Evon Davis

I knew I had to write from the time I was fifteen, but I didn’t know why.  Perhaps it came from an intuition — a need to make sense of this human experience.  Now it’s clear to me.  By putting my thoughts, feelings, and experiences down in writing, I begin to see a pattern; I see meaning.

Before I have pulled specific details from the current of my life and put them down in some order, none of it makes sense to me.  Maybe it’s pleasurable; maybe it’s not.  If it’s pleasurable, I might not care about the meaning.  I can just accept it for its own sake.  But when something painful occurs, I need to understand its meaning, even if I am the one creating the meaning.  Then I can take it in and embrace it.

I suspect people write for many reasons.  I do not know what they are, but I’d guess that for many of them, it is the same as with me.  There is something inside them that believes if they could put the right words down, they could unlock the magic of their experience.

Is it true?  I think it is.  I have often be stunned when I show up at a writers workshop feeling tired and uninspired.  I think it will be a waste of time.  But I have to show up because I’ve made a commitment.  My students are expecting me, counting on me.  I will fake it if I have to. 

We start by talking a bit; then it’s time to write.  I pour out words.  All of us in the room are writing because that’s what we’ve come to do.  When the timed writing is up, we go around the room, each reading what we wrote.  There’s no judgment.  It’s about sharing and maybe finding out how others were affected by it.

I read.  I am stunned.

I didn’t want to show up.  I did it anyway.  I wrote.  I wrote something magical.  I am stunned.  Where did this incredible writing come from?  I don’t know.  But it has taught me to trust the process.

Every week I show up whether I feel good about it or not.  I show up anyway.  Sometimes I write something incredible, others times not.  But it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that I show up.  I trust the process. 

Occasionally a student comes into class the first day and then disappears. 

Why?

I can only guess it’s because they don’t yet trust the process.  They believe that if they feel uninspired, they won’t be able to write.  This is not true.  I have learned over the years that there is no such thing as writer’s block.  There is only showing up or not showing up.  There is brilliant, magical writing and shitty first-draft writing.  You’re going to get both and they are both good in the overall scheme of things.

What is not good — if you want to write — is not showing up.  If you don’t show up to write, you get nothing.  You don’t get a shitty rough draft.  You don’t get brilliant imagery and succulent prose.  You get nothing.

Except perhaps the fantasy of being a writer.  I honestly believe that some people prefer to wrap themselves in the comforting blanket of fantasy than expose themselves to the true adventure.  But don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s the same thing.  It doesn’t even come close.

In Stage 4 of the mythic structure, the main character meets someone who becomes his or her mentor.  In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker’s mentor is Obi Wan Kenobi.  Ironically, the mentor can also represent the Shadow aspects of a character, such as Han Solo.

Thus far, we have seen the character’s ordinary world; we have seen the character being called to an adventure; and we have seen the character refusing the call or being blocked in some way.  The purpose of the mentor is to take the main character by the hand and lead him (or her) down the path he has been called to travel.

Let’s look at this stage in some popular novels and films, like Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (page 78), The Alchemist, and Avatar.

In Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius Black is Harry’s mentor.  The interesting thing about the Harry Potter books is that he has several mentors throughout the series.  Dumbledore is always his mentor, and Snape is always his shadow mentor, but in each book someone else takes a mentoring role as well.  In book 5, it is Sirius who takes on that role.  And Doloris Umbridge is his shadow mentor because she forces Harry to carve the words, “I will not tell lies” into the back of his hand until a scar forms.  The interesting thing about book 5 is that it’s the absence or failure of his mentors that forces Harry to grow up.

In The Alchemist, Santiago meets his mentor in the form of Melchezidik, also known as the King of Salem.  He has received the call to adventure in the form of a recurring dream and a fortune-teller’s advice, but has chosen to ignore the signs and go about his ordinary life as a shepherd.  It’s when the King of Salem shows up and talks to him about his Personal Legend that Santiago begins to take his call to adventure seriously.  The king leaves him with 2 stones to help guide him, and along the way he encounters other mentors as well.

In Avatar, Jake Sully’s mentor is Netyri, the beautiful blue girl of the Nav’i who takes him to her tribe and then is assigned the task of training him in their ways, to see if his “insanity can be cured.”

So in these examples, we see the ways in which mentors appear in the character’s life and the roles they play.  Star Wars and Avatar have the most clear-cut examples of mentors.  In each of these films, it’s very clear who is mentoring the main character, and they always work in the character’s best interest. 

The Alchemist is different in that Santiago meets consecutive mentors along the way.  In truth, they all come from the same spiritual source; they just appear to him in different forms.

The Harry Potter books represent the most complex way that mentors appear in a character’s life.  For Harry, nothing is ever straight-forward.  His mentors are rarely around when he really needs them.  They don’t trust him with information he really needs because they think he’s too young to know the truth.  They are often letting him down.  But the key to recognize is that the absence and failure of Harry’s mentors is fully intended by the author.

So when you are thinking of a mentor for your main character, consider the wide range of options available.  Consider giving the mentor some flaws.  Consider creating more than one mentor, but be sure that they are distinctly different and unique.  Consider creating a shadow mentor. 

Be careful not to turn the mentor into a two-dimensional prop.  In other words, the mentor is not simply a crutch for the main character.  He or she should be a fully-formed character in his (or her) own right, with a history, with personal motivations, with both strengths and flaws.

In Stage 3 of the mythic structure, the main character refuses the call to adventure, or is blocked in some way.  This sets up the beginning of conflict in the novel. Why doesn’t the character want to accept the call? Is it fear? Is there something in the character’s past that is holding him or her back?

There may also be factors outside the character that are standing in the way. For example, a character falls in love, but is already married. This character must then deal with a whole range of emotional and ethical issues.

Let’s look at this stage in some popular novels and films like Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (page 26), The Alchemist, and Avatar.

In Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, Harry is forced to use magic to fight off the Dementors, calling forth his patronis, the white stag.  As soon as he and Dudley return home, an owl shows up with a letter from the Ministry of Magic telling him that he will have to relinquish his wand and appear at a hearing in which they may decide to expel him from Hogwarts.  This is an example where the main character isn’t refusing the call, himself, but is being blocked.

In The Alchemist, Santiago receives the call to adventure when a fortune-teller tries to convince him that his recurring dream is true.  But he refuses to believe her and dismisses the dream.

In Avatar, the refusal of the call manifests in a unique way.  Jake Sully isn’t refusing the call (it’s too late; he’s already in the midst of his adventure), nor is he being blocked from the adventure.  Rather, what we see in the scene after he is separated from his own people, but before he meets Netyri, is a seasoned soldier who is truly terrified and vulnerable.  He’s doing his best to protect himself, but he and everyone else believes he will be dead before sunrise.

So, in these three examples, we see three ways that Refusing the Call can express itself.  One way is to block the character, another is for the character to simply refuse to answer the call, and a third way is for the character to be completely overwhelmed by his (or her) circumstances, such that he surrenders to his fate.