The Roller Coaster Begins!

I hate roller coasters.  I have never liked them.  My brother and my father both love them, but I'd rather pull my fingernails off with a pair of pliers than to ride a roller coaster.

the Galaxy roller coaster at Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque, NM
Picture borrowed from themeparkreview.com

Where I spent most of my life, Albuqeuerque, NM, there is only one real theme park, but an amazing water park where I spent far more time of my summers at.  Cliff's, once called Uncle Cliffs, has a roller coaster called the Galaxy, and a newer one called the Rattler, but the Galaxy was my first real experience with roller coasters.  My first experience wasn't so bad.  My father sat with me, my mom and brother behind me.  I wrapped my arms around the bar across my lap and closed my eyes through the entire thing.

From there it only got worse.  My brother used to drag me onto it over and over again. And for some reason I would go with him protesting the whole way, yet I never had to ride with him.  Either way, he was the one who used to tell me tales of this roller coaster riding off the tracks and people dying.  Thoughts that stayed in my mind the entire time I sat in one of those cars, whizzed around corners, climbed the hills, and free-fell to a tight banking turn.  I kept imagining our car launching from the rails and just staring at the pavement climbing up to meet us.

Basically, I hate the heights of the coaster and the belly lurching drops.  I also can't stand log rides, yet I love the rush at the end of them.

So, what on earth does this have to do with anything I've been blogging about?


Well, our beginning is considered and people are entering our theme park.  Our characters are examined and being developed thus creating our theme.  Now we have to create the ups and downs and twists and turns of the roller coasters.


Also, just like characters, these twists and turns have been broken into a series of archetypes and steps.  So let's look at these identified steps as a whole first, and we can break them down into the archetypal quests and journeys and how we can twist and turn them.


Joseph Campbell, the mythologist, was the first published author to note commonalities between the ancient stories the whole world wide.  His books decorate my shelves and the shelves of many authors simply because he noted a common thread which still exists in our stories today.  He found that golden link all people share.


Campbell's work gave way to other authors, one of my favorites, for example is David Adams Leeming.  To break down Campbell's work into more digestible bits, Leeming wrote two necessary books for authors to read: The World of Myth and The Voyage of The Hero.  Okay...so enough plugging other people's works and hoping for free, signed copies, let's break it down here for you.


Mythologically speaking there are four essential gods: The Earth Spirit, the Trickster, the All Father, and the Dying God.


Mythologically speaking there are four essential myths: Creation, Flood, Apocalypse, and After Life.


Well this is all and good, but so what?  I'm not into writing fantasy and I'm no Rick Riordan.  But that's not the point.  All of these myths lead us to the very steps of heroism.


First, all heroes must be born or reborn somehow.  When we're talking about myths, the hero's birth is miraculous somehow.  Some were born from virgins, some were forged from the earth, some were even vomited into being (Bumba is a very strange story).  In books and literature we see this still.  One of the most noted that I can remember is the Matrix.  Neo actually had numerous births and rebirths.  He was first born into the computer generated reality, he was reborn into the true living world, and then reborn again into the One prophesied, after his death and venture to the the underworld (which was the loss of hope for all).


Secondly, their childhoods are plagued somehow with trials.  Learning how to fight, trying to pull swords from trees, some mad king afraid of a prophecy is trying to kill them, or they are trying weighing the truth of their father's evil deeds and trying to keep from becoming that same evil.


Third, all heroes must go into a state of meditation where they make a great and weighty decision.

Star Wars is a prime example through all six episodes

Fourth, their quest or journey begins.  This is a very important aspect.  Most of the time we are told that the books is the quest or journey, and though that maybe true in a few cases, ideally this aspect is the rising action of our roller coaster.  To make matters more complex, and we'll look at this again in the future, but J. R. R. Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, identified a distinct difference between journeys and quests.  Ideally, a journey makes a great story (and a stand alone book), where as a journey alters and changes the heroes so much that they can never return home happily (a series or at the very least a growth of a character within books).


Fifth, all heroes must die.  Truth be told, they don't have to die as in physically, but metaphorically is just as well.  It is a point where all their dreams just snap.  That's it.  The end.  The finale.  The fat lady is belting it out.


However, while our ears are popping from the song, the sixth step is that all heroes go through a sort of underworld.  Usually it is a form of hell, a point of depression and suffering, but not always.  Russel Crowe's character Maximus in Gladiator kept a constant vigil on Elysian Fields.


The seventh step is the resurrection of the hero.  They have slipped from Tartarus or their depression has ended, some sort of realization has just occurred and the Hero is back on track.


Lastly, the eighth step is the ascension.  The hero finds heaven, or their version of heaven.  Goals are achieved, happiness is restored, order is found.


Let me elaborate.


Perhaps one of my favorite stories of all time is Casablanca.  The plot is relatively simple, people go to French soil, but German occupied Morocco to escape the coming of the Nazis.  However, people need money and papers to get smuggled to safety and freedom.  Straightforward, get papers get to safety.


But this is where we meet Rick, an American who has a past of working for underdogs but has had a change of heart while in Paris before France fell to the Germans.  We find Rick while he is in underworld.  He has no dreams, no expectations, no concerns, though parts of his former self still exists as he helps rig his gambling tables to help people escape the country.


We are only treated to flashbacks and historical references of Rick's past.  His time in Paris, stories of his sympathies to causes and people. These are Rick's trials as they were failed causes he fought for, and I can't help but think of Sam, a constant reminder of those times.

Easy to see why she was Rick's dream girl.

Now enter his hopes and dreams: Ilsa.  Plot twist, she's married to a man who the old Rick would have supported, but because Victor and Ilsa are married, Rick is torn between realizing what he wants and realizing what is best for all.  Once more, we see the moments of Rick's trials but we are directed toward his reason for leaving Paris, which he attributes to the invasion, but he could be hiding something.


Rick's "death" comes when Ilsa leaves him but when she returns to him begins Rick's torturous climb back to life and who he once was, the hero we're routing for.  But there's a twist, he could have Ilsa back at the cost of Victor's freedom.


I won't ruin the film if you haven't seen it, but Rick does resurrect and ascend into glory for those who knew him best.  


Now i know there are tens if not hundreds of blogs out there discussing this very same thing.  Some authors even elaborate on their own adding more steps.  By all means, read some of them and help grow your ideas, but most of all, learn how to identify these steps in your writing as it will give your story the arcs all of us are looking for consciously, subconsciously, and occasionally unconsciously.