FROZEN (and the Virgin's Promise)

I know it's been a while, but I've been meaning to examine the structure of the Disney film Frozen within the framework of the Virgin's Promise (an altered version of the hero's journey I discussed...um, almost a year ago...yikes!). So, without further ado...

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Frozen is an interesting film in that it has two central protagonists: Elsa and Anna. Both sisters have
their own arc and journey. At first, I assumed Elsa's arc would resemble the Hero's Journey, while Anna's might be closer to the Virgin's Promise. For some reason Elsa seems a more active, perhaps even a more masculine character (there's gender bias at work, folks), so I figured hers would be the Hero's Journey. But when I tried to hash it out that way, I just couldn't make it work. I then tried fitting both of their arcs into the Virgin's Promise, but it still didn't gel--Elsa and Anna's stories are just too different. Finally, I found something that worked: Elsa's arc as the Virgin's Promise, while Anna's as the Hero's Journey.

Let's look at Elsa's arc first. Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, spoilers follow.* (But if you haven't seen Frozen by now, I can't imagine you actually care.)

ELSA

Elsa's Dependent World mainly consists of Arundel and her parents; she is dependent upon them for material survival, of course, and for protection. But she also depends heavily on social convention (apparently people with crazy elemental powers are frowned upon). She also craves love and acceptance, and she depends upon Arundel for that love and acceptance. And, later, she is dependent on the imposed security measure of "conceal, don't feel."

Price of Conformity: The first three segments of the Virgin's Promise are sort of all thrown at us within the first five minutes of the movie, and kind of in jumbled order. Elsa has two major prices to conformity: the first that, as a princess, she naturally lives with restricted boundaries, but the second and far more important happens after the incident while she and Anna are playing: Elsa must conceal, not use her power, and she must spend time isolated and away from her sister.

Opportunity to Shine: This happens when Anna and Elsa wake up early and Elsa uses her magic as they play together. Elsa is using her magic for good, she is bringing joy to her sister, and the moment is pure and genuine until Anna is hurt in the process.

Dresses the Part: Elsa fully realizes the meaning of "conceal, don't feel"--she completely isolates herself from her sister and her Arundel. She is doing what she thinks she needs to do, what her parents have instructed her to do in order to stay attached to her dependent world. But, of course, she is not happy doing it.

Secret World: Elsa attempts to please everyone--her parents by hiding her power, her kingdom by playing the part of future Queen, etc.--except herself.

No Longer Fits Her World:  After the coronation, when Anna asks Elsa's permission to marry, Elsa can no longer contain her power; she literally can no longer fit in the world she has been trying to make for herself, and she is Caught Shining--her power is revealed for the whole Kingdom to see.

Finally, Elsa Gives Up What Kept Her Stuck in the iconic song "Let it go."

But both of her Kingdoms are now in Chaos: her old Kingdom of Arundel is suffering a crisis of succession and wondering what on earth happened to it's Queen, and later her new ice kingdom comes under attack by Hans' men.

When Elsa fatally wounds Anna, she Wanders in the Wilderness. This is her moment of doubt, where she wonders whether all the changing she is going through is worth it.

Chooses Her Light: This segment is embodied by two moments: first, when Elsa escapes the prison in which Hans placed her, knowing she can no longer continue to use her power and remain in her old kingdom--her dependent world--as she knew it. And second, later, when Elsa realizes she can use another form of her power--love--to save Anna.

Re-Ordering/Rescue: Anna saves Elsa from Hans, while the other Lords watch from the balcony. Elsa is rescued from without and reconnected in a positive way to her kingdom as the Lords watch her heal Anna.

Kingdom is Brighter: The people of Arundel realize that Elsa is a better person--and ruler--when she embraces her power, and Elsa finally finds her place, both with her magic and ruling her kingdom, as she and everyone she loves skate around on the little ice rink she has created.

Fits in pretty well with the Virgin's Promise, if you ask me! Of course there are some slight deviations in the order of things, and the arc is certainly open for interpretation, but that's the way all stories should be--none should fit into the premise perfectly.

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Now, let's look at Anna's Hero's Journey.

