I recently got a chance to ask Pat Edwards a few questions about her book, Exploring the Magic of Your Hero’s Journey.
I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, aside from the occasional memoir, but I enjoyed this book. Written in a fresh narrative style with a kind and motivational voice Pat takes the reader through the twelve steps of any hero’s journey. The book challenges the reader to reframe their goals and how they might go about achieving them, using real-world examples as well as universal stories familiar to many.
Interested in writing myself, I wanted to know more about Pat’s process and how it affected her. If you’re thinking about starting a hero’s journey or you’re in the middle of one (even if you don’t know if you are or not) read Exploring the Magic of Your Hero’s Journey and draw from the myths and stories of others to decide for yourself.
A special thanks to Ms. Edwards for her taking the time to answer my questions.
| -Where did you find the motivation to write it?
It sounds simple, but I just decided: I am writing this book this year. No matter what it takes, I’m doing it. When I made the decision with no waffling, the motivation came automatically. -Did writing this book energize or exhaust you? Both, but most of the time it energized me, especially when I would get on a roll writing or find an interesting myth or hero I had never heard of before to include in the book. At one point, I realized I had used mostly male hero examples in my first draft. I knew I had to change that, and it showed me how deeply entrenched our masculine/feminine hero concepts are. -How did writing this book change how you write? I also write poetry. Writing poetry usually comes from a thought, a line, or concept that pops into my head, i.e. inspiration. To meet my self-imposed deadline for this non-fiction book, I set a plan of writing 20 minutes a day every day, including work days. At lunch time, I would set a timer, start my white noise app (ocean waves!), and bang away as fast as I could until the timer went off. On the weekends I would get more time in, but I think the work day set time and consistency made the difference. -What was the hardest part to write? The hardest part to write was my personal journey with all of the vulnerability details. My editor recommended using a different journey as an example rather than the one I did. He thought my writing journey was more relatable to a wider audience. But I felt I had to use the harder and more personal shamanic journey to be completely true to me and the book’s concept. -How hard was it to find people willing to share their journeys with you? It was quite easy. Most people don’t realize they are on a Hero’s Journey at different points in their life. I just had to page back through my memory and think of someone whose story would be a good example. When I asked each for an interview, I described how what I already knew of their experience modeled the Hero’s Journey. They never saw what they did as the Hero’s Journey, until I aligned it for them. |
Here’s a link to the book:
| Exploring the Magic of Your Hero’s Journey on Amazon |
You can follow Pat’s blog about the book at https://exploringthemagicherosjourney.com/
Boudreau Blog 
Thanks for blogging about my book, Amber. I”m looking forward to returning the favor for your book soon.
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