Brad Johnson is an author and blogger who helps writers discover their niche, build successful habits, and quit their 9-5. His books include Ignite Your Beacon, Writing Clout and Tomes Of A Healing Heart. For strategic content and practical tips on how to become a full-time writer, visit: BradleyJohnsonProductions.com.
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Editor’s note: To be inspired to write in these difficult times is hard. With so much going on in the world, it can feel impossible to carry on writing when such monumental events are unfolding before our eyes. So this week we’re re-publishing one of Mary’s most popular posts to help re-inspire you to write. […]
The post Inspired to Write: 20 Inspiring Quotes to Help You Through Difficult Times appeared first on WTD.
In part 2 of this 1931 article about mystery story techniques, George Dyer offers his suggestions for how to drop hints about who the real criminal of the story is.
Read part 1 of the article Murder for Profit: Mystery Story Techniques here.
By George Dyer
Writer’s Digest, April 1931
Your murderer is a combination of your own feelings, modified by the character and appearance and background of some real person of your acquaintance. Your victim is a variation on your own particular of Editor Jones. Around these two group other personalities, families, friends, business associate, accomplices as required.
Obviously, in this game you do not introduce your murderer plainly labeled with the brand of Cain. The crime is committed, the man who will turn out to be the killer is introduced as casually as possible, and then for the required number of thousands of words, the game is on! By every legitimate method you attempt to throw the reader off the scent; in every fair way the reader tries to detect you at your work of concealment and to be able to say, at the last page, “I guessed it all along.” If this is true, he wins. If his reaction is “Why didn’t I see that,” you’ve won. If he reads straight through to the end and exclaims, “That’s not fair,” and gives adequate reasons, then you’ve probably broken the rules.
This concealment of the guilty man patently involves other characters. Others are suspected and dismissed, or die violently in a similar fashion to Editor Jones. This raises the knotty problem of how many suspects are advisable.
In the mystery short story, the ideal number of suspected persons would appear to be limited by the construction of the vehicle, to three. One of these is the Obvious Suspect, a villain if there ever was one, and with every reason and opportunity to commit the crime. He is for the thoughtless reader-player; only such a person will accept him as the culprit in the solution. The second may be classed as the Suspect, or Middle Suspect, and the writer may find it is wise to make him the actual criminal. He may be given either motive or opportunity, but either motive or opportunity must be apparently impossible. This fact of an apparent alibi in one or the other element will cause the stupid among the writer’s opponents to dismiss him from the suspected list, while the very clearness of the opportunity or motive given him will cause the intelligent reader to disregard him as too obvious. That, at least, is the writer’s hope. The third is the Buried Suspect, who is inserted to draw the clever reader’s attention from the really guilty man. He may also have either motive or opportunity, may have been heard to speak bitterly of the deceased, or covetously of the stolen object.
In consideration of so constricted a form as a short story, only two grades of reader intelligence can be reckoned upon; the Clever, and the Dull. In the preparation of a mystery story of this kind, it is often helpful for the sake of clarity to set down a list something as follows:
The Obvious Suspect–(to throw off the Dull Reader).
The Middle Suspect–(Actual Criminal).
The Buried Suspect–(to throw off the Clever Reader).
The longer detective novel or novelette, however, should be built with five levels of suspicion for four grades of reader mind. In this case, the table looks more like this:
The Obvious Suspect–(for the Very Dull).
The Less Obvious Suspect–(for the Dull).
The Middle Suspect–(Actual Criminal).
The Buried Suspect–(for the Clever).
The Deeply Buried Suspect–(for the Very Clever).
It will be seen that the same trio of suspected persons appears in both lists, and that the Middle Suspect may just as well be made the guilty man in the solution of the novel-length work.
In the longer piece, five levels of suspicion would only be the minimum. But more than five seems inexpedient, since a greater number of intentionally manufactured suspects will increase the confusion of minor characters. The case-hardened reader of detective stories may be trusted to suspect everyone in the narrative without any deliberate implication on the part of the writer.
Continuing the example above, Editor Jones dies, very painfully. A man is seen running away from the spot, say, with a knife in his hand. He is apprehended, found to be an individual known to have borne a grudge against the late editor. With the chart filled out in blank before you, you enter this character’s name after the heading “Obvious Suspect.”
The police view the body, the coroner appears. A friend of Editor Jones turns up, plainly broken up by the death. Perhaps you have him admit that he was near the spot by chance, but permit him to show that the murder would mean nothing but loss to him. If he is your actual criminal, you enter him after “Middle Suspect.” Then, as your tastes dictate, the super sleuth with his Watson, or the young District attorney, or the newspaper reporter arrives, and picks up the subtle clue which you have thoughtfully deposited near the corpse.
