“I Want To Be A Writer, (but I don’t have the [fill in the blank])”

Every day, every single day, I encounter someone who wants to be a writer, and has been stuck on some level of process for months or years or decades. And they all think that their reason for stuck-ness is something unique and valid. Usually its on the level of “the story is so big, I don’t know where to start.” or “Don’t know how to. Finish” or “I’ve been working on it for years, and its no good”.

And the thing is that the pattern of self-defeat is the same in three arenas I’ve studied all my life: writing, martial arts, and relationships. And because it is the same, Lifewriting’s “Hero’s Journey” is the easiest way I can explain how to get out of the trap.

The Lifewriting theory says that the SYNTAX of accomplishing any life task can be found in storytelling patterns worldwide. Myths, movies, television, jokes, songs…if the human nervous system recognizes it as “story” it has to be patterned in a progressive manner, with certain rhythms of tension. There are probably countless ways to describe the pattern Joseph Campbell first observed, and mine is not definitive…but it is hella useful. You can use it to plot a story, or diagram the PROCESS of writing a story, or the process of doing ANYTHING in your life. And no, you don’t hit every step in precisely this order with precisely the same emphasis every time. Consider this the “scales” of writing or life, the most basic structure you have to understand to get in the game.

1. Confronted with a…