Tools for Plotting: Chris Vogler on The Hero's Journey

For the past few weeks, I've been bashing my head against the wall, struggling to shape an amorphous blob of a "big idea" into what I hope will become a satisfying story, an epic journey for both the story's heroine and its readers. Recently, I came across a mention of Chris Vogler's wonderful The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, which is based on the work of Joseph Campbell,
and I was flooded with relief. Although there are plenty of other ways to tell a story, I've always loved reading, watching, and writing the classic hero's journey-styled tale. For the writer, the conscious examination of the unconscious structure we're all programmed to recognize can help to shore up structure in a way nothing else can.

This week, I'm going to try sketching out my heroine's journey by pulling this favorite from my personal toolbox. If you, too, could use a reminder (or an intro) check out this quick video with of screenwriting story consultant Chris Vogler speaking on the stages. The accompanying screen shots from The Matrix are extremely helpful, too.

And if you don't have the book, consider clicking through the link and picking up a copy. This is one of a handful of go-to resources I've used again and again throughout the years.

Revisiting an Old Friend

I've never been much of a re-reader. There are simply too many interesting new books out there clamoring for my attention. But there are a handful of writing books that I can't seem to get enough of. Some are motivational (Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, Steven Pressfield's The War of Art), some are character-related (Victoria Schmidt's 45 Master Characters), others are career-related (Donald Maass's The Career Novelist), but one stands out as the bible on storytelling. That singular book, The Writer's Journey, by Chris Vogler, is one I either read, skim, or listen to on tape at least once a year.

For the uninitiated, Vogler's classic is based on his study of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with A Thousand Faces, which looks at the underlying structure of myths, stories, and characters told over and over again throughout all cultures. In Vogler's view, a well-told hero's journey plugs into the collective unconscious and strikes a deeply-satisfying chord. As a Hollywood story consultant, Vogler found it useful to speak of character archetypes such as the Hero, the Mentor (wise, old man or woman), Allies, Shadows, etc. and the stages of the "quest" (Ordinary world, Call to Adventure, etc.) in shaping appealing and commercially-successful plots. He's been accused sometimes of creating a cookie-cutter dynamic, but the hero's journey is so infinitely flexible and variable, I don't feel there's much danger of wearing out its usefulness.

If you have read The Writer's Journey, do yourself a favor and give it a try. I won't promise it's the magic bullet that will catapult you onto the bestseller's lists, but it's one more tool for your kit, and an exceptionally powerful one at that.