It is difficult not to be trite in the discussion of clues. The burned cigar butt, the handkerchief smelling faintly of musk, the finger-printed pistol, have all been worn thin to transparency. But you will find that an actual consideration of the murder, by you, of a real Editor Jones, will offer better things than these for your use.
Thus the story unrolls. Bit by bit, and always in the most casual fashion, you produce the scraps of evidence upon which the final solution is to be based, dropped in among other facts which are red herrings dragged across the trail. Here is where your superior knowledge helps you, for you are well aware of what is coming, and so realize what is significant and what is red herring, while the reader must sort out what he believes to be important without the advantage of fore-knowledge.
In passing, I have found it convenient to keep a list of the misleading occurrences on a separate sheet. For all these must be explained, during the narrative or at its conclusion.
It is useful, occasionally, in this game of outwitting the gentle reader, to put the detective character somewhere in the scheme of suspected persons. Either he or the deceased, through a hint of possible suicide, may very well be jotted down as the “Deeply Buried Suspect.” At some point in the action it is advisable to have the actual criminal suspected, and then apparently cleared on a motive or opportunity alibi which looks unshakeable until ultimately proved false.
Opinions differ widely as to the amount of blood which should be splashed around the walls and carpets. Personally, I agree with the contention that one murder, or two at the most, should suffice for either short story or novel-length mystery. Each subsequent killing, it seems to me, detracts further from the effect of the first, but that is a matter of individual taste.
And in the last analysis, the whole conduct of this game of “murder for profit” is a matter of individual taste, how you play it, within the compass of the rules sketched above, and even, of course, whether or not you choose to play it at all.
It is a game, a good game, and the author has the more interesting side of the board. He is quite willing to say keenly, as he puts a sheet in his typewriter and moves forward his first pawn: “Checkmate to the better player!”
[You might also enjoy this 1981 Writer’s Digest article about tips for writing popular fiction.]
Learn more or sign up for the Writer’s Digest University course, Advanced Novel Writing.
The post Vintage WD: Murder for Profit, Mystery Story Techniques Part 2 by Amy Jones appeared first on Writer's Digest.
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted many businesses, and put marketing plans on hold, but has it changed the direction of travel in marketing and digital?
Join Ashley Friedlein, founder of Econsultancy on Friday April 17th, 11am BST, as he revisits his 2020-2030 marketing and digital trends in light of COVID-19. Friedlein will also be taking questions from viewers in a Q&A session.
Register to attend this online event.
This event is part of The Lowdown, a regular update from thought-leaders in marketing and beyond on how to address the challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic, presented by Xeim Marketing Group (including Econsultancy, Marketing Week, Creative Review, Design Week and Influencer Intelligence).
The post Join Econsultancy founder Ashley Friedlein as he reviews digital trends in light of COVID-19 appeared first on Econsultancy.
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Coronavirus has changed just about everything, but you still need to connect to your customers, prospects, partners, and team members. And now more than ever, social media may be the best way to do so.
But you cannot just continue with your regular social media strategy, content, and cadence. What works is different. What people want is different.
You must consider these 11 changes to your social media to continue – possibly even accelerate – your social media success during the pandemic.
The strategy team here at Convince & Convert has been working closely with our world-class clients to develop these approaches. We shared this advice on the 11 changes to your social media strategy during Coronavirus on a live webinar.
Access the video – including our answers to more than SEVENTY audience questions – below. Feel free to distribute widely. We want to help as many people as possible.
On that point, we have developed four new consulting packages. They are faster than how we usually work, and more affordable. If you are interested in a no-obligation call with one of our strategists, please fill out the form below.
The packages are:
Also, if you are in higher education, you might be better served by our webinar on marketing and communications shifts among college and universities.
If your operations have been impacted in a meaningful way, your social media bios should reflect that reality. For example, even though all Best Buy locations in the United States are now pickup only, their Twitter bio doesn’t reference that information:
Although all Best Buy locations in the United States are now pickup only, their Twitter bio doesn’t reference that information.
Also, if you have key updates for your audiences, a good place to keep them front and center are pinned posts on Twitter and Facebook, and Highlights on Instagram.
In times like these, everywhere you exist in digital is a potential customer service channel. You simply must expand your efforts to find, engage, and answer customers everywhere online. In fact, in our webinar, more than half of the 500 attendees said that customer communication via social media had increased since the Coronavirus outbreak.
