Dara Marks seminar: Engaging the Feminine Heroic

Here are some notes from what I had taken away from the wonderful Dara Marks seminar Engaging the Feminine Heroic presented by NYWIFT and WGA:

Looking into deep mythologies not simply what happens to females but what happens to the feminine side of our nature and balance with the masculine side. Archetype a recurring pattern of a human experience. Begins with a problem because we don’t know how to handle it, becomes bigger and there’s atransformational arc, climax and resolution. The beginning, middle and end, in terms of structure and what is actually happening below the line. This is what humanity looks like, this is how we process life. The external world and the inner world as to how it is dealt with.

The transformation arc shows the conflict from the outer world; therefore, more is demanded from the characters and how they handle what had happened. What it brings about is great change, how it is dealt with and what happens to the characters. These two worlds that the characters are living in. That narrative is not simply a thing, it is omnipresent, it is everything. It is this moment, the present time. Living in the moment becomes a life choice. Memory is a narrative– it has a much higher function than simply entertainment and tells us how to live, what to watch out for and that the problems in life are always there and overcome.

It’s about telling the human story, the nature of love and how you open your heart to love. Telling the most essential story, it takes the audience on a journey into the inner realm. There’s a landscape. By developing the powerful metaphors and imagery into the lives of characters and their interactions brought to the surface by some kind of conflict.

The nature of every story is about the conflict meaning that something is out of balance and arises from too much or too little of something. The masculine and the feminine side of character’s natures triggers their actions and result in consequences. Masculine ascension and achievement requires participation in the world. Feminine deals with the inner world acceptance, relatedness and love. Creating a balance between the two so that characters are consciously and unconsciously striving for. This balancing act, the need to connect with other human in the story becomes the center of the narrative.