ANNA

Anna's story begins a bit later than Elsa's: her Ordinary World is basically described in the song "Do  You Want to Build a Snowman?" She lives a somewhat lonely life in her family's castle, isolated from her sister and the rest of the kingdom.

Anna has a few different Calls to Adventure. In the first rendition of "For the First Time in Forever" the castle doors are opening and she'll get to interact with real, live people. That's a call in and of itself--Anna is given a reason to change something. Another call happens when she meets Hans and he proposes to her. Perhaps her most important call is when Elsa's public use of magic causes her to flee, and Anna is faced with the decision of what to do next. (This use of magic could also be deemed a Supernatural Aid that get's Anna out the door and on her adventure.)

When Anna leaves her castle and ventures out into the now-wintery kingdom to find her sister, she Crosses the Threshold.

Anna's Road of Trials consists of finding winter clothing, meeting Kristoff, fighting off the wolves, meeting Olav, and hiking to Elsa's palace. These conflicts and meetings are what begin to forge Anna into the hero she needs to be by the end of the story.

Anna's Meeting with the Goddess occurs when she finally reaches Elsa, with the reprise of "For the First Time in Forever." This could also be deemed a version of Atonement with Father when Elsa reacts the way she does, and one of her shards pierces Anna's heart. (Other versions of Atonement with Father in Anna's journey could be her meeting with the troll rock people thingies, or when she finally reunites with Hans only to discover he does not love her after all and has betrayed her and her sister. Incidentally, those encounters could also fall into a "Part 2" of the Road of Trials--see what I mean when I say this is fluid?)

Anna's Apotheosis occurs a bit later, when she manages to save Elsa from Hans' sword, sacrificing her own life. Her Ultimate Boon, in turn, is the "true love's kiss" she receives from Elsa that saves her (this could also be deemed her Rescue from Without).

Finally, Anna Crosses the Return Threshold when she returns to her Kingdom, having changed her perspective on the world, love, and life in general. She is now the Master of Two Worlds with the Freedom to Live as she sees fit. She and Kristoff, of course, get together, Anna is reconciled with Elsa, and they all live happily ever after.

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Frozen really is a great film, and it's protagonists fit the Hero's Journey and Virgin's Promise story structures in clear, but interesting, ways. Not only that, but the film does a great job of weaving the two arcs with one another, allowing significant parts of one major arc to compliment and sometimes juxtapose with significant parts of the other arc (a topic for another day, perhaps). Anyway. This stuff is kind of fun to think about, and hopefully it helps you understand what I'm talking about when I talk about story structure.**



* I highly recommend you read my previous articles about the Virgin's Promise and the Hero's Journey as context to this examination. It'll help a lot, I think. So, here's some links!
The Hero's Journey
The Virgin's Promise Part 1


** In fact, I've been thinking about the recent film Interstellar and how Matthew McConnaughey's character arc is actually closer to the Virgin's Promise structure than it is to the hero's journey. Something I may go into more detail later.

Journey

So, speaking of the Hero's Journey, I was totally at a Journey concert the other day...

My wife works for this great tech company called Qualtrics, and they had this big conference summit thingy last week, and part of it included them hosting a Journey concert (to say they treat their employees and customers well is an understatement). So, Raych and I went to that, and it cool. And look! Videos:

"Separate Ways" is certainly not a bad way to start:

"Lights," with some very literal accompaniment:

"Faithfully," perhaps my favorite Journey song:

And of course what song could you end with but "Don't Stop Believin'":

It was a fun thing.

In other news...well, there is a lot of other news. Stay tuned for updates.

World Fantasy 2014

So this post is a bit late, I know, but I did a cool thing a month ago. I went to the World Fantasy Convention for the first time!

It was fantastic. I met up with Joshua Bilmes, the president of the agency that represents me, and he was great. He introduced me to about a thousand people and bought a giant chocolate capitol building. It was great fun, and really cool to meet so many authors, editors, agents, and fans. World Fantasy is about as close to a "professional" convention as we have in the SF/F community, and I was a bit worried that I'd go out there and sort of lurk in dark corners and not really talk to anyone. Fortunately, that was not the case. Also, pictures:

The bag o'books they gave us was massive.

