Category Archives: News

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers

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I find this more useful than the often mentioned 1949 classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell’s. Vogler’s contemporary style is more accessible for the modern reader, and his many examples from well-known movies (‘Star Wars’, ‘Titanic’, ‘The Lion King’) really help to demonstrate the Heroic Quest Formula.

  1. Heroes are introduced in the ORDINARY WORLD
  2. they receive the CALL TO ADVENTURE
  3. They are RELUCTANT at first or REFUSE THE CALL, but
  4. are encouraged by a MENTOR to
  5. CROSS THE THRESHOLD and enter the Special World, where
  6. they encounter TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES.
  7. They APPROACH THE IN-MOST CAVE, cross a second threshold
  8. where they endure the ORDEAL
  9. They take possession of their REWARD and
  10. are pursued on THE ROAD BACK to the Ordinary World.
  11. They cross the third threshold, experience a RESURRECTION, and are transformed by the experience.
  12. They RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR, a boon or treasure to benefit the ORDINARY WORLD.

The creative cycle.

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Recently I was listening to a radio show. A panel of profession artists were talking about there work.

Asked about the creative process. She described it as:

Observe,Observe,Observe,Create.

There is a natural pattern to the way we tease solid ideas out of feelings and concepts. Many people have written about this.

I like to summarize my process as.

Consume, Collate, Copy, Create, Compare.

It reflects my first inspiration because consuming copying, and comparing are all ways of observing.

  1. Observe / Consume
  2. Collate
  3. Observe / Copy
  4. Create
  5. Observe / Compare.

Consume

First I consume the world around me. Actively collecting ideas from the books, galleys and Internet or passively noting things as I go around my daily life. My ideas germinate as I observe the world around me. I subconsciously absorb the information, and consciously seek out things that feel right.
Feeling right  is the key here. Our Brains are pattern matching trying to find things that fit new concept. I don’t need to justify the choices with too much reason. That will just get in the way. I need to promote the right frame of mind to help the subconscious process the information.

Soon I’ll have a pile of images which are a mixture of mood, style, overall design and interesting details.

Collate

Whilst I may like the feel of the ideas I’ve created. Not all of them are compatible. This may lead to different strands of design being developed. However if these two strands cannot be integrated a choice must soon be made over which route to follow. So while consuming I’m also sorting and categorizing.

UFO … example industrial vs alien

Copy

Eventually I start trying things.

 

Processing

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The open source community never ceases to amaze me.

Openprocessing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions.

Site Improvements

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I’m working hard to improve this site. Now I’ve got a lot of content,  I’m seeing that my original category list doesn’t quite work.

I’ve started moving things around a bit so that it makes more sense. As a result your bookmarks may break. Please bare with me and hopefully things will settle down soon.