My article starts with an apology. For a long time I've insisted on supporting the 12-Stage Structure as a mythic foundation for all stories. But recently I've come to realise that I have not been teaching the full picture.
What I've been teaching is the Male Journey - the twelve stages that apply to masculine character arcs. The Female Journey, which has some key differences to the Male Journey, has been badly neglected up till now.
I believe this is the reason why I'm having problems with the female characters in my novels, and it could explain why female characters in roleplays fail to arc properly, or else end up as thinly-disguised male characters.
In this article, I will show the difference between the Male and Female Journey and how understanding both paths can lead to a better depiction of feminine characters.
Some of what follows may seem very basic and black-and-white, but please remember that I am being deliberately generic. Most stories use a combination of journeys and almost all of them subvert the following conventions for dramatic effect...
So, just to recap: this is the structure that I torment Iwakuans on a daily basis. It is derived from ancient folktales, including the oldest recorded story of a male hero -The Epic of Gilgamesh...
1. The Ordinary World: The Hero is shown in his everyday life.
2. The Call to Action: Something happens to threaten his world.
3. The Debate: The Hero hesitates, procrastinates, weighs up the pros and cons of taking action.
4. Meet the Mentor: A friend, teacher, herald or source of inspiration spurs the Hero to leave the Ordinary world and go on an adventure.
5. Over the Threshold: The Hero crosses into an unusual world, full of discoveries, dangers and high stakes.
6. The Trials: The Hero undertakes trials, makes new friends, gathers allies, identifies enemies.
7. The Spiral: Things start to go wrong and the bads guy close in. The challenges become greater and the Hero becomes more desperate.
8. The Ordeal: The Hero suffers his darkest moment, when all seems lost. This is the dark night of the soul - the moment when he faces literal or metaphorical death.
9. The Reward: After surviving his near-death experience, the Hero gets a small reward, like a new weapon, a sex scene, a fresh hope. He picks up and carries on.
10. The Road Back: The Hero starts to resolve things and head back to the Ordinary World. He comes to terms with what he has done and appreciates what he has.
11. The Resurrection: The bad guys come back for one last attack and the Hero must decide to stand alone against the evil or let everything be lost.
12. The Elixir: If the Hero wins, he receives his ultimate reward. If he loses, then his death becomes a lesson to others. Either way, the "Elixir" is the prize at the end of the quest.
Now, if we think about female characters, we can start to see that they arc in a different way and follow a very different path.
This is the 12-Stage Journey for females, based on the majority of folk tales and the oldest recorded legend of a female heroine - The Descent of the Goddess Inanna...
1. The Illusory World: A very important distinction. The Ordinary World of the female protagonist is more likely to be a fake one, where the woman exists in a suppressed state, lying to herself and pretending to be happy. A male hero will often start his quest in a very nice world with plenty of personal opportunities. But the woman is, more often that not, <i>trapped</i>. At the start of the story, the Male has choices but hasn't yet made up his mind, while the Female has NO choices and HAS made up her mind (to be docile and inferior). This shows the fundamental distinction between the mythical male and the mythical female. One is a prisoner of himself; the other is a prisoner of her world.
2. The Betrayal: Rather than being "called" like the Male Hero, the Female is usually betrayed. Her world falls apart and she loses her coping mechanism. Think of most feminist movies: they start when the heroine finds her husband cheating or when she loses a baby or when her career falls apart. Whereas a Male sees the enemy and goes out to fight it, a woman is usually "cast out" in solitude.
3. The Debate: Though similar, the Debate for the Female is more emotional than physcial. While the Male Hero will weigh up the threats and opportunities of his adventure, a woman will think more about the emotional stakes. In the end, the Male Hero will physically throw himself out into the wilderness, while the Female will come to a decision inside herself.
4. Meet the Mentor: Likewise, the mentor for the Female Hero is far more likely to be non-physical and non-human. The important thing to remember is that the Female is abandoned to her quest, and this is HUGELY different to the Male Quest, where the Hero may have allies right until the very end of the story. The distinction here is one of power. The Woman seeks to gain power and find connection with the group; whilst the Male seeks to yield power and find the strength to stand alone. This follows very obvious mythical expectations - the Man, as protector, must achieve independent glory, while the Woman, as life-giver, must find union with her community.
