About
the Book:
We've all heard about the Hero's Journey, but how often do we hear
about the Heroine's Journey, Western culture's other prominent story
structure?
Tired of the hero's journey? Frustrated that funny, romantic, and
comforting stories aren't taken seriously? Sad that the books and
movies you love never seem to be critically acclaimed, even when they
sell like crazy? The Heroine's Journey is here to help.
• What is the heroine's journey?
• How is it different from the hero's
journey?
• What makes Harry Potter different from Star Wars? Twilight
from Wonder Woman?
In The Heroine's Journey you'll learn:
• How to spot the heroine's journey
in popular books, movies, and the world around you.
• The goddess-based ancient myths and
basic characters, tropes, and archetypes of this narrative.
• A step-by-step break down of how to successfully write this
journey.
What do Agatha Christie, JK Rowling, and Nora Roberts all have in
common? They all write the heroine's journey. Read this book to learn
all about it. From Harry Potter to Twilight, from Wonder Woman to
Star Wars, you'll never look at pop culture the same way again.
With over a dozen New York Times and USA Today bestsellers and
over a million books in print, popular genre author and former
archaeologist Gail Carriger brings her cheeky comedic tone and
over a decade of making her living as a fiction author to this
fascinating look at one of the most popular yet neglected narratives
of our time.
The title is an allusion to The Hero with a Thousand Faces,
Joseph Campbell's seminal work about mythology and archetypal
heroes. Gail Carriger uses the heroine's journey to produce
bestselling, critically-acclaimed books that genre blend science
fiction, cozy mystery, young adult, urban fantasy, romance,
historical fiction, and alternate history. In The Heroine's
Journey she uses her academic background and creative writing
skills to bring to life the archetypes, tropes, story beats, themes,
and messages inherent in the heroine's journey. Part treatise on
authorship, part feminist literary criticism, part how to write
guide, she uses mythology, legend, and Gothic Victorian 19th century
literature to explore movies, screenwriting, books, and audience
desires.
The Heroine's Journey is an excellent reference guide for
genre fiction authors seeking to improve their craft or for readers
and pop culture enthusiasts interested in understanding their own
taste. Guaranteed to make you look at plot structure in books, video
games, movies, and TV differently for the rest of your life. It is
the perfect counterpoint to The Hero with a Thousand Faces not
to mention Save the Cat.
What people say:
"The
first book on writing structure that's ever truly resonated for me
and made sense of the way my favorite stories work. I've thought back
to this book so many times since reading it, and I know I'll be
reading it again." — Stephanie
Burgis,
author
"A
lot of educators are going to be very interested in this. The
heroine's journey narrative structure aligns with positive parenting
and the anti-bullying programs' goals and techniques. Their preferred
stories emphasize team building and non violent conflict resolution.
Understanding that this is a long standing historical and culturally
relevant narrative structure will help them find more stories that
resonate with their programs, and help defend the programs from more
patriarchal critics." —
Janis
Wright
"I
knew that my stories didn't neatly fit the mold of the Hero's
Journey, but it wasn't until I read this excellent resource on The
Heroine's Journey by
Gail Carriger
that I
finally understood why. Now I understand not only how to reliably
write in this form, but also how to better position my stories for
readers and agents." —
Ethan
Freckleton,
author
"The Heroine's Journey
by Gail Carriger is a game changer for genre
fiction. Using dozens of examples from books and movies, Ms Carriger
carefully and convincingly divides these into two distinct story
camps based on the character arc of their protagonists: the lone wolf
and the team player." — The Blood-Red Pencil
About the Author:
Gail Carriger graduated
university with an honours degree in archaeology, with minors in
theology, geology, anthropology, philosophy, and classics. She is a
hugely successful author, has taught classes, sat on panels, and
discussed mythic books with readers, librarians, and booksellers.