The Hero Archetype or Rush Jobs On My Plate

Rush jobs usually are the ones that are slapped together, often poorly thought out, and many times they are the ones you always want a do-over for. I'm hoping that the current SWG Writing Challenge doesn't turn into one of those, even though I only have 2-1/2 weeks in which to write it.

The concept is fascinating. Dawn and the SWG gang are taking the concept of the archetypal Hero and pulling the character (any character of the writer's choice within SWG parameters) into a series of prompts - each one of which must lead into the next. The author can choose either three, five or seven prompts to spur their story forward. Because of my limited time frame, I decided to go with three, but normally I would have probably chosen five.

The Hero's Journey is the foundation of most legendary
tales and can be morphed in so many ways that it can
easily become the foundation for the protagonist in most
books and stories written. Although SWG is based in
Tolkien, the Hero exists in literature across the spectrum. 

The Hero character is one that has featured in literature for as long as tales have been told around the nighttime fires. S/He's the one identified in Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With 1000 Faces", a transformative book analyzing world mythology first published in 1949. Campbell's theory, repeated over and over again in other expostulation about writing styles, is the following:

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." 

Think about that for a moment. Bringing it into Tolkien, Frodo and the others in the Nine Walkers did exactly this - but the true heroes of the tale are the combined talents of Frodo and Sam. Each of them would not have succeeded without the other - either as a driving force or a cheerleader. Frodo is the one who carried the ring, and it's basically his tale, but without his companion, the Quest would have failed and Middle Earth would have fallen into Darkness and terror. In succeeding in his quest to destroy the ring, Frodo gave everything - so much so that eventually he had to leave the land he loved to save his own life.

I now have my prompts for this newest writing challenge, they were emailed to me last night. I have a little over 14 days in which to write this before I leave for my annual Bead & Button conference, workshops and get-togethers. It's time for me to put on my power thinking hat!

It was pouring down rain in buckets for most of the night. It's a
bit calmer now, but it will still be a wet day. I'm debating the
virtues of an umbrella vs my rain slicker. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday. I think today will be rain, rain and ... yes ... yet again more rain. I may have to drag out my wonderful Paddington Bear yellow hooded slicker. I look ridiculous in it, but it's waterproof and that may be the key today.