5. Over the Threshold: This is one stage that IS the same. Both Male and Female Heroes choose to take the first step into an Undiscovered World. But, as said before, the Female is much more likely to be on her own at this stage, with no allies and no support from her homeland.
6. The Trials: Once again, this stage is similar for both journeys, but still with its distinctions. For the Male it is a very calculating and systematic time, when he works out who are his friends and who are his enemies. But a Female Hero is more likely to go through a humbling process here, learning which of her abilities are useless and learning what it takes to survive. This is the Little Red Riding Hood moment, where the Girl must navigate her way through the dark woods.
7. The Spiral: Perhaps one of the biggest differences can be seen in the Spiral stage. Here, the Male Hero is confronted by feminine symbols, and the Female Hero is confronted by masculine symbols. This is equivalent to facing your alterego. The Male is challenged by feminine principles such as a romantic subplot, a call for mercy, a call to return home, a need to protect the weak. He will be challenged by feminine characters who call on him to show compassion and open himself up. This is HIS spiral, where everything becomes more complicated and less black-and-white. But for the woman, she is confronted by the Masculine, which takes the form of pitiless monsters, physical challenges and the need to fight and be strong. Sometimes she will have to protect something like a father would (as in Ripley in Aliens, who is given the task of defending Newt against unforgiving monsters). The Spiral challenges Male and Female Heroes alike to conquer the 'other' sides of themselves and learn new things.
8. The Ordeal: Here again we see the primal mythic difference between Masculine and Feminine. The Male Hero must go through his near-death experience alone. He is unlikely to be helped by his allies or rescued by someone else. He must dig deep to find his inner strength and to stand alone. But for the Woman, an opposite is learned. At the Ordeal stage she finds CONNECTION. An ally will come or a group will assimilate her, and with the help of this new family she will rise out of her darkest moment. Think of all the films where the female character gets a make-over - this is a modern-day rebirth scene. She gets her sisters, her new family, and she gets back in the saddle.
9. The Reward: And so it follows, that the reward for the Female Hero is a much greater one. While the Male will simply get a blowjob or a shiney new sword to continue his adventure with, the Female will actually be more-or-less complete by this stage. She has come into her power, beaten her fears and is ready to face the world again. The Female Hero recognises her faults much earlier and conquers them much sooner (albeit it with the help of the collective), whereas as the Male must venture onwards a little longer and make a few more decisions. His final battle has yet to be fought...
10. The Road Back: Again, the distinction remains. As they return to the Ordinary World, the Female enjoys her power, while the Male lingers in indecision. The road back is much more of a "coming-to-terms" scene for the woman, and just as the Debate stage was non-physical for the woman, so the Road Back stage will be MORE physical for the Female. She will return to her community and meet all the old faces who abandoned or doubted her before.
11. The Resurrection: For the Female, the Resurrection is a last little challenge where she demonstrates her new power. She comes home and tells her husband to go fuck himself. Or she gives birth to the baby and decides to raise it on her own. Or she sings at the end-of-school concert. There is little chance of her being defeated, because she has already come into her power - all we want now is to see her showing everyone the New Woman she's become. But for the man, the Resurrection is VERY important and VERY MUCH in the balance. It is his sink-or-swim moment, his final battle, where he either gives in or digs down to find the deepest reserves of strength with which to prevail single-handedly over evil. As said earlier, the Masculine is all about standing alone, while the Feminine is all about "re-integrating". So the Resurrection is clearly going to be much more violent and dangerous for the Male.
12. The Elixir: This is where the two stories come back together. With victory, both the Male and Female Heroes achieve something on behalf of the Ordinary World and find contentment within themselves. Or, if the story is a tragedy, their deaths stand as lessons to those they have left behind. The Elixir is androgynous - representing the union of Male and Female principles. Perfection in Alchemy.
So, once again, I apologize for not acknowledging these differences before. Hopefully they will help you to put more thought into female characters and how to write their character arcs. Now here's a last few points to remember...
Playing with these conventions can lead to great stories and memorable characters. Think about films where these journeys are reversed. Ripley follows the Male Path in Alien, where she is forced to surpass men and become a warrior-woman fighting terrifying demons. Neo follows the Female Path in The Matrix where he loses his world and must come to terms with his own inner soul and find a new family to care for.
In Star Wars, Luke is continually challenged by feminine symbols (the Dark Side, his father's love, his family, compassion, inner-strength, suffering), while Leia is continually challenged by male symbols (physical captivity by monsters, the demands of politics, leading her people, fighting for her life).