And happened to include two books that I've been meaning to buy all summer...my excitement level was through the roof for these two.

The aforementioned chocolate capitol building. It was sort of uncomfortable smashing into the capitol building like that, but also: delicious. Jokes were made along the lines of "you haven't officially been to DC until you've attacked a capitol building." Myke Cole's reaction was a bit more patriotic: "Tastes like freedom."

Got a some brief sight-seeing in while I was there. I'd been to DC before, but it was good to walk along Penn. Ave.

More of the sight-seeing thing. Also, weird lips.

And of course I was able to get some writing in while I was there. This was my command center in the hotel lobby.

So I count my first World Fantasy as a success. I'll definitely be returning next year!

Otherwise, things are going well for me. I'm plugging away on Book 2 of the Chaos Queen series. And some good things are in the works, I think. I'll tell you all about them in the near future.

Portland Marathon 2014

So about eight months ago I decided it would be a great idea to sign up for the Portland Marathon. Running a marathon has always been a bucket list item of mine, plus I've got some family up in Portland who were planning on running the half marathon, and it sounded like fun to all run the race together.

Well, I conveniently forgot about the fact that I'd signed up for this marathon until about halfway through June. After a brief panic, I came to my senses and laid out a training plan. I'm not what you would call a faithful runner by any means, but I'll go in spurts where I run consistently for 4-8 months, and then take a break for about the same amount of time. I've done five different half marathons and a dozen or so other races, so I'm not a complete noob. But until last weekend I'd also never run a full marathon before, and 26.2 is a lot longer than 13.1, I'll tell you what.

So anyway, I started training. Some of my long runs went well, and some didn't. There was a brief period where I was seriously considering dropping out of the race, or trying to slip into the half marathon instead (which wasn't possible anyway). But I didn't. And I'm really glad. Because the race was actually quite fun.

The lower altitude and race-day adrenaline (15,000 people running a race at the same time provides a whole lot of energy) more than made up for my less-than adequate training. I didn't get a competitive time by any means, but I finished, and that's all I really cared about this time around*. Also, it was a lot of fun to run the race with family. One of my uncles ran the marathon with me, and seven others--including my grandma, so, yeah, amazing--ran the half. It was a fun weekend, fun to see family, fun to do something relatively healthy, and fun to be part of such a great race.

Anyway, I was tempted to write some expose on how running is a lot like writing a book, or reading a book, or a character's arc (David Farland actually shares a great example of how running is a lot like a character's arc in his book Million Dollar Outlines), or something else. But I'm not going to do that. The truth is, running is like a lot of things. Writing is one of them, and so is reading. But this time, for me, running was running, and that's all I'm going to say about that. Now, for what really matters: pictures!

We didn't get to see nearly as much of Portland as we wanted (because walking around for miles and miles didn't sound particularly appealing the day before the race), but we did get to hit up Voodoo Donuts. Worth it.

Getting ready, early in the morning, on race day.

Walking to the starting line. SOME people wanted to walk the entire mile and a half from the apartment to the starting line. And I was like um no we are driving as close as possible. So we did, and cut about a mile from that walk. Also worth it.

Pre-race fix.

Me on St. John's Bridge, around mile 17. I was feeling pretty good at this point.

View from St. John's bridge--that's Portland in the background.

Me, about .5 miles from the finish line. That's my aunt cheering me on like a boss.

Post-race view from my uncle's apartment. That's the Fremont Bridge in the background. Also, notice my bling for finishing the marathon.

All the runners. Two marathoners and seven half marathoners. That's my grandma in the middle, in the orange.

Aaaand the whole family who went to Portland (or already lived there) for the race, or just to hang out. It was great fun. 

* Will there be a next time around, you ask? I can't say for sure. I could go either way on whether I'd run another marathon or not; only time will tell I suppose.

Head Shots*

So, my agent asked me yesterday whether I had an "author photo." I briefly panicked, responded that I did not, and then scoured my Facebook photos and the photos on my hard drive for anything that might pass as a head shot. Turns out I take very few photos of myself, alone, that are remotely serious or professional in nature. The following are what I came up with:

This one was actually cropped from one of my engagement photos with Raych. So, in addition to now being deprived of the best part of the photo, it's also, like, 7.5 years old. Otherwise it was a pretty good option. Notice the very natural, effortless, not-awkward-at-all way in which I am diagonal.

