I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about writing, reading about writing and planning to write these past few weeks. No substantial writing has actually taken place. I’m holding out hope that at some point, the words will just pour out of me, like some third act montage with an energetic soundtrack- and I will finish my novel. These are unusual times, and I guess that’s as likely to happen as anything else these days. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I struggle to create as my mind flits from one idea to the next, never settling on any one thing as I filter news of the progress of COVID-19 and wonder if my cough means something. Then I’m down the rabbit hole of looking for testing sites, discovering I’m not eligible to be tested, and it’s back to my safe place on the couch binging.

In between all of that (and printing out drafts I have yet to read but am oddly comforted by), I’ve been reading about structure. I finished Three Story Method by J. Thorn with Zach Bohannon. They mentioned The Virgin’s Promise by Kim Hudson, which is the opposite of Joseph Campbell’s and later Chris Vogler’s The Hero’s Journey. To simplify it, the Hero’s Journey is more about saving the day while the Virgin’s Promise is about saving yourself by becoming who you were always meant to be.

Although I’m devout semi-pantser, I do recognize the value of structure and archetypes. I thought about the ways this structure could help flesh out the saggy middle of my novel.

I wanted to read more about The Virgin’s Promise. I found two interesting posts about it here and here.

Because I love busy work and not writing, I created a simple Scrivener template using the beats of the Virgin’s Promise. You can download it below.

Of course, things being what there are, this was no simple task to just attach the file and be done with it. If you are curious about where to find your Scrivener templates, I will save you the trouble. They are hidden. Mac hides its Library folder. You will need to go to your Finder, hold down Option and Go, and your Library folder will appear. You will find the templates in Library/Application Support/Scrivener/Project Templates. You should duplicate the file, save it in a non-hidden folder, and make it a zip file if you wish to share it.