So if you ever find your characters not working, take a quick look at the mythical underpinnings of what they are doing. It might just be that you've got them on the wrong path. A huge amount of female characters fail if you put them on the Male Journey, and sadly too many writers (including myself) have made this mistake.
As a first tutorial for those interested in improving their writing, I'm going to start with the tools before the trade. There's no point diving ahead into genre, narrative or chrono-plotting if we don't have square one covered. You may have a million ideas, but so do most people in this life. A true artist crafts those ideas.
And every craftsman needs their tools. Writers are no exception.
Tool 1: VOCABULARY: Vocabulary is your top tool. You need to know words - as many as you can. And I don't mean obscure words. I mean the words we see and hear in day-to-day life. You need to know the difference between running and fleeing, the difference between sight and vision - where these words come from, how they were used before and how they are used now. There must be dexterity in your language, so that every sentence is a delight to the reader. Start reading, start listening. Get to know this language you're using.
Tool 2: GRAMMAR: I'm not going into grammar. You either have it or you don't. Most people aren't taught grammar properly, unless they went to a stuffy university, and most people don't remember the lessons. Grammar is something that hardwires itself into your brain, and only certain brains accept the programming. The English language is incredibly complex, with contradictory rules, established fallacies and points of contention. Grammar is a game of memory. You remember the rules or you don't. Here endeth the lesson.
Tool 3: THE LIVING WORDS: Do not talk about the dead. Talking about the dead makes things dull. Use the alive words, the active verbs and the personal nouns. Writing should be an emotional experience, where every sentence is focussed on the moment of importance. Here's an example of a dead sentence:
The rope was thrown by the hero and then he ran and jumped.
In this version, the rope is the star of the show, and the running seems just as important and just as exciting as the jumping. Plus everything happens methodically, one after the other. Every part of the sentence is equally weighted, and as such it falls flat.
This is the same sentence, brought to life:
The hero threw the rope and then, running, he jumped.
It starts with the most alive component - the hero - this living, breathing dude who we're all rooting for. The rope didn't just suddenly leap into life - this motherfucker threw it! And THEN, he's running! He didn't choose to run as his next action - he's already fucking running. He didn't even take the time to make the decision, because he's such a goddam hero! And then, the big climax... far more important and exciting than that running shit... he FUCKING JUMPS! Any pussy can run. But this bastard jumps - he puts his life on the line, and he jumps!
So yeah, there's a rather extreme example for you. Although it's good to mix up the way you write your sentences and shift between viewpoints, you should never forget the ARC of your sentences. Each one is a minature adventure and needs to hit the reader in the right spots. Don't tell us he ran - tell us he's running. Don't have inaminate objects do things of their own accord - show the beating heart behind those actions. Nobody gives a shit about objects - we want to know about the people and the extraordinary actions - the man who jumps and not the man who runs.
Tool 4: THE ADVERB WHACKER: I cannot stress this point enough...
ADVERBS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS.
Seriously. Use them as a last resort and only if you cannot get the message across in any other way. Adverbs are the undertakers between the living and the dead parts of the sentence - they just get in the way and leave a bad taste in the mouth. Here's some examples of unnecessary adverb use:
She ran quickly down the street.
Tiredly, he slowly picked up the box and put it carefully on the shelf.
The loud noise sounded deafeningly and echoed all around.
Here are the same sentences trimmed down, with exactly the same message, and a lot less pain for the reader.
She fled down the street
Yawning, he hauled the box onto the shelf
There was a mighty noise.
In the first example, you reduce two words to one. The beauty of the English language is that you can usually find a single word to sum up a verb/adverb couplet. In the second example, you start with a personal, human action. Telling the reader that the guy is yawning communicates everything they need to know - he's tired, he's moving slowly. And in the third example you just use common sense. If the noise is loud, it's probably deafening and it will probably echo. You don't need to tell us every goddam detail - readers are smart - they can work it out. Don't underestimate them.
Fear of misunderstanding is the root of all bad writing.
We all know you're intelligent - that's why you come to Iwaku every day and why you write things. The very fact that you've put stuff down in a story should be proof enough that you have something to say. Don't try to prove it by using words like "extraneous" and "discombobulated". You are not Shakespeare and you shouldn't try to be Shakespeare. He was a playwright, and people liked his words for the way they sounded and the way they were performed. It had nothing to do with the number of letters or syllables in them. If the word is short and delivers the punch, then use it. Language is a rapier; not a sledgehammer.
