Welcome to The Hero Place:
   Home of the Heroic Ideas of Irwin Berent . . .


. . . Founder of the Philosophy of Principled Decision Making Called Heroic Wisdom,
Creator of Hero Portals  Online Community & Resources,
Co-Designer of StoryCraft Hero-Story  Writing Software,
and Writer of Heroic Life  Biography-Writing Software.

More about Professor Berent
What is THE HERO PLACE?
~ The Hero Place is the place to discover Irwin Berent’s tools and wisdom for building a heroic life… because “Every life is a Hero’s Journey.”

Here on this website you will find information about the ideas and creations of Irwin Berent (bio) that focus on living a wise and loving life. These include:


◙  Heroic Wisdom — Berent’s philosophy of decision making and critical thinking, which he advocates and strives to incorporate in his life and in all his writings and lectures on social and political issues.  Description | Newsletter
◙  Hero Portals — Berent’s membership-based online resource/community for understanding the Hero’s Journey pattern of ancient story telling and using it not only for writing stories but also for self-improvement, wellness, and handling life’s challenges as well as embodying heroism and honoring our heroes.  More | Subscribe
◙  StoryCraft Story-Writing Software — Berent’s Story-Writing software program utilizing the Hero’s Journey pattern. This is the latest version (now online!) of what was originally one of the first writer’s software programs ever developed.  More | Purchase
◙  Heroic Life Biography-Writing Software — Berent’s Biography-Writing software for writing short or long bios of yourself and others. This was developed from his extensive experience writing bios as co-founder of ShortBios.com Services.  More | Purchase

 

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What is HEROIC WISDOM?
~ The philosophical thought of Irwin Berent (see bio farther below) is known as Heroic Wisdom. A philosophy of decision making and critical thinking, Heroic Wisdom emphasizes the sanctity of decision making itself, which requires choosing one’s primary principles in spite of (and because of) the overarching fact of all life: that there are no absolutes, no guarantees.

Heroic Wisdom encourages scrupulous honesty, humility and transparency, love and respect for all humanity, as well as pragmatism, flexibility, and faith — faith in humanity and in the choices that humans make towards accomplishing wise and loving lives — such faith in humanity being necessary for true freedom, happiness, and wisdom.

Developed throughout his life and research, Berent’s Heroic Wisdom is promulgated in his writings and lectures. And with each socio-political issue he confronts, he refines the evolving concepts of his philosophy.

(Because of the very nature of his philosophy, Berent’s personal style of debate is unlike that of most other columnists and pundits writing and speaking on the critical social and political issues of our time, who often do not hold conscientiously to a philosophy that they believe in — much less that they have personally developed. He chooses his words with special care, as he regards such choices as sacred decisions themselves. He is therefore candid and transparent about exactly what principles he holds and freely admits when he may be veering from those principles. He also willingly admits when he doesn’t know an answer and even acknowledges when a solution offered by his opponent may be, in at least some respects, better than his own.)
(more)  | Newsletter |
What is HERO PORTALS?
~ Created by Irwin Berent, Hero Portals is a subscription-based online community/resource for understanding and using the Hero’s Journey pattern of ancient story telling.

The hero’s journey is a concept as old as mythology that has gained prominence in a broad range of applications, from self-development and wellness to customer engagement to trauma therapy as well as story creation and countless other uses to better understand the human condition and our motivations to succeed.

With Hero Portals, you’ll discover 1000s of way to use the Hero’s Journey to improve life, embody heroism, write stories, and honor heroes.
(more)
 | Description | History & Purpose | Purchase lifetime subscription |
The Hero Wisdom portal is where you’ll access wisdom about heroism, heroes, and the Hero’s Journey, and the ways of applying the Hero’s Journey to story writing as well as to handling life’s challenges and creating personal and career success — from Bloggers, Websites, and other sources of Advice and Inspiration in multiple fields and endeavors.
The Hero Wisdom portal takes you to the wisdom of such thinkers as therapist Gerard Lawson, educator Reginald Harris, blogger Mike Pegg, writing coach Skip Press, philosopher Irwin Berent, and numerous other counselors, mentors, writers, and coaches who incorporate the Hero’s Journey.
Order Hero Portals membership here!
The Hero Organizations portal is where you’ll access ways of organizing with other like-minded individuals devoted to recognizing and developing heroes around the world.