This is not the time for frivolous posts that are sent because they are “due” per the social media editorial calendar. That doesn’t mean you can’t be lighthearted, or even funny. It does mean, however, that you must carefully consider WHY you are posting in social media.
For whom is this post intended?
How does it entertain, inform, educate, or benefit that audience?
What specific behavior change or thinking change are we trying to effectuate with this post?
I love what Cardinal Spirits is doing in this regard. Located in Bloomington, Indiana where I live, it’s a small distillery run by some very smart friends.
Each day, they post on their Instagram exactly what they need in carryout sales to support their new mission, which is to make as much hand sanitizer as possible.
And then, when they reach that goal for the day (they’ve made it almost every day) they immediately add a new post that says “We’ve reached out goal for today. Please go support a different local business.” Spectacular.
Each day, Cardinal Spirits posts on their Instagram exactly what they need in carryout sales to support their new mission, which is to make as much hand sanitizer as possible. Amazing!
This was true before coronavirus, but it’s especially true right now:
We care about and trust people more than we care about and trust companies or organizations.
Every business and every organization is comprised of exceptional PEOPLE and now is the time to showcase that. Use humans in as much of your social media as you possibly can right now. It’s the one problem I have with the Cardinal Spirits post above: I’d rather it show their team (although they do so in their IG Stories).
And even better, spotlight your customers!
This effort from the Getty Museum is brilliant. They asked their fans to find three household items and use them to recreate famous artworks. They received thousands of submissions, many of them AWESOME!
On a related note, influencers and influencer marketing can be more effective than ever before. In times of uncertainty we rely upon people we trust and believe in, which is why a recent study showed a 75% uptick in clicks on Instagram posts that included #ad in the first two weeks of March.
If you have an influencer marketing program already, don’t be afraid to activate it right now. If you don’t have a program, this is a great time to set one up. (we actually do this for our clients)
Social distancing has changed our perceptions (and reality) about a great many things. It’s easy to rely upon your repository of brand imagery for social media, but in doing so you may unwittingly be sending a message that’s not wholly appropriate.
I love the differences in how Schwinn Bicycles spotlights their products. These posts are just a week or so apart, but you can see how they’ve adapted the visuals for a coronavirus world.
Classic imagery
Social-distancing era imagery
You know how you’ve experimented and optimized over and over to figure out what social media content formats and publishing windows work best for you? Well…..you can unfortunately cast that aside.
While social media usage in society overall is way up during the pandemic, people’s life routines are massively altered. No commutes. No treadmill. Having to oversee your kids’ Zoom homework during the day. It’s all a tangled ball of yarn.
Consequently, we’re already seeing big shifts in WHAT works, and WHEN it works.
Amongst our group of large clients (not a statistically valid sample, but directional), we’re seeing a huge increase in engagement rate for video posts, but an even larger increase for posts that include no photo, video, or link of any kind.
Further, for our financial services clients – as just one example – the “best” time to post before coronavirus became the world’s most unwelcome guest was 10am. Now? 10pm. In fact, we’re seeing a pretty strong pattern toward mid to late evening posts being disproportionately successful during pandemic, as people catch up on social media after dinner and maybe after the cherubs go to bed.
Again, this is not data you should use to modify your own program. But you absolutely must dig deep right now to figure out how your own social media success equation has changed.
The story is much the same with paid social media advertising.
Data from SocialBakers shows that cost per click and CPM for social ads is falling, as more and more advertisers stop their campaigns.
At the same time, overall click-through-rates for social ads are falling too, meaning that less expensive ads (yay) may not be working as well (boo).
And simultaneously, we are seeing clients in particular industries have incredible success with paid social media ads, more so than in those good ole pre-pandemic days.
In summary, just like with your organic social media, whatever math you’ve been using to figure out your ad spend and likely results is most likely borderline irrelevant right now. You’ve got to retest all of your data and projections accordingly.
Maybe people don’t want to (or cannot) buy from you right now. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want inspiration and education.
Try to become the Pinterest of your industry. How can you spotlight previous customers and how they use your products and services? How can you help your customers and prospects think about what and how they are going to do with you when they are allowed to do so?
For travel organizations, for example, this is a perfect opportunity to let people dream and stay motivated for the future.
But for all categories, helping customers create “wish lists” during quarantine can be a terrific social media content approach. Our client, David Weekley Homes, is doing this with their series of home trends, by region. This one is about kitchen trends, etc. in new homes in Austin.
David Weekley Homes is helping customers create “wish lists” during quarantine with their series of home trends, by region. This one is about kitchen trends, etc. in new homes in Austin.