Don't "run quickly with a sense of urgency". FLEE!
Don't "feel the tears welling up as a dry shudder courses the length of your body and taps the reservoirs of grief in your deepest chambers". WEEP!
Don't "fire your gun determinedly at the enemy." SHOOT AT THEM!
If you think that a short description isn't enough, then you've either chosen the wrong description or you're feeling insecure about your story. If you've hooked your readers with the story and with your characters, then you shouldn't have to beat them to death with words. When your characters "WEEP", the reader should react.
Tool 5: THE MINIMAL METAPHOR: Description begins in the writer's imagination and ends in the reader's. The art of good writing is to cross that gap in as few words as possible. That way, the reader is not piecing together your prose like a forensic doctor, but rather he/she is experiencing a series of emotions and reflections as you draw them into your story.
This is where metaphor comes in. Metaphors are gifts sent from heaven to make wirter's lives easier. Like a picture, they can paint a thousand words. And if you're very, very good, the right metaphor can trigger the reader's imagination so that their own brain starts telling the story for you.
For example, in my next novel, Pennyblood, I describe my main character with a single simile. His name is Rip and he's a scrawny street urchin with mad hair and big, dark, staring eyes that are constantly nervous. In the one sentence that I give over to his description before the action starts, I write that Rip looks like has been...
"...dragged backwards through a chimney of ghosts"
...
Some of you may argue that it's a shit simile. But with this metaphor, three things happen:
First, you imagine him in a chimney, like a Victorian chimney-sweep, so you instantly get an idea of his scrawny, pale, ash-covered and undernourished figure, plus the raggedly clothes that chimney-sweeps used to wear. Then, you read the part about being dragged backwards, and you imagine how that would ruffle the clothes and make the hair stand on end. It also brings up the idea that Rip has been manhandled all his life, dragged through darkness and abused by others. The chimney defines Rip's theme as one of blacks and greys. Then, finally, you read about the ghosts and you imagine how terrifying it would be to be locked in a small space crammed with ghosts. You also imagine the paleness of ghosts and the whiteness of terror. Hopefully, some of you are already imagining a young Johnny Depp from Sweeney Todd. This completes the image of Rip with all the terror and dishevellment that I want readers to feel when they imagine him.
Not bad for a seven word metaphor.
Okay, so that was a little egotistical of me and you probably didn't imagine any of that! But the point still stands. A good metaphor can put the reader EXACTLY where you want them. This is why poetry works, and this is why 3-minute pop songs are some of the greatest forms of communication ever invented. When John Lennon says "Imagine there's no heaven...", we know what he means. He means "Imagine there's no artificially-created concept of an afterlife and an all-knowing judgmental paternalistic deity to which our every action must be held accountable and upon whose supposed dictates the civilised and uncivilised nations of the world perpetuate violence, suffering and racial hatred."
But he doesn't need to say that. He says "heaven" and we all know what he means. Because, when we hear that word, we feel that sentiment too.
And using a metaphor to tap into what everyone, as a species, feels... that, my friends, is the work of genius.
Tool 6: THE SYMBOL BLINDFOLD: As Stephen King himself confesses, symbolism and themes usually come at the end of writing, and usually without any conscious thought. Setting out from the start to make something symbolic or to explore a theme is usually a bad idea. That stuff gets in the way of the story and is just self-gratification. Have sympathy on the reader and leave it out. If they want to see themes and symbols, they will see them. And if you really need them, you can build them in afterwards.
Tool 7: THE IDEAL READER:
I won't go into this too much in the first tutorial. But it's always good to know your audience, at least in some respect. Have an idea of who your perfect reader is, and give them what they want. When I write action posts, I imagine hormonal Warhammer fans who are looking for the epic and want to raise their fists as they read. And when I write comedy, I imagine teenage girls giggling and struggling to breathe as one joke piles upon another (either that or Monty Python-loving intellectuals). With every sentence you write, think about that ideal reader and how they nod and smile. If you know that someone is there, hanging on your words (or at least vaguely clinging to them!), it makes a hell of a lot of difference to your confidence. And confidence is what you need...
.... confidence, and a good toolbox.
Using a chosen extract of writing, do the following: