If it was easy everyone would be doing it

I’ve heard the phrase ‘if it was easy everyone would be doing it’ many times since starting The Story Mint and right now all I can say is, ‘never was there a truer word spoken.’ However, there are moments when the light shines through the haze and the direction and reason for pursuing the dream becomes clear

I met with the Kristin students last week and the experience was inspirational, as once more I became familiar with Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. We have three quarters of an hour and in that time we do a fast write exercise and review the chapters each student has written in their serial A Confession. We talk about highlights, what we thought about the story and where we think it might be heading. The thing that I always find amazing is how well these students, despite a very heavy workload, write their 500-word chapters, how graciously they take suggestions and how insightful they are. Their characters are fully formed and described in economical ways. An example of this is when Matthew described his character as holding a cup and saucer in his ‘meaty’ hands. His use of that one word ‘meaty’ conjures up an image of the parent that portrays not only his hands but the whole person. These students are inspirational. If anyone doubts that the future of the world is in good hands, they need only meet these young writers to know it will be fine. They will find ways to solve the many problems we face today.

What I love most is their sharp-witted enthusiasm. No sooner had I talked to them about Vogler’s first stage of The Writer’s Journey, than they were ordering a copy from Amazon or the Depository. So when we discuss the next phase of the journey, The Call to Adventure and the Refusal of the Call, they will have read the chapter. Our discussion then will be around the different types of Call to Action, and whether or not a refusal of the call also constitutes an action leading to outcomes that are mirror images of those that might occur when the hero accepts the call. In effect, there is no such thing as choosing not to respond to the call.

Setting up a new business is like this. Whenever I think about what I might have done right back at the start I know I would follow the same path. There was an inner drive that was impossible to ignore.

 So is this a case of life imitating art or vice versa? I don’t know. I just know that when I finished my Master’s degree, I could not put my novel in a drawer and forget about it despite publishers’ apparent lack of interest. It felt wrong that a project, that contained what I felt was a really important social message, should be allowed to sit in a drawer and gather dust.

I have, for a very long time, worried about the high rate of violence in this country. I have wondered where it has come from and why, in a country which is known the world over for its beauty and wonderful landscapes, we have children dying at the hands their parents and women subjected to domestic violence. Although I am no psychologist, I do wonder if frustration with not being heard lies at the heart of it. If poverty is the reason for violence, then why do families survive poverty to become prosperous? Poverty coupled with some other factor creates the kind of violence we regularly witness. I wonder if that other factor is a consequence of being afraid to face the stories upon which our nation rests.

We will have matured as a nation when we can stand beside someone whose story is the opposite of the one we have heard without flinching or becoming defensive.

In a way that is the Hero’s journey. The hero starts out confronted by a truth which disturbs his or her comfortable ordinary world. The hero either takes up the challenge or refuses the call, but either way we are aware there will be consequences. We begin the journey, face the obstacles and overcome them and return to the re-ordered world as changed beings. As in my novel, this is a new world and no one is ever the same after the ordeal. Instead, each person has undergone a process which has changed his or her view of the world for the better or worse.

This process is, as I said in my opening paragraph, never easy, yet the result is worth the effort. Thankfully, I am beginning to see this now and each time, as the vision becomes just a bit clearer, I am filled with a sharp stab of excitement.