You already have winning social media content. Maybe it was from last month. Or last year. Maybe it’s a big piece of content like a report or video series.
One of the best ways to succeed with social right now is to deconstruct, repackage, and republish those winners (assuming the content is still valid, and contextually appropriate).
We have a whole guide on this you may want to download (no cost). It’s called:
8 Ways to Extract More Value From the Content You Already Own
Several clients have asked us if they should “stop selling” right now. And while our answer varies a bit by industry, in general we’d tell you this:
Helping Beats Selling
I wrote a best-selling book about this principle. Youtility says that the best way to sell is to provide as much value as you possibly can – for free – and that as a consequence of your munificence, a percentage of the people you assist will become customers eventually. It’s never been more true.
Overt sales campaigns may be tough sledding right now. But if you can help your prospects, they’ll remember and reward you.
And if that’s the basis of your social media – to help – then if you sell a little along the way, you’re in great shape.
As my friend Rory Vaden from BrandBuilders Group says: “there’s no need to be nervous if your heart is on service.”
Wrapping Up:
In some ways, it may be harder than ever to be responsible for social media in your company or organization. But it may also never be a more vital job. You can continue to communicate and inspire and education and assist your audiences. You just need to make some changes to do so. We wish you great success in that journey and hope it’s truly a short-term scenario.
Meanwhile, do watch the webinar replay. The 70+ questions we answered from the live audience is worth your time.
Also a reminder that we are helping people like you and organizations like yours put these new social media and digital marketing best practices into place. If we can help you, please do fill out the form below for a no-obligation strategy call.
The post 11 Social Media Changes to Make in a Coronavirus World appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.
https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-creative-ways-to-use-facebook-messenger-for-business/
Do you want to improve your customer interactions on Messenger? Are you looking for creative ways to use Facebook Messenger for your business? In this article, you’ll discover five ways to use Facebook’s Messenger platform for business. Why Use Facebook Messenger in Your Marketing? Messenger marketing is simply the act of marketing to your customers […]
The post 5 Creative Ways to Use Facebook Messenger for Business appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.
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The Hero’s Journey is easily the most-used and most-loved storytelling structure in the history of humanity. It resonates with readers in ways that are as old as human D.N.A. itself.
If you want to connect with readers and engage them on a deep level, you would be at an advantage to study this storytelling method and use as much of it as possible in your writing!
But it can be hard to study and master a concept without a clear example to follow, or to at least recognize.
And in recent history, there is no clearer use of the Hero’s Journey than George Lucas’s space opera, Star Wars.
Whether or not you particularly enjoy Star Wars (especially in light of the recent Disney sequels) or have even seen it, you’ve surely heard enough about Star Wars to recognize its primary characters, symbols, and storytelling beats.
Let’s dive into the story of a boy on a desert planet who goes on to become a Hero!
For the uninitiated, or those who haven’t seen it in years, Star Wars: A New Hope is the story of Luke Skywalker, the nephew of a moisture farmer who longs to travel the stars and fight against the mighty Evil Empire. When he meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, an aged Jedi Knight, he begins his adventure alongside smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2.
The antagonists of Star Wars are two of the leaders of the Empire, Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. They command the Death Star, a new, moon-sized station station capable of destroying entire planets. In their hunt for the elusive Rebel Alliance, Vader captures Princess Leia, a young representative who is secretly a Rebel agent. To deduce the location of the Rebels’ secret base, Vader and Tarkin use the Death Star to destroy Leia’s home planet of Alderaan.
Aboard the Millenium Falcon, Luke Skywalker and his companions enter the Death Star and successfully free Princess Leia and escape, but not before Obi-Wan is killed in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader. They fly back to the Rebel Base, only to realize that the Empire has been tracking them, and now the Death Star is bearing down on their secret headquarters.
A grand space battle ensues, Luke piloting a X-Wing fighter craft. In the nick of time, Luke uses the Force to fire torpedoes into the Death Star’s main exhaust port, blowing up the entire space station. Vader escapes in his fighter craft, but Tarkin is killed.
The heroes return to a grand welcome and hope is restored to the galaxy!
Of course there are more Star Wars films, and this analysis will allude to several of them. However, the majority of our exploration of the Star Wars Hero’s Journey will stay with the 1977 original film, as George Lucas was careful to craft a story that was heavily based on ancient archetypes that have worked in the human mind for millenia.
George Lucas began planning his space opera by sketching out the characters. He knew, like Campbell knew, that great stories are built on the foundation of great characters.