The Hero Organizations portal also reveals projects where you can find your own heroes from around the world — for example, the Giraffe Heroes Project, which celebrates and commemorates those who “stick their neck out” in service to others and has a massive, ongoing Giraffe Heroes Database.
Order Hero Portals membership here!
The Hero Tools portal is where you’ll access hero-story writing software, Life Coach resources, Classes, Seminars, Curricula, Videos and other Tools for everything from Writing Hero’s Journeys to becoming more Heroic.
The Hero Tools portal is also where you’ll find and use StoryCraft Classic Software — the unique program for writing stories, novels and screenplays using the Hero’s Journey concept for telling stories of triumph and challenge, whether based on your personal life, your heroes or your antagonists, or purely fictional events. [more about StoryCraft]
Order Hero Portals membership here!
Your Heroes portal is where you’ll locate and submit stories about real-life heroes in history, in your community and around the world as told in websites, video, art, scripts and more.

Your Heroes portal shows you how to commemorate your personal heroes, for instance with sculpture of heroes like Martin Luther King, Jr., presented by a contributor to MyHero.com’s Art-Sculpture galleries of heroes.
Order Hero Portals membership here!
What is STORYCRAFT SOFTWARE?
~ Co-developed by Irwin Berent with fiction-guru John Jarvis, StoryCraft Classic Writer’s Software (details here) is the only story-writing software program in the world based entirely on the Hero’s Journey Paradigm, and it is now accessible online right here at the Hero Place!

When the original StoryCraft program was introduced by Berent and Jarvis more than two decades ago, it was among the first software programs ever developed for writers. Operating within the Hero Place, this updated online version represents a revolutionary new kind of story-creation experience.

(In addition, those who subscribe to Hero Portals [details here] can now use the software in conjunction with the Portals. An entire Wisdom Experience, it allows you to appreciate every aspect of, and use of, the hero’s journey concept using Hero Portals — as you create your stories using StoryCraft!)

(StoryCraft is available for a one-time subscription of just $29; add $19 to access all of Hero Portals. Click here to order.)
What is HEROIC LIFE BIOGRAPHY WRITING SOFTWARE?
~ The Heroic Life Biography-Writing Software (details here) is a downloadable do-it-yourself program for writing biographies of any size, from short bios and business profiles to complete, detailed life histories.

Recognizing the primary principle of Respect For All Humanity — and because every life is truly a hero’s journey — Irwin Berent wrote this program to make it easier for anyone to preserve their life history or that of their loved ones, or to honor the lives of their heroes, or just to promote their experience and skills for business or personal use.

To write this program, Berent has utilized his extensive experience as the founding co-owner with his brother Steve Berent of ShortBios LongBios Corporation (ShortBios.com), for which he has written hundreds of bios for executives, realtors, entrepreneurs, professionals, students, and others.
(more)  | Purchase |
Who is IRWIN BERENT?

Irwin Berent …
 A Career of Open and Honest Communication

Irwin Berent has an abiding passion for open and honest communication, around which all his professional activities have revolved throughout his multi-faceted career, from his earliest work in family history and genealogy to naval and Norfolk history to interpersonal communications, biography, story development and writer’s software to lexicography, fundamentalism, legalization, political thought, and economics to his current work of consolidating his ideas on life, society and humanity into a philosophical system of wise decision making known as Heroic Wisdom.

Author of Books on Broad Spectrum of Social and Political Issues

An internationally published author, Mr. Berent has championed a broad spectrum of issues relevant to both liberal and conservative philosophies. With philosophy professor and noted wordsmith Rod L. Evans, he has compiled popular as well as scholarly works on issues ranging from the debate over drug legalization to Biblical fundamentalism. Those works have received introductions, forewords, or endorsements from such prominent individuals as Robert Schuller, Linus Pauling, Isaac Asimov, Hugh Downs, Steve Allen, Charlton Heston, and Milton Friedman.

He is the author of books on free market economics and Libertarian thought (such as The Quotable Conservative: The Giants of Conservatism on Liberty, Freedom, Individual Responsibility, and Traditional Virtues, Adams Media Corp., 1996, Introduced by William F. Buckley, Jr.) and on Christian fundamentalism (including Fundamentalism, Open Court Publishing, 1988, Introduced by Isaac Asimov). His Drug Legalization: For and Against (Open Court, 1992, Foreword by Linus Pauling) is considered an early classic in that field.

In addition, he founded the online magazine Hampton Roads Times (2011-2014), which was a source for business resources as well as news and opinion for Southeastern Virginia.

Wordsmith and Author of Dictionaries and Books on Interpersonal Communications

Mr. Berent has also co-written with Professor Evans books on interpersonal communications (such as The Right Words: 350 Best Things to Say to Get Along with People, Warner Books, 1992), dictionaries published by Berkley (Weird Words, Berkley Publishing Group, 1995, and A Dictionary of Highly Unusual Words, Berkley, 1997), and books on linguistics and word play (such as Getting Your Words’ Worth, Warner Books, 1993).

