James N. Frey, "The Key: How To Write Damn Good Fiction Using The Power Of Myth"

In his widely read guides How to Write a Damn Good Novel and How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced Techniques, popular novelist and fiction-writing coach James N. Frey showed tens of thousands of writers how—starting with rounded, living, breathing, dynamic characters—to structure a novel that sustains its tension and development and ends in a satisfying, dramatic climax.

Now, in The Key, Frey takes his no-nonsense, "Damn Good" approach and applies it to Joseph Campbell's insights into the universal structure of myths. Myths, says Frey, are the basis of all storytelling, and their structures and motifs are just as powerful for contemporary writers as they were for Homer. Frey begins with the qualities found in mythic heros—ancient and modern—such as the hero's special talent, his or her wound, status as an "outlaw," and so on. He then demonstrates how the hero is initiated—sent on a mission, forced to learn the new rules, tested, and suffers a symbolic death and rebirth—before he or she can return home. Using dozens of classical and contemporary novels and films as models, Frey shows how these motifs and forms work their powerful magic on the reader's imagination.

The Key is designed as a practical step-by-step guide for fiction writers and screen writers who want to shape their own ideas into a mythic story.

Amazon.com Review
"You don't begin with meaning," according to fiction writer Rick DeMarinis, "you end with it." A critic approaching a story from a mythological standpoint might find a mythological theme, but "there are as many themes in a story as there are critical theories." Hogwash, says James N. Frey. "Mythic structures, forms, motifs, and characters... are 'The Key' to writing more-powerful fiction," and it is a fiction writer's job to imbue his or her work with them.

In The Key, Frey describes each of the mythic qualities (ascribed to the mythic hero, the "Evil One," the "Call to Adventure," and the other elements of the mythic journey) and offers examples of how to use them in one's writing. Don't get the wrong idea. Frey is not interested in academic or overly intellectual writing. Sure, he invents a Proust-reading Nevada cowboy to illustrate the concept of "The Hero's Lover," but there are more references here to James Bond than to Homer.

Frey advises using first-person journal writing to get to know one's characters. He emphasizes fiction's need for conflict at every turn. And he recommends working from a premise, as it helps one know what to leave out (everything in the story must work to further the premise). Frey defines every possible mythic character or situation, then insists one not feel confined by them all. "The mythic pattern is not a straitjacket," he says, "it's Play-Doh. Have fun with it."

From Library Journal
In this well-written and witty how-to, Frey, a writing teacher and author of the "Damn Good" writing books, focuses on the tradition of myth as a recipe for storytelling. Drawing from Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth, Frey explains that people respond strongly to mythic images and will essentially read the same stories over and over again; readers of romances are a good example of this concept.

The first half of the book is especially interesting, for it examines the mythic structure in such diverse works as Robin Hood, Beowulf, and Jaws and looks at myths that function in everyday modern life. In the second half, Frey provides the reader with a sample novella titled "The Blue Light" to illustrate the use of myth as a writing tool. Expect beginning writers to use this informative guide along with the author's other books.

Contents

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Introduction: Why Every Fiction Writer in America Should Read This Book  Beware of the Bogus 1 The Awesome Power of Myth  The Storyteller's Magic  The Evolution of Storytelling  The Constancy of Myth from Place to Place, Age to Age  The Adventures of Mythic Heroes in Modern Times  Two Heroes  Myth and Its Importance to the Fiction Writer  Mankind's Greatest Achievement 2 What It's All About Is Who  A Note About the Design of This Book  The Germinal Idea  The Qualities of the Hero  Other Qualities of the Hero 3 The Twin Pillars of the Myth-Based Story: The Hero and the Evil One  Characters Not of Wood  Creating the Hero for The Blue Light  The Role of the Evil One and the Art of Being Pivotal  Creating the Evil One  The Case of the "Innocent" Evil One  Creating the Evil One for The Blue Light 4 The Home of the Brave: The Hero in the World of the Common Day  The Hero's Home  The Premise of a Myth-Based Story  Planning the Stepsheet  The Blue Light Stepsheet  The Call to Adventure  Answering the Call to Adventure  If the Hero Refuses the Call  The Blue Light  Garret's Stepsheet Continues 5 The Woods Are Full of Fascinating Characters  The Hero's Lover  Garret's Lover  Other Mythological Characters  Casting the Characters 6 Fasten Your Seat Belt, the Journey Begins  Over the Threshold and into the Woods  Now That He's in the Woods, the Hero Must Learn the New Rules  The New Rules in The Blue Light  The Hero Is Tested—Sometimes Called the Trail of Trials  Mythological Motifs  Our Hero's Stepsheet Continued: Entering the Woods, Learning the New Rules, and Being Tested  The Stepsheet Continues: The Hero's Initiation Begins: Learning the New Rules / Being Tested  The Blue Light  The Blue Light Stepsheet Continued  A Special Note About the Drama 7 Death, Rebirth, and the Confrontation with the Evil One  The Hero Comes Back from the Dead  Back to The Blue Light Stepsheet  A Look at the Story  The Stepsheet Continued  Confronting the Evil One: The Usual Pattern, in Brief  Back to The Blue Light Stepsheet 8 Welcome Home, Sailor, or, The Hero Returns to the Community  The Journey Home, an Overview  The General Pattern of the Journey Home  An Example  Garret's Stepsheet Continued: The Journey Home  The Arrival Home  Garret Arrives Back Home: The Stepsheet Continues  A Checklist for the Hero's Journey 9 Of Tragic Heroes and Comic Heroes and Other Stuff  The Tragic Death of the Standard Hero  The Doomed Hero  The Comic Hero  A Final Note About The Blue Light  The Mythic Journey of the Writer  The Monster of the Imagination Bibliography

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Tags: WritingTechnique, Mythology, Literature, LiteraryCriticism

Jerome Stern, "Making Shapely Fiction"

Christopher Vogler, "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers"

Janet Burroway, "Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (3rd Edition)

Northrop Frye & Jay Macpherson, "Biblical and Classical Myths: The Mythological Framework of Western Culture"

Jenny March, "Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology"

Mark P. O. Morford & Robert J. Lenardon, "Classical Mythology (7th Edition)" The most in-depth coverage.

Kevin Osborn & Dana L. Burgess, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Classical Mythology (2nd Edition)"

Pierre Grimal, "The Concise Dictionary of Classical Mythology" The best reference.

Lesley Bolton, "The Everything Classical Mythology Book"

Joseph Campbell, "The Hero With A Thousand Faces (Commemorative Edition)"

Paul Barber, "Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality"

Maria Tatar, "The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales"

Maria Tatar, "The Classic Fairy Tales (Norton Critical Edition)"

Jack Zipes, "The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales"

Alan Lupack, "The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend"

Wayne C. Booth, "The Rhetoric of Fiction (2nd Edition)"