First, we have the Hero in Luke Skywalker. What makes him the Hero? Mainly, these three factors:
On that journey, Luke comes into conflict with the story’s Shadow, Darth Vader. Unlike Luke, Vader’s goal (to smash the Rebellion against the Empire) is not empathetic. Vader’s attempts to find the Death Star plans and destroy the Rebels obstruct Luke’s goal throughout the story.
Luke also makes a pair of friends, or Loyal Retainers, in Han Solo and Chewbacca the Wookie. Their loyalty is tested, however, when the Rebels choose to attack the Death Star. And while Han abandons Luke during the Approach step of the Hero’s Journey, he indeed returns during the Resurrection, providing a cathartic climax that sees evil destroyed and good triumphant on multiple levels.
Luke isn’t with a Mentor, either. Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi arrives to provide both the story’s Call to Adventure, or Inciting Incident, and then guide Luke on the path to the way of the Jedi and the Force. As can be expected in a Hero’s Journey, the Mentor is killed (or is he?) along the way, leaving Luke to face the Shadow on his own.
Finally, Luke encounters a number of Threshold Guardians who attempt to destroy him and his fellow rebel forces. Jawas, Sand People (or Tuskan Raiders, for the nerds who are carefully judging this analysis), Stormtroopers, the Trash Compactor Monster, the Death Star cannons, the TIE fighters, and Vader himself all put themselves between Luke and his goal along the way.
These characters archetypes, and more, fill a story that is designed to follow all twelve steps of the Hero’s Journey, often reusing or overlapping steps for maximum effect. Here’s how Star Wars: A New Hope uses all twelve steps as checkpoints that move its story forward with incredible storytelling power.
Ordinary World: Luke lives in Tatooine but doesn’t like it. Like all Heroes, his eyes are drawn to the horizon where he longs to achieve heroic deeds in the rebellion against the Empire.
Call to Adventure: After buying a pair of seemingly inconsequential robots, Luke discovers that his R2 droid contains the Death Star plans and could help the Rebels destroy this planet-killing weapon. Obi-Wan Kenobi then calls Luke to action, saying, “You must learn the ways of the Force if you’re to come with me to Alderaan.”
Refusal of the Call: Luke balks at this invitation, overwhelmed at the sudden change sweeping his life. “I can’t get involved! I’ve got work to do! It’s not that I like the Empire. I hate it! But there’s nothing I can do about it right now. It’s such a long way from here.”
Meeting the Mentor: Technically, Luke has already met his mentor. But the active mentoring begins when Luke hurries home, only to find the compound burning and his aunt and uncle murdered by stormtroopers of the Empire.
Luke stands before Obi-Wan, heartbroken. “There’s nothing you could have done, Luke, had you been there,” Obi-Wan says. “You’d have been killed, too, and the droids would be in the hands of the Empire.” Then Luke commits to joining the old Jedi and venturing into the unknown toward Alderaan.
Crossing the Threshold: The story then pauses to show how consequential this choice is, showing Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids standing atop a massive cliff. They look down into the valley below. Then Obi-Wan utters, “Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”
It is at this point that our Hero, Luke, crosses from the safe and familiar to the unfamiliar.
Trials, Allies, and Enemies: Luke begins the middle of the story by acquiring a pair of allies, or Loyal Retainers: Han Solo and Chewbacca. However, he also encounters an enemy when a disfigured man accosts him at the bar.
The conflict escalates as Luke and his companions escape from Tatooine, infiltrate the Death Star, rescue Princess Leia (who seems to play the archetypal role of the Damsel in Distress, but with no distress whatsoever), survive the trash compactor, disable the tractor beam, and escape the Death Star thanks to Obi-Wan’s sacrifice.
If it seems like this summary has hit the fast-forward button, it does for a reason. Step #6 is the longest step in any heroic journey, but often contains scenes that shrink down the entire structure into a chapter or two.
In the case of Star Wars, one can see numerous calls to adventure, refusals, threshold crossings, the gaining of an ally or knowledge of an enemy, approaching an ordeal, the ordeal itself (often with a self-contained resurrection), and then a reward. This is Story Structure 101: Any Hero’s Journey will contain smaller, miniature heroic journeys sharing the same archetypal D.N.A.
Approach: Having escaped the Death Star, the heroes fly to Yavin 4 where the Rebel Base has been hidden. The Death Star plans are extracted from R2 and a weakness is indeed found. The fighter pilots receiving a briefing about this weakness and plan their strategy.
Meanwhile, Han Solo decides not to join the rebels, deeming the attack “my idea of suicide.” He takes his financial reward for rescuing Princess Leia and flees with Chewbacca, leaving Luke alone with a bunch of characters the audience doesn’t know.
