Element 7 – Meeting the Mentor

Mentors, those wise, often inscrutable, founts of wisdom. Every story needs one or two.

From the movie “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”, TriStar Pictures, 2022

In this post, I’ll help you shop for the perfect mentor.

But why a mentor, Precious?

Credit: fergusmcgee / funnyjunk

The mentor has been there and done that. Often they have the T-shirt or knee pain to prove it.

Their role in the story is to help prepare the MC for what is to come. Or at least try to. Many MCs are very poor listeners.

Some helicopter-mentors accompany the MC throughout the story. Others prefer to boot them out of the nest and hope they can fly. Some mentors are very busy and only show up occasionally.

As with just about every character role in a story (apart from the MC) the mentor can and does moonlight in other roles. They can also be a best friend, a love interest, an elderly friend or even an antagonist as we see in the relationship between Elphaba and Madame Morrible from the book, play, and movie Wicked.

Obvious examples of mentors include teachers, trainers, coaches, grandparents and to some extent parents (although they are often the LAST person a young MC is likely to listen to).

It’s important to note that Meeting the Mentor scene(s) can be combined with Refusal of the Call, especially if the mentor is the person who talks the MC through their reservations about accepting the Call to Adventure.

Let’s learn more about what mentors do.

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Any character can offer insight, wisdom, advice, council, guidance…okay, set the thesaurus down and back away!

So what makes a mentor different from a helpful friend?

Sometimes, not much; however, the mentor plays a specific role in that they not only encourage the MC, they prepare them to embark on their quest and often, but not always, help them throughout the quest.

But wait – there’s more. Not only does the mentor mentally prepare the MC to embark on their quest, they may also physically prepare them. Do they need special training? Equipment? A magical item or some kind of cool space McGuffin from the Planet Yürelliax?

Luckily, the mentor either has this or knows where and how to get it and will share that information with the MC.

Quick example: I’m at home and we need tomatoes from the farmers’ market. I grab some money and am heading out the door when my sister says, “You can do it. Get the best tomatoes ever. I believe in you.”

Aww, thanks, sis!

My other sister says, “Make sure you get the ones from the Wild River Farm co-op. They’re heirlooms and they taste the best. Tell them I sent you and they’ll give you some wild garlic, too. And don’t forget the shopping bag by the door.”

Here we have two encouraging sisters, which is lovely, isn’t it? But which is the mentor?

Since you’re smart (you’re reading this post so you must be), you can easily see that Sister #2 is the one providing helpful advice and equipment needed for the tomato quest.

While some mentors can be encouraging, they are frequently more of a swift-kick-in-the-keister kind of person. Unlike the MC, the mentor realizes the importance of the quest and if they could do it themself, they would. But they can’t, so now the MC has to step up.

Writing Exercise:

Write a scene where a mentor is encouraging the MC to do something.
Now rewrite that scene with a bad mentor. How can the MC still learn the skills they need or get the gear vital to their quest?