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Many novels and memoirs are structured as a “Hero’s Journey,” a common story pattern first identified by mythologist Joseph Campbell but actually in use for more than 2,000 years. Coincidentally (or not!) you will take a similar journey when you write a novel or memoir or collection, a writer’s journey: epic and heroic—encountering allies and enemies, mentors and muses, reversals and rewards—from which you will emerge changed. In this 2-hour workshop, we’ll walk together through one version of the Hero’s Journey, applying it step by step to your writing project, and seeing what can be learned from 2,000 years of heroes that will make your own journey a myth-worthy success.

Paul Reali is co-founder of Charlotte Lit, a nonprofit literary arts center in Charlotte, NC. He won the 2023 Doris Betts Fiction Award and is a past winner of the Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story and Ruth Moose Flash Fiction awards. His writing on creativity and business has been widely published, and his fiction is forthcoming in the North Carolina Literary Review. He was awarded a Wildacres residency in 2022, and received a Regional Artist Project Grant from Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council in 2018. He has an MS in Creativity from Buffalo State University and an MBA from Syracuse University.