The Ordeal: Luke and his fellow fighter pilots attack the Death Star, facing skilled enemies in TIE fighters and Darth Vader himself in his own special ship. One of Luke’s childhood friends is killed in the assault (Biggs).
The Reward (occurs twice in this story): Star Wars contains two Reward steps; one is the “false” reward, while the second is the “true” reward. First, the heroes are rewarded with safety and freedom after escaping the Death Star, and the story pauses to enjoy this moment of low tension.
However, the tension ratchets up again when Han Solo makes it clear that he only cares about his financial reward, which is indeed a “false” one, according to the movie’s moral theme. The second reward occurs later, in Step #12.
The Road Back (occurs twice in this story): The first Road Back is the backdrop for the first Reward, which showcases Han’s conflicting loyalties. It is the “fake-out ending” meant to lead the viewer into thinking that the story is resolved because the heroes escaped from the Death Star.
Resurrection: Rewinding back to the Ordeal (“Attack on the Death Star”), the scene climaxes as Luke is navigating a narrow trench in his X-Wing fighter toward the target with Darth Vader screaming at his heels. Luke — and the Rebels — are about to be destroyed by Vader and the Death Star, as the planned attack is not going as hoped.
Then a voice calls out to Luke: “Use the Force, Luke! Let go, Luke!” It’s the voice of his disembodied Mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke switches off his targeting computer, closes his eyes, and fires his torpedoes . . . and the Death Star explodes.
This also coincides with a personal and relational resurrection of Han Solo. When he proves his true loyalty and helps Luke outwit Vader and destroy the Death Star, the viewer receives the satisfaction of having seen a man morally “die” only to find “life” again by doing what is morally right.
Return with the Elixir: When Luke, Han, and Chewie return, they don’t just bring safety and security to the Rebellion. They bring hope, the titular value of the film.
This is also where the second “true” reward comes in. The medals the characters receive may not seem like much, but they symbolize the new identity of the wearers: Heroes. Luke begins as a simple farmboy; now he is a Hero who brings hope to the galaxy.
Within its tightly-designed structure, Star Wars makes sure it forces its Hero to deal with archetypal heroic situations, or scenes.
Here’s how the Star Wars Hero’s Journey shows these scenes:
After suffering the loss of his aunt and uncle, Luke realizes that he must confront the threat of the Empire himself. He declares to Obi-Wan, “I want to come with you to Alderaan. There’s nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.”
Soon after his Choice to Go, Luke is initiated into the world he has chosen. First, he faces physical threats, like the bullies in the Mos Eisley cantina and the Empire’s merciless stormtroopers while escaping on the Millenium Falcon.
But he also faces his first initiation into the way of the Jedi when he uses a lightsaber for the first time. Luke shows growth by doing as Obi-Wan says, “to stretch out with [his] feelings.”
Luke doesn’t have much time to train as a Jedi, though, because soon he is pulled into the Death Star with the other heroes. After learning that the princess of Alderaan, Leia Organa, is about to be executed, Luke makes it his mission to rescue her. In a thrilling scene filled with disguises, witty banter, and laser shootouts, Luke successfully rescues Leia from her metallic prison.
This scene occurs just before the Resurrection as Luke speeds down the Death Star trench in his X-Wing fighter. Jumping between scenes in Luke’s ship, the Death Star control room, and the rebel base on Yavin 4, two things occur nearly simultaneously.
First, the Death Star pulls within firing range of the rebel base and begins powering up its planet-killing weapon. Second, Darth Vader successful shoots R2-D2 in Luke’s ship, causing Luke to cry, “I’ve lost R2!” And in this moment, it seems like the bad guys are certainly going to win.
But a miracle happens! Han Solo helps knock Vader off of Luke’s tail, and Luke hits a bullseye with his torpedoes, exploding the Death Star in a massive blast.
The heroes return to Yavin 4, embrace one another, and celebrate. But then we see a colossal ceremony with hundreds of rebels in uniform. They stand at attention to honor the victorious heroes who are decorated with medals.
And those hundreds of rebels — stand-ins for the audience — applaud as incredible hope floods their spirits.
Learn more: Here’s how to write and innovate these timeless Hero’s Journey scenes!
George Lucas was a fan of mythology, including East Asian religions that focus on the balance of different forces. As he layered his story with these themes, Lucas created a rich tapestry for future stories and storytellers, which is why Star Wars is a beloved franchise up to this day.
Here’s how Star Wars imbues its story with deeply powerful themes.
Perhaps the clearest and most obvious thematic relationship in Star Wars is the one that makes it most enduring: the struggle between the forces of Good and those of Evil.
