Write Stories Based on the Hero’s Journeywith Berent’s StoryCraft Classic Software
StoryCraft Classic Software ($29) is a software program built right into The Hero Place that allows you to utilize the hero’s journey pattern to write any kind of story, novel or screenplay. (And because it’s located right within The Hero Place, users who also purchase Hero Portals membership [details] along with StoryCraft also have immediate access to tools and wisdom for fully understanding, appreciating and applying the myriad of uses of the concept of the hero’s journey – from story development to goal setting, meeting challenges, handling past trauma, and much more.)Used by professional and wannabe writers alike, the StoryCraft line of software has been a leader in story-creation since the beginning of the Internet, and it is a great way to learn the art of story creation as it guides you through the entire process of writing the story.
And whether you write for publication or just for self-expression, the software can even be used to create stories based on your life for resolving traumas and other life issues. In fact, you can use StoryCraft for therapy too, as it gives you the freedom to delve into any traumas or challenges you have faced in your life — even making up characters and situations that may mirror your own experiences while giving you the emotional distance of “just being a story” — to see yourself as a hero on a journey.
John Jarvis and Irwin Berent designed the original StoryCraft in 1996, and through all its versions right up to the present day, it remains one of the most respected story-writing software programs in the world. The software utilizes the Hero’s Journey concept, which Mr. Jarvis incorporated and adapted into the “Jarvis Method,” to allow anyone to create a story, biography, novel or screenplay. Beginning with the story idea, the software guides you through each step of conceiving, developing and writing your story. And because it utilizes the hero’s journey archetypes common to all great stories and myths, it is ideal for expressing every kind of story, be it fantasy and adventures, love stories, coming of age stories, revenge stories, mysteries, and even stories based on your own life experience.
~ StoryCraft Classic guides you in a natural way that allows your stories to flow from you, stage by stage, your ideas arising as quickly as you can think — no interruptions, no delays, no excuses.
~ Using StoryCraft Classic, your basic story idea easily becomes a concise Story Concept that will form the solid foundation on which you’ll build your story.
~ Once you have your Story Concept, StoryCraft Classic leads you almost effortlessly towards the decision of which Story Category (action, character, or epic) to use to develop precisely the kind of story you most need and want to write.
~ StoryCraft Classic identifies 18 basic patterns, or Types, of stories that all the great myths and literary classics fall under, and results in a clear sense of the outline of your story — based upon your particular choice of Story Type — throughout the entire story-creation process.
~ StoryCraft Classic guides you through the creation of your story’s main characters and their helpers as well as the worlds that they populate, prompting you to describe the precise elements necessary for main characters of stories of your Concept, Category, and Type.
~ StoryCraft Classic offers built-in help instructions, accessible from every screen, that instantly describe the desired task.
~ StoryCraft Classic allows you to brainstorm and develop unique plot twists at each Story Creation Step.
~ StoryCraft Classic allows you to work on understanding and resolving any part of the story, wherever and whenever you have a thought, an idea, or a difficulty.
~ At every stage of your story, StoryCraft Classic writer’s software promotes inspiration as it gently suggests the direction of your story. (Use your own favorite word processor; or, with the StoryCraft Ultimate Edition — check it out here — you’ll have the most powerful story processor/word processor/story manager in which to write your story.)
~ What you write with the assistance of StoryCraft Classic develops naturally into logically complete novels and screenplays.
~ StoryCraft Classic helps turn the two tasks of writing and revision into a seamlessly integrated process by giving you the information you need to know to revise your story within each step of the story-creation process, from beginning to end.
~ StoryCraft Classic allows you to work with any outside stories, so that you can easily re-design stories that you had previously been working on, transforming almost magically old notes, story ideas, and undeveloped stories into near-perfectly developed stories, ready for word processing.
~ StoryCraft Classic has been carefully designed and refined so that even the most novice of writers can understand clearly and quickly every task (and yet also even the most advanced of writers find its approach sophisticated, reliable, and practical).
~ StoryCraft Classic is more than just a story-writing tool; it is also a sophisticated complete course in writing that utilizes the Jarvis Method, the system of fiction writing that’s the accepted standard among university writing programs around the world.
~ StoryCraft Classic understands intuitively how you write because its system is based on the way classic literature and great myths have been written since the dawn of civilization.
How StoryCraft Works
Writing a story utilizing the Hero’s Journey concept is not complicated when each Stage of your story is guided with StoryCraft Story-Creation Software. Here are the main Stages of StoryCraft:
Irwin Berent, editor of the StoryCraft Software, is an internationally published wordsmith who has co-authored with Dr. Rod Evans several books, including The Right Words (Warner Books, 1992), Getting Your Words’ Worth (Warner Books, 1993), Weird Words (Berkley Publishing Group, 1995), More Weird Words (Berkley, 1995), and A Dictionary of Highly Unusual Words (Berkley, 1997), as well as The Quotable Conservative (with Introduction by William F. Buckley; Adams Publishing Co., 1996) and The ABC Of Cat Trivia (with Introduction by Betty White; St. Martin’s Press, 1996). Listed regularly in Who’s Who in America (since 1999), he has co-authored and co-compiled scholarly works (published by Open Court Publishing Company) that have included introductions and forewords by such luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Steve Allen, Hugh Downs, and Linus Pauling.
Holding a Master’s degree in American History, he is also the author of the biographical directory of the crew of the Civil War ironclad U.S.S. Monitor and of Norfolk, Virginia: A Jewish History of the 20th Century as well as a forthcoming reference-opus gazetteer/atlas/history of the city of Norfolk.
Mr. Berent also manages both Writers SuperCenter (WriterSuperCenter.com) and StudioNotes screenplay- and novel-critiqueing service, and co-manages with Steve Berent the Starmemoirs biography-writing service.
Mr. Berent also has a website, NorfolkHistory.com, which features The History of Norfolk, Virginia: An Encyclopedia of Norfolk History, Geography, Neighborhoods, Railroads, Roads, Creeks, Cemeteries, Parks, and More (Volume I., Norfolk, Virginia: Evolution of a City In Maps is currently available), and a website, YourCodeofEthics.com, which features a large collection of codes of ethics, including an ongoing project to develop creativity codes such as “The Declaration of the Positive Writer”). He is also the creator of the Plain Writing Association, which heralded the Plain Writing Act of 2010.
John Jarvis, instructor and originator of StoryCraft Software, was a professional screenwriter and member of the WGA, with editions of the syndicated television dramas “Family Medical Center” and “Behind the Secret Door” to his credit. He was also the inventor of the well-known approach to writing fiction, called “The Jarvis Method,” made internationally popular in the StoryCraft line of story-development software, co-developed with Irwin M. Berent.
Before going to Hollywood, Mr. Jarvis, who held a Masters in Fine Arts from Old Dominion University and was an expert in Jungian philosophy and Wagnerian opera as well as classical and mythological fiction, was for nearly 30 years production manager for Public TV in Hampton Roads and a pioneer in radio-drama production in the Southeast.
Over the years, he introduced literally thousands of students to his Method and created a legion of talented and successful followers. He lectured frequently and taught the
highly acclaimed “New Dimensions in Writing” series of courses in the art of writing fiction. A co-founder of the prestigious Story and Myth: The Online Journal of Classic Story Writing, and for many years the structure columnist for Screenwrite NOW!, the predecessor to Scr(i)pt Magazine, Mr. Jarvis wrote extensively on all subjects pertinent to fiction.