Story Sensei

A writer asked me this question: I recently started writing a novel based off a couple friends and I wondering what would happen if we got thrust into a messy world of insane, chaotic, and anything considered un- or supernatural events.  I have already done a bit of tweaking to one character to make her a bit more agressive and aloof, but two other main character (out of four) are rather shy.  In real life, they don't talk much, and while they have come out of their shells quite a bit in the years I have known them, I doubt they'd ever be the type of people to rush head first into a life-or-death fight that could change the fate of the world you see in just about evrry novel on the shelves.  My question is, is it a bad idea to have them in the story?  I think with the dynamic our little group has it would be very interesting as characters, but I don't want them to be critiscized as boring or unoriginal. My feeling is that all characters, whether main or secondary, should

Heroine's Journey worksheet $5 I was asked to describe my Heroine’s Journey many times and I even taught several workshops on it at writer’s conferences, and so I decided to write a more detailed worksheet on the subject. I read about the Heroine’s Journey from several books and compiled what I learned here in one place. This is the same worksheet I myself use for my own novels. Why the Heroine’s Journey? Because sometimes the story arc of a female character will differ from the traditional Hero’s Journey because of the affects of culture and time period upon the character because of her gender. This will create specific psychological differences in how a male and female character will respond to conflict in a story. Joseph Campbell’s original book is based on the writings of psychoanalysts and the world myths. The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a psychological analysis of the classical myth formula that breaks down the myths into a basic structure, showing the psychological