Representing Good are the white-and-beige clad “good guys” Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. They seek selfless, positive virtues, like freedom, peace, and hope.
Bad is embodied by the black-armored Darth Vader, as well as the darkly-uniformed Grand Moff Tarkin. They command a massive machine of death, control, and fear, wishing to pull all planets and systems under the thumb of the Empire. Their selfish cruelty is confirmed when they destroy Alderaan (and its millions of inhabitants) for no good reason other than to torture Princess Leia.
Star Wars is a place with several Havens that stand opposite its Wildernesses. Remember that Lucas based Star Wars on the Western genre, with its wide, endless vistas and renegade, rough-and-tumble characters.
Here are several diametrically opposed set locations in the story:
It’s notable that the film really only contains these major set pieces, with the exception of the film’s prologue aboard Princess Leia’s ship. Each location contains an opposite, so the story seems to swing, like a pendulum, back-and-forth between safety and danger, between Haven and Wilderness.
The opposing power of Nature and Machine is evident throughout Star Wars. As just mentioned, the Empire’s base, the Death Star, is a cold, lifeless killing machine. However, the Rebel Base is set amid a lush green rainforest. Simple contrasts like this provide a simple form of establishing this theme.
But Star Wars digs deeper than this by using its mythology of the Force to layer the theme deeply into the narrative. And its primary narrative device is the Lightsaber.
Heralded by Obi-Wan as “an elegant weapon,” the Lightsaber is the tool of the nearly-extinct Jedi. It is “not as clumsy or random as a blaster,” Obi-Wan opines.
Yet Han Solo, a self-reliant rule-breaker, dismisses the Jedi way as “a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.” He affirms his self-reliant beliefs when he claims, “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”
Clearly the more mystical, “natural” weapon is less desirable than the machine, the blaster.
Yet the Lightsaber is the weapon Luke trains with and comes to embrace as a part of the Jedi way. He also embraces the Jedi way when he obeys the disembodied voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Death Star attack.
“Use the Force, Luke!” Obi-Wan urges. Luke obeys by taking a specific action: turning off his computer, a machine. Clearly the mindset of Luke’s world is to trust in machines; the way of the Jedi is to trust in the Force.
It makes sense now that the Empire would put all of its hope in a giant machine, the Death Star. It is also led by a man who is “more machine now than man,” Darth Vader.
To be fair, this theme would not come home to roost for Star Wars until its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, was released three years later in 1980. However, George Lucas has consistently claimed that he planned for Vader to be Luke’s father all along. With that in mind, Star Wars has been the paragon of this theme in popular culture, at least since Shakespeare and the Greek tragedians.
And where Star Wars successfully makes great use of this theme is by invoking the idea of Destiny. In other words, if my father is a murderous, man-machine monster, will I be too?
This conflict is apparent in the cave scene on Dagobah, where Luke confronts the darkness within. He battles a phantom vision of Darth Vader and successfully decapitates it. But when the head rolls to a stop, Luke sees his own face within Vader’s helmet. Clearly the son is terrified of committing the sins of the father.
The original Star Wars trilogy didn’t concern itself with sibling rivalry, instead using another “they’re related” type twist in the third installment, Return of the Jedi.
But the prequel trilogy, written and directed by Lucas several years later, used it to great effect by casting Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker as brothers. No, they aren’t biological brothers, but this view is supported by Obi-Wan’s pained cry, “You were my brother, Anakin!” after defeating him in combat in Revenge of the Sith.
During Anakin’s training and the horrors of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin fought side-by-side and struggled with the befuddling decisions of the Jedi Council. They grew to trust and even love each other; but Anakin’s need for power and validation drew him away from his Jedi “brother” and toward a more sinister Sith “father,” Senator (and later Emperor) Palpatine.
This is why the final battle of Revenge of the Sith, despite some of its silly choreography, is painfully emotional. There was so much potential for these two men to do great things together! But their relationship has been broken by mistrust, fear, and horrible crimes, and it can only end violently.
Learn more: Here’s how to establish these classic Hero’s Journey themes!
To wrap up our analysis of Star Wars and the Hero’s Journey, let’s briefly look at how the filmmakers fill the story with powerful symbols, connecting the physical world of the story with the nonphysical feelings audiences have about the world.
This thematic relationship is apparent in two respects. One, of course, is physical: the “good guys” vs. the “bad guys.” And while the stormtroopers wear stark, white, skeletal armor, the darkness of the Empire is embodied by the black-armored Darth Vader. Standing opposite this darkness is Luke Skywalker, a lightly-clad and optimistic youth who learns about the “light side” of the Force from his beige-cloaked mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
It’s noteable that some characters are more morally ambiguous, sporting clothing of mixed color. Han Solo wears an off-white shirt covered by a black vest. Is he ultimately drawn to the selfless, others-serving light? Or the nefarious, selfish dark? Only the story can tell!
