www.marilynbrant.com

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Truffle Trivia #3 (and February Contest Winners!)

It's just after noon on the last day of the month, so it must be time for a drawing!

The winners of the Victoria's Secret lotions are:
Gail Fuller (small VS Pink lotion)
Nancy Parra (small VS Very Sexy lotion)
Caryn Caldwell (large VS Dream Angels Wish lotion)
Congratulations to all three of you!!! Prizes will be headed your way soon...

Many thanks to those of you who signed up for my newsletter! The first issue went out this week, and I hope you enjoyed it. (I'm counting on you all to let me know if there were technical difficulties or any other annoying things. Please don't hesitate to email me if you spotted something or if you have any suggestions. :) Next issue will probably be out in late April/early May and will have a subscribers-only drawing as a part of it.

And, finally, because I have one last box of truffles remaining, I give you Truffle Trivia #3:

I've been thinking a lot about story structure lately and have, over the past 8 years, tried a number of different strategies for making sure the books I work on have some kind of plot. One of the first structures I learned about was Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey, which details several steps a hero (or heroine) takes as he or she moves through the novel. The first step in Campbell's framework is the "Call to Adventure." It's followed by "Refusal of the Call" and "Supernatural Aid." What is the name of the step that follows this, and what's basically supposed to happen at this stage of the story?

First person to post the correct response, gets five tasty truffles. Good luck!

14 comments:

Nancy J. Parra said...

Wow- Thanks Marilyn! I'm a winner- cool! My horoscope said I would find treasure this week- ;)

Loved the newsletter.

Good luck with your trivia question.

lainey bancroft said...

Um...the H and or h adventurously refuses the supernatural aid and THE BLACK MOMENT occurs.

(I cannot tell a lie, just like in school, I didn't bring the book home for the weekend)

BUT, I did read your newsletter (and give it a shout out on the blog!) And it was super-duper!!!

Marilyn Brant said...

Thanks to you both for reading my newsletter!!

Nancy~glad I could assist the astrological gods on this one :-).

Lainey~LOL!!!! Um, well, you're on the right track. Kinda. There's no limit to answering, though, so if you look it up before anyone else chimes in with the more "textbook" answer, that's fine by me! Alternately, if no one gets this, I may just have to give out the truffles to the person with the most "creative" response :). Thanks so much for the blog shout out, too--that was so sweet!

Anonymous said...

Oh, wow. It IS the last day of the month, isn't it? Wow. These short months do go fast, don't they?

And, whee! Thanks for the lotion. It sounds delicious -- in a totally non-edible way, of course. And because of that, I'll step out of the way and let someone else answer for the truffles. (Which is really just another way of saying that I can't remember exactly what the next step is called. I have the book in the other room, but that seems a little like cheating.)

Middle Ditch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Middle Ditch said...

I had to remove my comment. Sorry about that. It was something stupid I said. I can't answer the question though.

Anonymous said...

Since I was so very lucky to win truffles earlier, I'll not answer. However, if you were to ask me, after Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, and Supernatural Aid, I would say the next step should be Go Back to Bed and Pull Covers Over Head, possibly concurrently with Massive Chocolate Intake, but that's My Journey, not Campbell's! :)

Marilyn Brant said...

Caryn~I hope you'll like the lotion, despite it's non-edible status :). And, yeah--February zipped by, didn't it?!

Middle Ditch~glad to see you back here (and don't worry about the deleted comment :). Really enjoyed the latest episode of your show--you all do such a good job with it!

Pam~HA!!!! You're inspiring me... I *totally* think we need a new version of this--The Writer's Journey--where (in my house) the frighteningly familiar steps would include: Writer Procrastinates for 2 Hours Online, Writer OD's on Chocolate Milanos and Hazelnut Lattes, and Writer Swears She is NEVER Going to Plot Out a F'ing Character Arc with 3 Protagonists AGAIN...stuff like that :-).

Gail Fuller said...

Thanks, Marilyn!! Ooh, it's great to be a winner. :) Very cool!

I love the next steps posted here. LOL! As for the answer, I googled it. :) However, I decided to give someone else a chance to win so I posted the question and blog addy in my Facebook status. :)

Thanks again!
Gail :)

Anonymous said...

Hmm... I don't have an answer, but think Pam's is terrific, and love the idea of a new version of The Writer's Journey. We could each do a chapter.

Congrats on your newsletter, Marilyn! I unfortunately couldn't open it and am thinking it's because of my mac. I keep forgetting to ask my hubby to help me out, but I'll try and remember tomorrow. I really want to read it!

Marilyn Brant said...

Gail~congrats, sweetie, and thanks so much for spreading the word to FB! That was really thoughtful :).

Robin~oh, noooo! See? THIS is exactly something that qualifies as a "problem"... Thanks for telling me about it! It hadn't occurred to me that Mac users might have any difficulty opening the doc.

Hmm. You all realize how much I rely on and appreciate you for being my tester audience for everything, right??! Truly, everyone here--I can't thank you enough. I'll see what I can do to keep the good stuff and fix the niggles with the next newsletter :). Hope you all have a great day! (Even if, like here, it's a snowy Monday...)

Anonymous said...

Ooh, structure! My favorite thing! You should see my Scrivener documents - totally set up according to the Hero's Journey.

I like Pam's version better, but I'll email you my answer privately.

I thought I'd signed up for the newsletter, but I didn't get it, so I'll sign up again. :-)

Anonymous said...

Hello Again,

Wanted to say I read your newsletter (and LOVED it!) and had no problem opening it on my Mac.

Robin, maybe it's your version of Microsoft Word?

Marilyn Brant said...

Melina~thank you!! I'm so glad it worked on your Mac :). And, yay to you for figuring out the Hero's Journey thing, too! Whoo-hoo!!

To all of you reluctant structure geeks with Campbell books hidden in your homes and Google search results you did for fun (LOVE that! :), I KNOW many of you already knew the step I was looking for: "The Crossing of the First Threshold"--it's a favorite of mine because the hero/heroine has to leave behind the familiar world and jump into the challenge at hand...to choose to take action. I guess, as writers, we've all had a moment like that with this profession and we KEEP having them at every new stage. As frightening as it seems, I also don't think anything matches the exhilaration of that first huge leap of faith...

Yeah, it's late and I'm rambling :). Thanks, Everyone!!