Ok, I actually love this picture. Look at that eyebrow. Botox accident? Dwayne Johnson impression?** Who knows. But, again, this picture is just as old as the previous one, and I'm just not that same little boy anymore.

So I sent this to my agent as more of a joke, but he didn't comment on it so maybe he thought I was serious? Who knows. Also, I'm trying really hard not to pun on the "joke" and "serious" parts of that previous sentence. Must...resist...punnage...

Um, because I'm awesome, and top hats are totally in right now. As are blurry photographs.

Also more of a joke (because who DOESN'T want to think their favorite author is a a white walker???). But, even if it wasn't all weird and inverted, color-wise, it's got me with long hair. And I ain't got long hair no mo. :'-(

As you can see, the first batch I sent my agent was abysmally*** slim pickings. Unsurprisingly, he asked if there was anything else. So I took the following improvised selfie:

The resolution isn't that great, and I find this photo unsubtly ironic  in many ways (even if only to myself), but it's a good representation of the current Me, and isn't awful. 

So, yeah, that's my temporary author photo. (No need to panic--this photo won't actually go in any books, it's just something my agency needed on-file for some stuff.) On the to-do list now, of course, is to get one professionally done. I can only imagine that being awkward. To me it just sounds like taking school photos all over again, and to that I say: ick.




* Not FPS shooter head shots, mind you, or the type of shot that kills zombies. Just photos, people.

** Full disclosure: I stole both of those jokes from Facebook comments. ...thanks, Aunt Jeanne. And Dad. (No, seriously, look:)

*** "Abysmally" is one of those words that suddenly becomes hilarious when you look at it long enough. Amiriteoramirite?

Your friendly local desultory blogger, here...

Because this defines my blogging habits in all the ways:

desultory |ˈdesəlˌtôrē|adjectivelacking a plan, purpose, or enthusiasm: a few people were left, dancing in a desultory fashion.• (of conversation or speech) going constantly from one subject to another in a halfhearted way; unfocused: the desultory conversation faded.• occurring randomly or occasionally: desultory passengers were appearing.
Also, I'm hard at work on Book 2 of the Chaos Queen series*, and it's going well. It's actually been quite fun to get back into the characters of Knot, Winter, Astrid, and Cinzia. It's been so long since I've written actual new material for them (I wrote the first draft of Duskfall in 2010, believe it or not) that I thought it would be something of a disaster. But I'm happy to see that is not the case. So, that is happening, and it's making me happy.

My other Chaos Queen project, which was tentatively titled Dark Immolation but has now been tentatively changed to Deadnight, is on the backburner for now. In fact, that project may become something closer to a series of novellas/novelettes, depending on Things.

And, finally, I'm pretty sure I'm going to attempt a D&D-style campaign in the Chaos Queen world. It wouldn't happen until Christmastime-ish, but if it goes well it might be the first in a long series of similar campaigns. I've never GM/DM'd before, so this will be my first experience telling the story, but I'm looking forward to it. Fun times ahead. (And it's not all for fun, either--the idea is that it will help me explore different facets of the Chaos Queen world. Okay, you're right, that actually does sound fun to me. So it is all for fun.)

Anyway, that's me lately. And, in the spirit of D&D, and one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, enjoy the following laugh:





*  Did I mention I changed the series title from The Blood Queen to The Chaos Queen? Well, I did. It fits a lot better. Also, there are no WoW NPCs named Chaos Queen, so, added bonus.

I'm Not Dead

I'm really not. I did just finish the most recent revisions on Duskfall, though. Just the other day I sent the most recent version of the manuscript to my agent, so that's neat!

Now, I'm working on the sequel to Duskfall, tentatively titled Dark Immolation--not to be confused with my previous project, Dark Immolation, which is now tentatively titled Dreadnight. I'll explain more about that soon, but long story short, I'm really excited about my upcoming projects.

The good news: now that I finished that batch of revisions, I'll hopefully have time to blog more! So, that might be a thing. Hopefully. :-)