Even though it doesn’t play a role in the climax of this film, the Lightsaber is one of the most universally-recognized pieces of fictional lore ever created. There’s a reason people will pay $199 to make one at Disneyland, even though it isn’t “real.”
The Lightsaber is, indeed, magical. We can’t create anything like it with the technology we currently possess. The Lightsaber also jives with the morality of the Jedi: light and defense. So while Luke doesn’t wield it during the Death Star attack, he does employ its virtues by turning off the computer (blaster) and trusting in that which powers the saber (the Light).
The world of Star Wars is filled with numerous “underworld” locations where our heroes face numerous dangers. Here are the ones found in A New Hope:
What better “castle” for a science-fantasy story than a massive space station?
Of the many memorable lines from the film, who can forget Obi-Wan muttering, “That’s no moon . . . it’s a space station.”
And the Death Star has all the trappings of a Castle: guards, defenses, weapons, a dungeon (with a princess locked in it, no less), a king (Tarkin), and a moat (the trench). It is the place where the Shadow resides and possesses the most power; it is also a place where the Hero is relatively powerless and must use his wit and craftiness in order to find success.
This is yet another example of Lucas using age-old archetypes to fill his new, unfamiliar world (the galaxy of Star Wars) with familiar tropes that audiences can instantly recognize and understand.
Another archetype that wouldn’t appear until the sequel, the Unhealable Wound makes its appearance when Luke faces Darth Vader in combat at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.
Cornered and overpowered, Luke makes a massive mistake and exposes his right hand, which Vader swiftly cuts away with his own red-hot Lightsaber. Luke clutches the cauterized stump and screams in pain.
That hand is gone.
While Luke is able to acquire a mechanized replacement at the film’s end, it will serve as a constant reminder of his failure and the temptation to the Dark Side of the Force, a temptation his mostly-machine father gave into. This Unhealable Wound plays a major role in Luke’s character development, even into Disney’s “sequel trilogy.”
Learn more: Here’s how to utilize deep and meaningful Hero’s Journey symbols!
If you take the time to watch “Behind the Scenes” documentaries about the making of Star Wars, you’ll discover that the actors and crew didn’t believe in the film while they were making it. From their point of view, everything was just . . . weird. After all, there was a massive dude in a dog suit, a breathless British bodybuilder in a black suit, malfunctioning props and oddball costumes, and dialogue that made little to no sense.
Some even describe feeling sorry for writer-director George Lucas.
But they didn’t recognize the meta-structure behind it all. They didn’t share the same mythic vision as their chief storyteller.
George Lucas wasn’t telling a story about droids, laser swords, or even an Empire and a Rebellion.
He was telling the timeless story of Good vs. Evil, Nature vs. Machines, and more, using this wildly imaginative science-fantasy backdrop to do it.
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Now, to be completely fair, massive credit must be given to film editors Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew. They took Lucas’s original, extremely rough and choppy cut of the movie and resurrected the ailing movie.
By shortening shots, cutting more often, and capturing moments of intense energy from the various takes, Hirsch and Chew were able to instill the film with the energy, flow, and mythic quality that Lucas intended. Lucas has received his fair share of criticism for questionable filmmaking in the years following the original Star Wars trilogy.
However, it was and is his vision for Star Wars that continues to thrill audiences to this day, and his vision was one that utilized the full power of the Dark Side. . . . I mean, the full power of the Hero’s Journey!
So as you study Star Wars and other films that use the Hero’s Journey to great advantage, consider which of these elements you can use to supercharge your own epic tale to be told.
Your readers will thank you for it!
What’s your favorite moment from Star Wars? Does it connect with any of these Star Wars Hero’s Journey elements? Let us know in the comments.
Your writing practice today is Star Wars Hero’s Journey-themed, of course. It’s your turn to write a Hero’s Journey-based science fantasy saga. Or the first scene of one, at least!
Your protagonist is an underdog character on a remote planet. Unbeknownst to this character, they’re about to be called to a great adventure among the stars.
Write the opening scene of their story. Who are they? What’s their ordinary world like? And what happens to disrupt their regular life and call them to adventure?
Take fifteen minutes to write. When you’re done, share your scene in the comments below, and be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers!
The post The Perfect Hero’s Journey Example: Star Wars appeared first on The Write Practice.
