’ve still gotta be a great storyteller—but it really, really helps.

The Archetypes and challenges of the Tarot Major Arcana also tell the story of the Hero’s Journey; and they do it in order—starting with The Fool and ending with The World. In my book, The Remaking of Molly Adair , each chapter is a tarot key. In a tarot reading, the Major Arcana cards that come up, combined with the accompanying pip and court cards, tell the reader where the querent is in his or her own Hero’s Journey. And, yes, we are all heroes and we are all on a journey—it’s called life. Each lifetime may be a series of Hero’s Journeys or it may be the same journey repeated ad nauseam until it’s done right.

My game plan is to give a bit more information about the list of stages in the journey and the list of archetypes. Then I’ll explore the meanings of each Major Arcana card and suggest where it fits on the story arc and which of Vogler’s archetypes it might represent.

Credit: The second image is one of Lady Freida Harris‘s drafts of The Fool.

The 2010 Willamette Writers Conference

Posted C. LaVielle8 CommentsPosted in Getting Published

The Willamette Writers Conference is a smorgasbord with enough fabulous offerings to tempt even the most fastidious author.

First and foremost, there are hundreds of other writers wandering around. The ones I got to talk to were more than happy to tell me what they were writing about. I heard one amazing tale after another, told by the very person that dreamed it up—the best entertainment in the world. For example, Dylan Romero is writing a book about his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, one of the top three Christian spiritual journeys. He came to the conference in a pair of rock climbing slippers with a compartment for each toe, the very shoes he wore as he hiked over the Pyrenees Mountains and through the northern Spanish plains. He isn’t Catholic or even particularly spiritual. He didn’t have any epiphanies. But the simple act of getting up and walking everyday healed his soul. I hope he writes it like the amazing Hero’s Journey that it was. (More about the Hero’s Journey in my next blog). Good luck to you, Dylan.

There were workshops on just about everything of interest to writers—thirty-two every day. I went to “Playing God: Creating Memorable Characters,” by Robert Dugoni; ”Mystery Writing: A Crash Course,” by Hallie Ephron; “Word Up: Writing Dialog that Soars,” by Michael David Slater; “Levers, Ratchets, and Buttons,” by Eric Witchey; and “How to Write a Sizzling Sex Scene,” by Elizabeth Engstrom—to name just a few. The presenters stuffed my head with idea after idea and made me itch to get back to the keyboard.

And last but not least, there were agents and editors looking for manuscripts. At the right is a picture of the one-on-one pitching room with a few pitches still happening. Each agent or editor sits at a table with his or her name on it; and the writers walk in, introduce themselves, and begin their pitch. Pretty scary stuff. I signed up for four one-on-one pitches and came away with six agents and editors willing to read at least part of my manuscript. Even more than I’d hoped for! The agents and editors I pitched who were genuinely interested in hearing about my book and did everything they could to help me. One agent told me that she was looking for “soft fantasy.” and didn’t know the market for “hard fantasy” (which is, apparently, The Remaking of Molly Adair’s specific genre). So she couldn’t sell my book. But in between my pitch time and the next one she introduced me to another agent who could. I gave this agent the elevator version of my pitch; and she gave me her card and asked for the first ten pages.

I left the conference on Sunday full of ideas and inspiration. And best of all, I know there are six agents and editors out there that want to read my manuscript.

Four Steps to Finding an Agent for THE REMAKING OF MOLLY ADAIR

Posted C. LaVielle9 CommentsPosted in Getting Published

1: Pitch to Agents and Send out Query Letters.
I attended the 2008 and 2009 Willamette Writer’s Conferences and pitched to several agents. Five of them asked to see the first few chapters of the manuscript and all of them rejected it. I’ve also sent out about 15 query letters—all of which were rejected.

2: Rewrite! Rewrite! Rewrite!
After much soul searching and many sleepless nights, I decided that it was possible that all those agents weren’t pretentious Neanderthals. Maybe my precious manuscript that I’d rewritten and revised so many times still needed work.

So, with the help of a merciless editor, Jessica Morrell, and a marvelous writer’s group, I rewrote the manuscript a few more times. Their sort-of-gentle criticism, insights, and encouragement transformed me into a better writer and The Remaking of Molly Adair into a vastly improved story.

