Craft Beyond the Hero’s Journey with Pamela Jaye Smith

Pamela is obviously a very savvy and well-prepared teacher of this subject so I wonder if virtual is the best platform. it felt incredibly lonely except for the moments of interaction when the work was reviewed. And, while I was grateful for the reviews received and the brief repartees, I would have appreciated notes for improvement or perhaps examples of variations to the writing exercise that would demonstrate the deeper versatility in using work. Maybe this platform would be improved if there were short video clips to accompany the lessons, and even the chance to login and Q&A directly with the teacher midcourse and at the conclusion.

I have taken good courses online, however, Pamela Jaye Smith's "ARCHEPATHS – 5 Character Paradigms for Any Story" is, by far, the best one yet. Better than advertised, I think. The content was excellent, useful and well taught.

The lessons were masterfully laid out and the assignments were clear and concise. In addition to the great things I learned while doing research for examples of the archetypes being taught, I was surprised by how much impact that knowledge made on the rewrites of my existing scripts. This will serve me well going forward in script work and character development. Dialogues and narratives will be greatly enhanced as well.

It was pointed out that this class would be useful in terms of the writer's observations of himself and others in fiction and real life. That is very true. In that regard, Pamela Jaye Smith's instructions have been life changing for me. I recommend this course to any and all for the writing and personal growth learning to be found here.

My thanks to Savvy Authors and Pamela Jaye Smith for such a great learning experience.

T.K.B. 6/26/21

I appreciated the information passed along and the writing exercises. It was a nice way to re-think things. However, I did NOT appreciate the very biased political slant associated with some of the lectures and assignments, There's enough of that stuff on social media. I don't need to see it in the "classroom" too.

What a phenomenal class! Pamela provided a wealth of information on symbols in media that I will take with me in future writing.

There was no sense of community with this class. The writing exercises weren't inspiring or helpful and nobody in my class participated. The information was erudite, but not practical. There were zero excerpts or specifics from writing, only a list of books we could read or movies we could watch. Not helpful. There was no bridge between these esoteric concepts of an Alpha Babe and actual writing. It didn't help me with my writing at all, which is the entire point of a writing class. This class was more of an overview of all the aspects of a person that need to come together for enlightenment. Also, I was expecting something more whimsical with a title like Alpha Babes. There was no whimsy or fun in this class at all. Just very dry lectures. I gave the second star because the instructor was very knowledgeable, but I didn't enjoy this class.

Loved the Beyond the Hero's Journey class! Very informative.

Great class. Lots of information that I used
to finally realize what my mystery is really
about.
Gwynne

This class on villains had excellent material on all types of villains. I found it an excellent class to push me to analyze the antagonists in books I had already read. I also appreciated the instructor's feedback on my writing though I was unable to write a lot because of the holidays and company. I look forward to taking another of Ms. Smith's classes in the future. She makes you write and reads it all with supportive feedback.

All positive: Extensive information on how to incorporate different kinds of love (love of family, of country, of animals, of art, etc.) in addition to romantic love into your manuscript. Detailed tips on symbols to use and themes to cover esp. at the Shining Action moment to improve your fiction. Great lists of books to read and movies to watch on the same topics, so lots to continue studying.For each lesson Ms. Smith also included an exercise for reflection and another for writing practice. These prompts really helped get me out of years of writers block. Very impressed with the course and recommend it highly. (Loved receiving the generous feedback from Ms. Smith, only wish she had had time to have commented on my final assignments). I truly thank Savvy Authors for this class, it was so much more than I ever expected. I'm so impressed with how the course pushed my interests and abilities in new directions.