I’ve talked about the Hero’s Guide books before, but I talked more about the incredible narration recorded by Bronson Pinchot (which really is incredible. If you haven’t read these books yet, pick them up on audio first and then read them again in book form).
But today I wanted to talk about the series as a whole. There are three books in the Hero’s Guide series: The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle and The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw. They are all equally hilarious, equally wonderful, equally written by Christopher Healy. I’ve always loved fairy tale retellings, and this is one of my favorites of all times. Not only because it’s so humorous—Healy is really great at making the situations in which the Prince Charmings of popular fairy tale stories find themselves—but because it is great story telling. The characters are lovable and yet comic, and the princesses are on equal footing—maybe even better footing than the princes.
What stands out the most about Christopher Healy’s series is the voice of the narrator. It’s easy to see why Bronson Pinchot did such a fabulous job narrating the series—because Healy writes the narrator with a distinctive voice that is, most notably, sarcastic. The narrator has a personality of his own, which I think is the best feature of the series.
This was one of my favorite passages from The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom:
“The other thing you need to understand about Duncan—and you might have already guessed this—is that he was odd. All the princes had their issues—Frederic was easily intimidated, Liam’s ego could stand to be reined in a bit, and Gustav could use some impulse control—but Duncan was flat-out strange. We all know somebody who is a bit eccentric—the girl who talks to herself, maybe, or the boy who eats the erasers off his pencils like they’re gumdrops. They could be wonderful people, but thanks to their quirky behavior, they don’t have the easiest time making friends. This was true of Duncan as well.
“If Duncan were to become your friend, he would bring a lot of positive energy to your day, he’s certainly make you laugh, and he’d prove himself to be perhaps the most loyal pal you would ever have. Nobody ever got close enough to Duncan to learn this, though. His questionable fashion choices and weird habits (such as trying to play his teeth like a piano) had a way of turning people off.”
Don’t you just love that sarcasm and wit? Duncan (who is the Prince Charming married to Snow White) sounds like a person I’d like to know, weirdly enough—if only just to see him try to play his teeth like a piano.
The Hero’s Guide is a series that now sits on our shelves, because I believe it’ll be one we read again and again. A classic in the making, for sure.
Learning
I’ve been studying this little book called A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting: Trying to Enhance Your Fiction with More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings. I originally picked up this book, because I’m brainstorming a new novel that features some woods as a sort of character. I wanted to know how to write deeper settings for this story. But I had also noticed, when going back through the drafts of my stories, that I’m not that great at providing setting details. They tend to stay in my head instead of out on the page. I knew that tons of setting details don’t keep readers interested in a story, but I wanted to figure out how to include some of those important details that actually move a story forward.
This book has been fantastic for not only providing great examples of authors who have a good grasp on writing their setting but also on explaining the different purposes setting can serve in a book. I probably knew a lot of intuitively, because that’s how writers tend to learn, but it’s been good to make those connections and see examples of them so I can add more setting to my own stories. I’ve even added another draft to all of the novels I write—one where I’ll be assessing how well I use setting and how much more I might be able to do with it in every scene. Not that every scene needs setting—but it’s worthwhile to ask that question in the first place.
Even if I got nothing else from this book, that would be enough. It’s made me much more aware of how to improve my stories in simple ways.
Personal
Recently my family and I traveled to see my mother. We’ve been doing that a little more often lately, because I love her, and also because I’m in the middle of writing a memoir. I’ve been visiting some of my old childhood places, trying to get a feel for what they’re like now. I’ve mentioned before that my memory is not quite as good as I thought it was—I tend to remember things much differently than others. That doesn’t mean my stories aren’t true. It just means that I see them differently than others may. Our memories are never 100 percent accurate; we just do the best we can.
On the latest visit to my mom, we stopped by some railroad tracks again and let our boys play on them, and we visited my old high school and did a few laps on the old track where I ran the 400-meter dash, and then we showed up at my childhood church, which still looks about the same. It’s always good going home. It’s always good feeling like the people who knew you as a child and who have kept up with you as an adult still love you, flaws and all. There’s something about community that’s wonderful and transformative. And there’s something about being from a tiny little town that feels like, no matter how far you go away from it, you’re always forever connected.
Writing
I’ve mentioned before that I have a quite aggressive word count goal this year—two million words. I’m right on track, but lately I’ve been thinking about taking a step back from some of my blogs, and I’ve found myself worried that I won’t be able to make that word goal. When I expressed this worry to my husband, he had some very wise words:
It’s okay to take a step back, he said.
This is a hard one for me. When I commit to something, I really commit to it. There’s no turning back. I won’t let myself out of it, for any reason. I could be sick in bed one day, but I’m still going get that blog up.
But I thought about his words. I thought about big, scary goals that seem impossible when you first latch on to them. I thought about how, somewhere in the middle of reaching for that big, scary goal, it can start to feel like there’s no going back, because the train can’t be stopped. People are depending on you to reach it, because you’re an inspiration to them. And maybe that’s entirely true. Maybe it’s not. Either way, I can’t put pressure on myself for someone else’s inspiration. People don’t think about us nearly as much as we think they do. That means that if I abandoned my goal today, no one would probably even care.
I’m not going to abandon my goal. But I am, now, trying to decide what’s necessary and what’s not, and that may mean that this year I don’t reach that two-million-words goal. I think I will. But there’s no sense in overwhelming myself with a big-scary goal, when I could do much more with much more happiness and fulfillment letting the pressure off a little.
So it’s okay to let the pressure off. Don’t be afraid of disappointing someone. Don’t think that if you don’t meet this big-scary goal you’re never going to meet another goal ever again. Letting the pressure off this big-scary goal may be just the freedom you need to accomplish even greater things.
Listening
Have you heard Kelly Clarkson’s song “Piece by Piece?” I don’t usually listen to a whole lot of Kelly Clarkson—although I have to admit, that at one time I was a big fan—but this song. It is incredibly beautiful. When I first heard it, I wished that I had written it. It’s a song with a powerful story that resonates with my life—a man who left, a man who stayed and picked up all the pieces. It gives me chills talking about it. Just be prepared to cry, if you’re anything like me. I still cry, every time I hear it. I might even cry now, talking about it.
No. I’m okay. But you should definitely go listen to it–especially the version she sang live on American Idol. So good.
If you like content like this, be sure to check out my Reader Group, where I share all sorts of inside looks at my projects and the books I’m reading and great places of inspiration.
