Fiction Writing with The Heroine's Journey

Hello everyone,

This is a one-off creative writing workshop for anyone who'd like to begin writing a new, exciting piece of fiction, with a new female lead using the Heroine's Journey as a guide.

For films, novels, short fiction, and plays, a lot of creative writing groups make use of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. This is a useful tool sometimes, but it is also hugely limiting when it comes to female characters.

So we're looking now at the Heroine's Journey, as defined by Maureen Murdock and Victoria Lynn Schmidt, still making use of some of Campbell's theories, but crucially departing from them to cover the manifold ways in which female heroic journeys might differ from male ones.

Examples of the heroine's journey (or at least aspects of it) can be found in the writings of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah, The Thing Around Your Neck), Marie Darriouseq (Pig Tales), Kathy Acker (Blood and Guts in High School), Clarice Lispector (The Stream of Life), Francois Sagan (Bonjour Tristesse), Sally Rooney (Normal People), etc., etc.

We also see numerous examples of the heroine's journey in modern cinema, such as Moana in Disney's Moana, Coraline Jones in Coraline, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Rey in The Force Awakens/The Last Jedi, etc., etc.

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This workshop is a unique opportunity for you (whether you're male or female, or however else you identify) to write a new story with a new female character using the heroine's journey as a template.

We'll run through some examples with you, help you generate a protagonist, then give you some fun, exciting writing exercises to generate new thoughts and feelings about your character and their narrative arc.

By the end of the session, you'll be well on your way to completing a brand new piece of fiction.

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Beginners are more than welcome. No experience of writing is necessary. We are a friendly bunch and welcome people of every background to come and explore this theme with us. No pressure to read out loud or share with the group if you don't feel like it. You will never be put on the spot.

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Hope to see you there!