An Experiment in Writing – Part 23: Into the Mythic

 
(the video’s way down at the bottom of this post)

Transportation Devices
Consider stories as transportation devices. Fiction’s purpose is to take you out of your reality and put you into the story’s reality. Ever read something and lost track of time? I’ve had readers tell me they missed their bus stops, forgot to make dinner, stayed up all night reading, dreamt scenes, and more while reading my work.

Kudos to me, right?

The reason readers have those experiences is because the writing (not just mine. Read Charles Frazier or Craig Johnson or…) provides so rich, complete, and fulfilling an experience the story’s reality subsumes the reader’s normal reality.

Into the Mythic
One of the ways this transportation happens is because the author invites the reader “Into the Mythic,” meaning into the story’s reality, and there are many ways to do this.

 
And here’s the thing about going Into the Mythic (did I mention “Mythic” means the mythic reality of the story?); you have to get the reader back out when the story’s finished.

People descending Into the Mythic (and this applies to everything, not just storycrafting) essentially go into a hypnotic state (no kidding!). Whenever the story’s reality subsumes the reader’s reality, they are in a hypnotic state because the story is more real than the world around them. Indeed, the story’s reality becomes the world around them, hence they stop paying attention to what’s happening in their environment. Remember when people were so engaged by what was on their mobiles they walked into things (often dangerous things)? They were pulled into their mobile’s reality and not released (they were also (my opinion here) idiots).

 
The lines many remember from fairy tales – “Long, long ago…,” “Once upon a time…,” “In a land far, far away…” – are all invitations Into the Mythic. Remember the opening to the original Star Wars? “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”? A beautiful invitation into the mythic, and even more so because it crawls over a deep space background accompanied by John Williams’ music.

How do we know how powerful Lucas’ original invitation Into the Mythic was? Remember how many people kept talking about the movie days and weeks and months and years after its release? Remember how many more people queued up for the sequel? Remember how many people bought the merchandise? Have you counted the sequels and spinoffs and such?

Want some other examples of Into the Mythic in popular culture? Remember “The Outer Limits” intro? “There is nothing wrong with your television set. We control…” A brilliant invitation to give up control of your lives “for the next hour” because “all that you see and hear…”

How about The Twilight Zone‘s “You’re traveling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination…”

Gotta love it!

 
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money.