Scott, Tremendously seminal concept: "Almost always, a Protagonist’s metamorphosis derives from a latent power they already have within, what I call their ‘core essence.’ And the task is to get down to that core essence and have it reveal itself. In this case, Lionel is helping Bertie to tap into his voice, and here does so by forcing Bertie to ‘claim’ it in action." Should or is the latent power usually so neatly and literally (Bertie's voice is effectively silenced by his stutter) paired with it's symbolic opposing characteristic or reversed mirror image, or is there another way to conceptualize the internal conflict in order to pull it out? And is the function of the flaw, baggage, need, etc., to act in direct opposition to the needed latent power? In this case Bertie's epiphany that he has "a voice" enables him to make a leap of faith to trust Lionel. Where would the courage he had to persevere until he found his voice fit in? Do we see courage or the actual nature of his voice-what he SAYS with that voice- as his defining characteristic? BTW after your terrific exchange with Teddy Pasternak about transformation in SOTL in Sept. 2011 you mentioned wanting to do a dedicated series on metamorphosis. A Google search of the site finds some great posts on the topic but I'd still love to see a series. Thanks, great stuff as usual!

Yeah, that was epic. I'm still licking my wounds.

Steven, thanks for reminding me re the metamorphosis series. I've got so many things set aside as drafts, a variety of series, and so on, but it always comes down to time. And unless some zillionaire comes along and says, "Hey, Scott, here's a boatload of cash. Now just blog full-time, wouldja," I have to balance out all the many things I do to keep things afloat. But I will try to write on this some more soon as it's what Joseph Campbell called the theme of The Hero's Journey [only he used the word 'transformation']. Plus we see the dynamic in almost every mainstream and even indie movie.