An Unexplained Journey

Journeys. Someone's going somewhere. But what really matters, the destination, or how they get there?

Back in high school, when I was in Drama, we had a group project to write a short script in which "Someone is going somewhere." That was the only guideline. Just think of all the possibilities! All the journeys that could be taken! Our "someone" was a malicious old lady named Edna. And well, she was going to Hell.

Not exactly high art, but journeys come in all shapes and sizes.

More familiar, and probably more impressive, is the Hero's Journey. Your hero starts in their normal world as a moisture farmboy, or Shire resident, or kid in a cupboard. Then they get drawn into some adventure, meet a mentor figure, go through some trials and tribulation, and then return a changed and possibly better person.

Some say that all the great adventure stories follow that model. Don't believe that. Some do. Some do if you rearrange them a little. Some just… don't. I'm not one to cram myself into a mold, so I don't think I'll be trying to shoehorn a story into that format just for the sake of using a supposedly successful model.

Here’s the thing: journeys can happen anywhere. In space, at the bottom of the ocean, freaking Narnia, or the backroads of middle America. You can have journeys in time, and to the center of the Earth! All you need is a starting point, a destination, and some interesting shit along the way.

I'll admit, I'm a little whacked out on cold meds right now, but I'm feeling inspired. It's that 6am in mid-July feeling. It feels like great weather and endless possibility. Like I could just get in the car and drive anywhere.

There's a journey brewing in that sunny part of my head. I don't know where it's going, but I think I'm going to have to follow it. I have no clue about setting or plot or characters, but I have that one moment. That one feeling.

So I think it's safe to say we're going to try to write a journey story for NaNo. Whether it's going to be realistic, or sci-fi, or fantasy, or what, remains to be seen. Maybe it'll have an invented language in it. Who knows!

I'll see you Friday.