Since lots of beginning writers make the same mistakes that I did, it might be useful for me to confess my literary sins.
 I did not torture Molly enough. Main characters need to be miserable. Death and danger must lurk in the shrubbery at every turn.
  I bludgeoned the reader over the head with the lessons of the tarot cards. A well told tale teaches by example.
 I used evil adverbs instead of strong, virtuous verbs.
 I used many words instead of a few well-chosen ones.
I’m sure Jessica and the group will remind me of others that I failed to mention.

3: Prepare a Pitch, Query Letter, and Synopsis
This process is about as pleasant as a root canal and takes much longer. But it’s really important to have a good pitch and/or query letter. They are my one and only chance to get an agent to look at my manuscript. Most agents (or their assistants) look at hundreds of query letters in a month and decide in the first few sentences if they’re interested in the book. So all the juice of Molly’s adventures has to be distilled and infused into those first lines. Think book jacket blurb. They have to catch that agent’s attention or she’ll be on to the next query letter before you can say, “Missed a chance.” My pitch is a slightly reworked version of my query letter.

If the agent likes the pitch or query letter, he asks for a synopsis and/or the first few chapters of the book. A synopsis is a bare-bones retelling of the plot line—yes, even the ending. In five to seven double-spaced pages I cover all the plot points of the story; describe the main characters, conflicts, and settings; and give the reader a feel for my writing style. This bleak skeleton of a story must be absolutely fascinating or the agent won’t even bother to finish it.

I had enough trouble just writing them—describing how to construct a synopsis, query letter, and pitch is not in my skill set. These links do a much better job.

4: Repeat Step 1, and if necessary, Steps 2 & 3
I am attending the 2010 Willamette Writers Conference August 6-8. The workshops alone are worth the rather steep cost of admission, but the opportunity to meet and pitch my book to agents is priceless. It allows me to put faces and thumbnail sketches of personalities into the murky void in my head labeled “agent”. And the thrill I get when an agent gives me her card and asks for a synopsis and the first few chapters is fabulous. I’ll be pitching four times this year and will be keeping my fingers crossed for four not-so-cheap thrills.

I will also start sending out more query letters. Many writers send out over a hundred query letters before they find an agent, so my mantra will be “Perseverance is the Key”.

Announcing: THE REMAKING OF MOLLY ADAIR, a YA Fantasy and Tarot Primer

Posted C. LaVielle24 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Tarot

At last! After countless revisions, The Remaking of Molly Adair, a young adult fantasy I’ve been working on for the past five years, is finished–I think.

The tale begins when 16-year-old Molly Adair falls into a parallel universe with only a deck of tarot cards and a cranky, black cat for guides. She knows she doesn’t belong there, but she’s not sure she really belongs in her world either. She is still in shock over the loss of her parents; she’s just moved in with her prickly grandma, who’s a total control freak; and she’ll be starting her junior year in a strange high school.

As she struggles to return to Portland, Oregon, Molly confronts the archetypes and challenging lessons of each major arcana tarot card. The first person she meets is Tracy Bliss, a young vagabond who pulls her clawing and screaming out of a black limbo and into Damia. Asmodius, a large black cat, who is a powerful mage, offers to be her guide. But can she trust him? Madam Rue, a mysterious gypsy with a caravan full of memories, tells her to follow her shimmering blue cloak if she wants to return to her world.

The cloak becomes The River Selene, which flows south through the kingdom of Damia, a low-tech society that’s permeated with magic. It’s on the brink of war with its neighbor, Dalot; and there’s a rogue dragon terrorizing the countryside.

Will Molly, an overweight, quick-tempered, online gamer, ever make it back to her home world?

Will My book ever get published?

And how do you make a story out of the Major Arcana cards?

You’ll have to read the book to answer the first question, but this blog will eventually answer the other two, and explore some of the amazing highways and byways I traveled as the tale unfolded.

A Bit About Me:  The Pacific Northwest has fed my soul and been my home since 1976. I have a very patient husband and two grown sons. I also have one daughter-in-law, who helped make this blog possible.

The Remaking of Molly Adair is my first book, and I’m working on the second book in the series, Molly Adair, Beware. It’s an occult murder mystery set in northeast Portland, Oregon.

I started reading Tarot in the late ‘70’s.