In 2005, he created a blogsite advocating honest communication and presented his collection of online codes of ethics known as Your Code of Ethics. And in 2009, he founded the Plain Writing Association, which promoted transparency and clarity in government documents. Both the Plain Writing Association’s research — including his study of the first major plain writing act in government — and Your Code of Ethics are now housed at WriterSuperCenter.com.

Historian, Geographer, Biographer, Genealogist

Mr. Berent’s love of history runs deep. Holding a Master of Arts degree in American History (East Carolina University, 1982), he has researched both sides of the Civil War battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack, the antagonists of the naval battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia, that ushered in ironclad naval warfare. He compiled the biographical directory of the crew of the USS Monitor (N.O.A.A., N.C. Division of Archives and History, 1985), and established a reunion of the descendants of Monitor and Merrimack crews on the 125th anniversary of the battle in 1987. (His Monitor-Merrimack Crew collection is housed at the Mariner’s Museum Archives in Newport News, Virginia.)

He is also the author of Norfolk, Virginia: Evolution of a City in Maps (Norfolk History Publishers, 2013), which is the introduction to his forthcoming magnum-opus of history-geography in 20 volumes: The Encyclopedia of Norfolk, Virginia History-Geography. Nearly two decades in the making, it covers over 400 years of the history, geography, infrastructure, military, agriculture, transportation, neighborhoods, and people of one of America’s most significant cities of the Mid-Atlantic, encompassing the vast port of Hampton Roads and Norfolk.

In addition, he is the author of Norfolk, Virginia: A Jewish History of the 20th Century (JewishHistoryUSA, 2001), and his resource for the study of worldwide Jewish family histories – Jewish Genealogy: A Sourcebook of Family Histories and Genealogies (Garland, 1984, Avotaynu, 1996, co-compiled with bibliographer Dr. David Zubatsky) – is considered a classic in its field. (In 1978, he established the Jewish Genealogical Club of Tidewater, the first local American Jewish genealogy organization outside of New York City; in 1984, he was genealogy columnist for the Indiana Jewish Post & Opinion, and in 1985, his research on Jewish immigration to Baltimore, Maryland, from Eastern Europe was published in the Maryland Historical Magazine.)

And since establishing ShortBios.com with his brother, Steve Berent, in 2009, he has written hundreds of one-page biographies for executives, officers, artists, Realtors, entertainers, and other professionals and students from around the country. Based on this experience, he wrote the Heroic Life Biography Writing Program.

Creator of StoryCraft Software and Hero Portals

In 1995, Mr. Berent began working with John Jarvis to adapt and incorporate mythological concepts of story telling, the Hero’s Journey, into a software program for writers. Together, they developed StoryCraft, one of the first software programs for fiction writing; and in 1997, they established WritersPage.com to sell the software. In 2003, Berent established writersupercenter.com, which today is one of the longest-running purveyors of book-editing and story-writing software on the Internet.

He has also developed Hero Portals here at The Hero Place where the Hero’s Journey concept can be learned, promoted, and used not only for story development but also self-development.

Advocate for Heroic Living through Heroic Wisdom

Mr. Berent devotes himself to an honest and principled way of thinking, a system of decision making he calls Heroic Wisdom Philosophy, which emphasizes respect for humanity as its only absolute principle and taking the leap of faith — faith in humanity, faith in self, faith in Ultimate purpose and meaning, however it may be defined — in spite of the contradictions innate to every issue and challenge in life.

He lectures on his philosophy and utilizes the principles in his writings as pundit, columnist and author.  | Newsletter | Contact |

Irwin Berent is married to Sabrina Terrell Rogers Berent, née Brown.  
To contact Irwin Berent about his availability for writing or speaking, click here.
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To order Heroic Wisdom Tools monthly email newsletter (free trial first month; $5/month or $50/year thereafter), click here.
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To order Hero Portals membership ($19 — one-time, lifetime subscription), click here.
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To order either StoryCraft Classic Online Software by itself ($29) or StoryCraft with Hero Portals membership ($29 plus $19), click here.
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Be sure also to visit our Hero Portals’ Shop — The Hero Wisdom Store.  We are continually adding new products and services to the Shop and want to offer a broad range of other hero-related resources from our supporters around the globe. So we welcome your suggestions! Have a product/service pertinent to heroes or heroism you’d like us to sell at the Store?  Contact us today!