Time for NANOWRIMO!

National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO) is upon us!

November is when thousands of writers across the globe commit to writing 50,000 words in 30 days (what I affectionately call a "Vomit Draft"). Whether you want to write a novel, a screenplay, or a songbook, COMMIT and use the power of accountability to just do it already!!

The beauty of NANOWRIMO is it gets you out of your head and onto the page, lets you write stream of conscious instead of editing yourself, builds community with other writers, and gets many projects flowing that authors would otherwise never start.

Here are our Los Angeles Resources.

Here is NANOWRIMO's fabulous list of books on writing, including Stephen King's On Writing." Great advice from the creator of NANOWRIMO, as well as success stories of published authors.

Writing Mythical Archetypes

When you go to write your next project, think about designing your characters first.

We've talked in Media Arts 129 about mythical archetypes.

Because so many of you share my love for Twin Peaks, here is a brilliant article outlining how some of the beloved characters can be divided into eternal archetypes that fulfill humankind's constant need for mythical and meaningful storytelling. Notice how each archetype has a runner-up category...like The Lord of the Rings, Twin Peaks employs doubles and twins.

The Hero's Journey

We've shown some diagrams in class that were too small for you to really get a good look at. And since everyone has different learning styles for remembering information, I thought I'd give you a wide variety of Hero's Journey charts to see which one works for you!

This one is Joseph Campbell's original Monomyth 17 Stages, which started it all:

The rest are interpretations of Christopher Vogler's Hero's Journey, the hottest structure in Hollywood:

Which one do you like the best? Let me know why in the comments below:

Watch some movies we've discussed in class

Netflix Instant:

Witness
Say Anything


Netflix DVD:

No Way Out
Quest for Fire
The Big Lebowski

The Hero's Journey as explained by puppets

This six minute supporting video is one of my class favorites. It clearly explains the supporting characters in a monomyth, shows great examples from famous films, has humorous recreations, and...it's puppets!