Recommended Book: The Hero is You
By: Kendra Levin
THE HERO IS YOU
By: KENDRA LEVIN
ISBN: 978-1573246880
QUESTIONS EXPLORED:
- What are your biggest challenges as a writer?
- How might you overcome those challenges?
- Where might you find a sense of play and possibility in your creative process?
WHAT I LOVE:
It won’t surprise anyone that I love The Hero is You. This book invites you think about your writerly development within the context of the Hero’s Journey as defined by Joseph Campbell. What’s more, the ideas and concepts included are highly compatible with Writerly Play.
The Hero is You is subtitled: Sharpen Your Focus, Conquer Your Demons, and Become the Writer You Were Born to Be. While ambitious, this promise is realized in the book. Levin examines eight archetypes that Campbell identified as common to tales around the world for thousands of years. With each archetype, she illuminates one aspect of the writing process and life. Through the lens of these archetypes, we see aspects of our creative selves. Once seen, we can play to their strengths.
Take for instance the Herald, about whom Levin writes, “Wherever you go, the Herald in you is seeking the narrative, the juice, the inspiration in the everyday. It’s the part of you that’s always looking for a story.” She also discusses the inner mentor. “Each of us is guided by a source of inner wisdom, a deeper part of ourselves that knows things our rational mind takes longer to process.”
The book is filled with pearls of wisdom such as these, as well as playful activities to engage your imagination in the thinking process of exploring your artist’s heart. As Levin writes, “Ultimately, what we are up to here is bigger than a single piece of writing. It’s about translating our writing to ourselves, using writing as a way to better understand ourselves and our world.”
PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION:
Imagine having your own personal mentor―someone encouraging yet honest, supportive yet empowering, who could help you set and achieve your goals, turn your moments of doubt and fear into sources of strength, and discover what you’re truly capable of when you’re at your best.
Kendra Levin is that mentor. And with this book, she’s here to help you do the best writing of your life―and live your best life while doing it.
Using a fresh new approach to Joseph Campbell’s archetypal Hero’s Journey, Levin reveals how to be a hero in the narrative of your own process. She weaves together wisdom drawn from her years as a life coach for writers and an editor at the world’s biggest publishing house with behind-the-scenes stories from a panoply of best-selling authors and career entertainers. With over thirty exercises designed to help you reinvent your creative process from the inside out, this book will show you how to:
- Identify your biggest challenges and render them powerless
- Start a project that you love―and stick with it
- Design a structure for writing regularly
Whether you’re a first-time writer with a brand-new project or a seasoned pro, you’ll reach the end of this book feeling fulfilled, inspired, and ready to mentor the next writer on their creative journey.
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