ARCHETYPES, MYTHS AND THE STORY OF THE WEST: part two -writers and screenwriters

Photo (c) by Doris McCraw

Part two of the discussion of writing stories/novels and screen writing. This section deals with some of the similarities between the two and the underlying importance of engaging your reader/watcher.

For those who would like to review the first part, you can access it here: writers and screenwriters

So here we go.

• Psychological effect
  • It’s important for writers to understand the human psyche. By doing so the writer can effectively communicate their message to their audience.
    • The best stories include both sides of conflict equally, thus allowing the audience to form their own opinions.

When we start a story, we usually have an idea of where we’d like the story to go. As noted above, some of the best stories have multiple views of what is happening. I’ve heard it said a story is only as good as it’s villain. I don’t know how others feel, but in my first published novella, “Home for His Heart”, I felt I needed a villain who was strong enough to force the hero and heroine out of their respective fears. That the villain felt justified in his actions made him even scarier than just a bad person.

• Symbolic Linkage – Symbolic links are a handy tool for any writer. Most audiences are smart and are have a common culture; therefore writers can effectively use what some audiences might already have been subjected to.

The story of the West has been told by many authors in many different forms. This is also true of the film industry. As we look back to the early western writers and film makers we see a cleaner delineation of good and bad. We can reference events and most will understand the connection. As time has passed, the stories have become more complex, the line between hero and villain have sometimes been blurred. One of my favorite films is the original ‘3:10 to Yuma’ with Van Johnson and Glen Ford. Although you know who the hero and who the villain are, the story adds the element of good in the bad. The remake with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe added more on screen violence and more of the pieces of good and bad for both the hero and the villain. However, if you really want to see how one story can be told is a myriad of ways, read the original short story by Elmore Leonard. It is a great, yet short read.

photo (c) by Doris McCraw

• Archetypes – Another way to engage your audience is the use of archetypes. In particular the concept of an archetype reveals recurring mental images and/or themes that encompass many different cultures and societies throughout time. One could say that we as humans innately understand archetypes from birth. Character examples might include: The Hero, The Caregiver, or The Wizard. Story specific examples might include: The Hero or The Rebirth.

If there is a more perfect description of the Cowboy as hero, I don’t know what is might be. We have the archetype right there. The Cowboy is the hero, the caregiver and for some a wizard who is there to save the day. When I was writing “Chasing a Chance” my hero was just a man who wanted to find and help the woman he’d always loved. Through the story he learns just how much he was capable of. In some ways, his journey is one of rebirth into who he always was.

• Myths – With archetypes also comes the use of Myths. Constructing your own myths, legends and saga can also have a big impact on an audience. Myths help make a connection in the same way that both symbolic links and archetypes do. As a myth story unfolds the audience instinctively understands what’s at stake and instantly realizes this is an epic larger then life adventure ahead.

We as Western and Western Romance writers make use of the myths of the West in our storytelling. It is what has drawn us to the genre and keeps us telling its story.

So as storytellers, what part of myth, archetype and symbolic links do you use? I realize I love telling stories of people who come to understand what they are capable of and of making peace with their past. The stories of the West, the journeys and new starts fit so well with the men and women I come to love as I strive to tell their stories.

Doris Gardner-McCraw -

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

writing fiction as

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

The Wild and Crazy West . . . Some Fact vs Fiction

By: Peggy Henderson

Camels!

In 1855 congress paid $30,000 to buy and ship camels from Egypt. Someone came up with the idea was that these critters would be better suited for the dry and hot southwest than horses, and could e used for survey and exploration. By the time of the civil war, the army had seventy camels. While some were used in the war camping, other camels escaped into the wild, where they reproduced. For the next hundred or so years, up until 1941, wild camels were part of the wildlife in Texas

 A land of many cultures

Classic Hollywood movies depict the American cowboy as a white tough guy who fought against other white tough guys, with the occasional black and Mexican, or maybe even an Irishman, tossed in.

The truth is that the “wild west” was a place for people of all nationalities. Germans, Swedes, Slovakians, Chinese, and others made the south and Midwest their home. This only increased with the 1849 Gold Rush in California.

Gun Control

If Hollywood movies were fact, everyone in the Old West carried a gun, and you’d better be ready for a shootout in town at any time.

Carrying a firearm in most cities, however, would probably land you in jail. One of the first laws passed in Dodge was the prohibition of carrying firearms. Other famous towns had similar laws. Probably the second most common cause of arrest in the Old West was illegally carrying a gun.

Violence
Every good western has the classic shootouts, bar brawls, and bank robberies, making the Old West a place of violence.

In truth, it was better to get along with your neighbor than start shooting at him. Ban robberies, too, were almost unheard of. Homicide rates were low. The highest body count in Tombstone in one year was five. From 1870 to 1885, Dodge and Wichita had a murder rate of 0.6 per year.

The Gunfight at the OK Corral

….didn’t take place at the OK Corral. It happened in a back alley. Three men died during this epic shootout, which lasted about thirty seconds.

Prostitutes

Prostitution in the Old West wasn’t glamorous, just as it’s not today. Back then local newspapers would name, shame and hound prostitutes to the point of driving many to suicide.

Brothels were nothing more than poverty traps, forcing girls into never ending competition with one another for enough scraps to eat, with no hope of escape. Put simply, it was a profession for people with no other options

Cowboys

The cowboy – big Stetson hat, rough and tough, unwavering moral code, big spurs and chaps, right?

First of all, they weren’t called cowboys, but cowpunchers. It was a dirty job, and none of them dressed like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. Most likely, they looked more like homeless people, wearing practical clothes that got worn and dirty.  

Most of them probably were illiterate, and not very moral. Many had terminal cases of STD’s.

Peggy L Henderson

Western Historical and Time Travel Romance

“Where Adventure Awaits and Love is Timeless”

Author of

Yellowstone Romance Series

Teton Romance Trilogy

Second Chances Time Travel Romance Series

               

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