...skill-sets, mythic structure and GMC

I've been writing a lot, and working on my workshop pages. I think--although the writing is going well, the workshop pages are like scratching the middle of my back. It's accessible, but trying to get my arm over my shoulder and squirm like a contortionist? Yeah, well...the target is just "that" far from my nails.

Some things aren't easy to teach, not because they're unteachable. But because of skill sets. When I started out, I had a handful of tools, none of which meant anything to me because nobody had interpreted them in a way that made sense.

I used to go around asking published writers, and back then--published meant NY, because Ellora was just a twinkle--what advice can you give me? What one technique can you tell me that will improve my writing? (note the key word "tell"?)Everyone recommended Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer. Which, sorta kinda made sense, but not really since it was a forerunner to Debra Dixon's GMC, and I've never been a GMC fan.

Brief segue...

I know some people swear by it, but--OCD as I am--I don't like it. I didn't know it at the time, but I worked on a macro level, and for true aficionados, GMC needs to be in place for every scene.

..brief example?

The return of John. Remember how he started community college to improve himself? I used him as an example of pov depth for emotional emphasis, but say I want to GMC him. Back to that scene where he's sitting on the bench and the girl sits down next to him. "Why" is he sitting there? (uhm...he's tired, or depressed? Maybe he's just feeling overwhelmed...) "what" does he want out of sitting on that bench? (I dunno...maybe his feet hurt? Maybe he wants to get out of Dodge and can't muster the courage. I dunno. Sometime in the course of the day, I wanted him to meet the heroine. It's my goal) and "what" stops him from achieving his goal?

He's sitting on a bench. He's got some turmoil. He's got no goal, no plan, he's just sitting. Over the greater arc of the story--John's character arc--meeting the girl is the first step of his journey to self-awareness. At the end, when we ride out into the sunset, "who" John becomes will be a person who can love and accept someone who loves and accepts him.

This isn't a conscious goal. His external motivation is re-training so he can become the person people tell him he should be. His goal is to go to school. His conflict is that he doesn't fit into college. But--that's not what the story is about.

GMC is external motivation. Unconscious desires or needs are not GMC friendly unless you create a series of GMC flow charts layered like a cake, that chart not just external motivation but internal, unconscious, desires and needs. Which is--right, a GMC slanted take on emotional structure.

It's good for hashing out plot issues but so are 3 act structure and turning points.

...so there I was, asking people what to do--and everyone tells me the "current" hot thing. Like a couple of years ago everyone went to the StoryMagic workshops, or insisted Vogler's take on Joseph Campbell's studies into the structure of myths was the only way to do things.

lol--Jodi on Vogler.

I'm widely read in mythologies. What can I say? I was a bookworm. I enjoy them for what they are...good stories with lots of blood and swashbuckling. Campbell interpreted certain similarities in a wide variety of myth as belonging to a type of over-arching universal story structure AKA the commonality of mythologies. Which is true. I'm a big fan of Joseph Campbell. He's an easy read.

However, in the Writer's Journey, Vogler takes Campbell's study of monomyth, or the Hero's Journey, and in Campbell's words, "universal truths about one's personal self-discovery and self-transcendence, one's role in society, and the relationship between the two." And tried to apply them to movie structure, and through movie examples--to fiction.

C'mon.

Number four on the NY Times Bestseller list today is Lora Leigh's Mercury's War. It's about genetically altered Cat-guys and the women who "awaken their desire". I'm sure somebody can squeeze it into Vogler, but it's pretty much hot sex, and sex sells--I don't think Lora Leigh wondered whether bulging muscles symbolized some greater universal human truth.

Every time I hear the words, "the mentor" "the ally" and "the shadow"--I roll my eyes. In the latest edition of his best selling book, there's a chapter devoted--I kid you not--to "the wisdom of the body", detailing how the organs of the body are involved in creating the dramatic experience, and how writers can tap their power.

uh...right.

skill-sets are the current knowledge base of the person interpreting a given lesson, and if I'm sounding like a textbook here, it's just the way I'm thinking--when I get into craft discussions, I seem to be growing a little more formal. Basically--it's whats in your head when you try to learn a new skill.

If the hardware isn't a good match for the software, you're going to have issues running the program.

In order to teach a skill, you have to assume a certain skill level. Some people can simply "jump" from level to level. Some people need a little remedial work, and a band-aid fix just covers the problem. This lecture thing is hard.