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For many writers of fiction, myths remain a potent source of inspiration. Myths are like charts or maps, but rather than mapping geographical space, they map intensities within the collective unconscious. While they map in terms of consciousness, we also need a material space-time coordinate to find our way, and this is why comparative mythology and symbology¹⁰¹ are important. The magic and influence of the text is in this relational stage, where the text can influence the writer in direct proportion to the emotional investment the writer has in the text. Once the text is done, and static, it goes on to influence the readers, but for the writer the magic ritual is complete and the text is a talisman resonating with the energy the writer has instilled into it. Too often the purpose of writing is taught to be the telling or showing of a story, a representation of a scene or a situation. However, this is not the most effective approach to take if your purpose is to affect change in the reader and change their experience, especially if the reader in question is also the writer and the editor of the text. As a writer, you are using words like buttons to be pushed, triggering the reader's ideas, actions, and emotions. When you edit your goal is to make sure everything in your text is consistently reinforcing the effect you intend to create. The plot, the diction, and the characters must all work together. Writing is the science and art of causing change in the reader to occur in conformity with the will of the author and editor. We must decipher these myths by examining the metaphorical language, which then provides the key to harness the flow of intensity hardwired into our beings by this collective unconsciousness.

We are things of parts, assemblages of selves, and by reordering, rearranging, and experimenting with our sub-selves in relation to points of intensities revealed by myth, we can interact with these flows and direct ourselves along new vectors. Without being able to set our own course through these flows, we remain at their mercy, reacting to mythic resonances without understanding why, controlled by those who do know how to capitalize on these embedded energies latent in the collective unconscious. For a fuller view of the power of narrative magic, it helps to return to the idea of a character within a fictional context with you as the writer. Characters have minds of their own. Whether they are a part of the author or something entirely separate is nearly impossible to determine, however as they have a mind of their own it is perfectly reasonable to develop a working relationship with them as a writer. Put them through the ringer; make them encounter situations that allow them to develop so you can learn from their reactions and experiences. As a writer, you have control of their environment and the situations they face, but you should also allow the characters to respond naturally through your fiction. By learning how fiction and story can drive changes in a character, you can also learn to apply these same story techniques to your own experience. One's life is, after all, made up of the stories we tell ourselves¹⁰².