Hi fellow travelers,
What do you think of stories about heroes?
If you pay attention to the stories that have most captured our culture's imagination, almost all of them are about everyday people rising up to heroism--Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, the (2010s) MCU.
And yet there's been a rising trend over the last few years of stories that deconstruct heroism. (See: 2020s MCU.) Usually involving something along the lines of:
- The person who looks like a hero is actually a villain on the inside.
- The villain is actually a better person than the hero.
- The person who thinks he's a hero is doing more harm than good.
- The heroes are flawed and the villains are misunderstood to the extent that there's no real moral difference between the two.
Now, there can be value in these stories. Because there can be truth in these stories.
- Sometimes the people we look up to as heroes are really just hypocrites.
- Sometimes the people we villainize are actually no worse than we are.
- Sometimes, in our attempts to do the right thing, we end up doing exactly the wrong thing.
- Sometimes we try to fit people into tidy categories of "good" and "bad" rather than recognizing that everyone is complicated.
- And sometimes evil is really, really effective at masquerading as good.
I've seen all of this firsthand, and you probably have, too. And yeah, it hurts.
But the problem with drinking from a firehose of deconstructive stories is that, eventually, what do you have left?
If we're always skeptical of and cynical about heroes, then what about everything heroes stand for? Selflessness, courage, perseverance, finding hope in suffering? Are we going to deconstruct those, too?
At what point does attacking hero stories leave us attacking goodness itself?
Unfortunately, it can be really easy for us as storytellers to deconstruct hero stories, not because we're saying something true and valuable, but because it feels cool and unique.
Or because we're hurt and bitter. Disappointed and envious. Confused and tired.
Because real-life "heroes" have failed us one too many times.
But what if those failures aren't the end of the story?
What if everything heroes stand for is real, even if the heroes themselves sometimes aren't?
What if the truer story isn't about good being deconstructed, but about evil being destroyed in a torrent of hope and joy?
What does this have to do with my new novel?
I didn't come up with The Henchgirl and the Hero to be deep and meaningful.
I came up with it by asking myself, "What would be the most fun and simple story I could possibly write?" and then browsing Pinterest for inspiration for the next couple of hours.
That's right, this book started with me laughing over paintings of evil black cats with bat wings.
It never stopped being a fun, comedic story with all my favorite fantasy tropes thrown together in one pot. (The tone is rather Princess Bride-esque.)
But it did quickly become something more.
It became something of a defense of hero stories.
My main character, Ivory, starts out with a very bitter, cynical view of heroes. She's seen plenty of their failures in her day and she's done with the whole hero concept.
Then she meets Mander, a supposed hero whose heroism she's determined to deconstruct. But it proves harder than she expected.
No spoilers from me, but it's just possible that, instead of Mander getting torn down, Ivory gets rebuilt.
If you're tired of stories where heroes get defaced, ridiculed, and turned upside down, then I think you'll find The Henchgirl and the Hero to be a respite for you.
And as you probably know from the subject line and header...
I finished drafting The Henchgirl and the Hero!
Start date: October 16th, 2024
Finish date: December 6th, 2024
Having NaNoWriMo in there helped!
Word Count: 91,640
Page Count in Google docs: 311
Longer than it should be!
Character Deaths: 2, or maybe 4, depending on how you count things
Ok, so what now?
Now that H&H is a complete draft, the first thing I'm going to do is...
NOTHING!
I'm letting the story just rest over Christmas and the first week or two of January.
In the new year, my plan is to start the editing process. This will include an opportunity for YOU to read the book!
The feedback I receive on the book will determine whether I proceed to the publishing process next year. Depending on what my editors and readers say, I might need to give this project more time, or I might need to switch to a different project (again).
But if edits go well enough, I could start querying agents THIS UPCOMING SUMMER!
A note on Voices of the Future
Speaking of conferences, a quick fundraising update.
My hope was to raise 50% of the money for conference registration by the end of this year.
Well, look what you all helped me do!
That's right--I'm currently at 74% of my conference fundraising goal!
A huge part of that has come from the local craft fairs I've attended this fall.
So, a special thank you is in order to everyone who supported me by buying Voices of the Future at my table!
Seriously, I'm so grateful you were willing to take a chance on a young writer and help me take the next steps of my author journey.
If you'd like to help me hit 100% of my fundraising goal and bring stories like H&H into the world, you can buy your own signed copy of Voices of the Future Vol. 1.
(But please be aware that online orders won't ship before Christmas!)
By the way, it's Christmas.
I'm sure you weren't aware of that, so here's your PSA. You're welcome.
My husband and I have really enjoyed going to several Christmas events over the past couple of weeks. Last night we went to our church's Christmas concert, which always features an impressive array of diverse and well-performed music.
One theme in the selected songs this year really stood out to me: the call to come to the baby in the manger. But in the last couple of songs, there was a bit of a switch in emphasis: the King has come to us. We're called to come to him because he came to us first.
This will be my last email update for the year. Thank you so much for joining me on my author journey, and I'll see you in January!
In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you: what are your favorite stories about heroes? Or stories about not-heroes? Do you prefer stories that uphold a traditional view of heroes or stories that subvert that view?
Adventurously yours,
Jenny Gossell (Jandalf the Green)
