Joseph Campbell quotes — Day 4

NOTE: As we begin The Quest, I figured it was a good time to bust out some Joseph Campbell, progenitor of The Hero’s Journey. This is one in a series of posts from 2010 featuring notable Campbell quotes.]

From Monday, December 20-Sunday, January 2, I’m going to post a Joseph Campbell quote each day at 9AM PST. Why? Because the end of the year is a time to reflect on our lives — what we do and what we hope to do, who we are and who we hope to become. And Campbell’s deep immersion into the world of stories resulted in some profound wisdom about human existence. I hope you find inspiration in Campbell’s words. Today’s quote:

“When you follow your bliss… doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn’t be a door for anyone else.”

Yet another bit of wisdom that pertains both to our own individual existence and a Protagonist character in our stories. As writers, I’m guessing we have this experience every time we write a story, where we get stuck in the writing, then discover a ‘door’ that almost magically opens leading us down a heretofore unknown pathway. Eventually, of course, we hope our writing opens an important door — the one to success as writers whereby we can make it our vocation, rather than an avocation. However if writing truly is part of our bliss, the experience of writing itself is its own reward.

And then for the Protagonist, following their bliss is one way to describe the psychological aspect of their story-journey. Whereas the experience of it is generally a ‘negative’ one, at least in terms of conflict, deconstruction, complications, roadblocks, reversals and all the rest, at the end of the day the character, if the story is a positive transformation, lands in a place where they were supposed to be, achieving not only their conscious goal, but also connecting to key aspects of their Self and infusing their life with new meaning.

For more on Joseph Campbell, go to the Joseph Campbell Foundation.

[Originally posted December 23, 2010]

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