Customer Reviews

The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A finely written description of how most stories can be fitted into a mythic boilerplate, consistent with the Jungian archetypes made famous by Joseph Campbell in his analysis of mythological motifs and their resonances. As Vogler shows, the frameworks of most stories tend to be somewhat similar and the functional aspects of characters tend to recur from story to story and culture to culture. This is a very useful fact for writers to recognize and an important tool to master in the process of writing. Generally it happens on a gut level and Vogler recognizes and does not diminish this aspect of writing. But he also calls our attention to the forms that stories take and which we must know, at some level, when we write them. Still, though I have been attentive to this myself, I think that too much can be made of it at times. Vogler himself clearly shows how the mythic forms can be stretched to such an extent that, after a while, they seem to be as different as they are similar. When you take them this far, is it really the case that we're all doing the same thing within a universal framework, a la Campbell? Or is it all just a series of sometimes useful generalizations and little more?

If you are interested in becoming a writer, it helps to read several of these books. Having already read Story, and gone to a seminar by Robert McKee, I am interested in reading others because not all wisdom resides in any one school.

Chris Vogler offers fresh and invigorating perspectives, illustrated with fascinating examples from many excellent movies from such as Wizard of Oz. He worked on the screenplay of The Lion King, and I found its derivation from the plot of Hamlet interesting to say the least.

If you're like me the you may appreciate the Metaphor of the Hero's Journey the most. George Lucas in Star Wars follows the mythical blueprint laid down by Jseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Vogler offers a succinct inspiring explanation and I could imagine myself in the hero's shoes doing what the hero has to do, what we all have to do. Having read this, the familiar patterns of many great movies suddenly became clearer. Additionally the explantion of the common mythical archetypes merits continued reading. For example the trickster appears in both Star Wars, and The Matrix, and you may recognise Darth Vader as pure shadow.

Many movies start in the Ordinary World, and then there is the call to adventure. Often the hero is reluctant to make a change, so then we have the next stage which is refusal of the call. Eventually we move into the Special world, and in SW and The Matrix our hero joins the rebels and starts to develop special abilities. Another good example of this is Wanted with Angelina Jolie.

He uses over 100 well known movies as examples to illustrate his points, including Titanic. I truly appreciate these insights. Perhaps the most interesting insight for me personally is the idea of polarity or conflict. While every story will have an antagonist and a protagonist, the antagonist does not have to be a villain, but could just be a contrasting or competitive style of achieving the same end.

We may be the antagonist in our own life story, and it may seem paradoxical that even the antagonist sees himself as a hero. Relating this to my own life I see the antagonist as being active, in contrast to the hero who is often passive, at least early in the story.

So, this book I am happy to own, and recommend. Some people may say this book is derivative of The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Paladin Books). Well, it's a much easier read than HWTF, and offers a very neat synopsis of the information provided in that book. If you're wondering which one to read first, I recommend this one because it is easier to understand, and then you will find it easier to understand the other one, because you have read this one.

I also recommend Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. Conflict is to story, as sound is to music.

I hope you found this helpful, and I think you will enjoy the book.

Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

SYNOPSIS from back cover: Based on the work of Joseph Campbell, this book provides an insider's look at how writers (both fiction and non-fiction) can utilize mythic structure to create powerful narratives. Writers will discover step-by-step guidelines for structuring plots and creating realistic characters.

MY FEEDBACK:
First and foremost, this book delivered on what it said it would. The basic structure of a story along with essential and optional cast is presented here.
I really appreciated that Mr. Vogler kept things brief and to the point. Every section was only a paragraph or two and got to the meat of things. He didn't waste space with fifteen fillers as examples to support each and every point.
One of my writing groups recommended this as a great resource to keep handy and refer to at the beginning, middle and end of your story writing to ensure you have the essential ingredients in all marketable stories.

For those of you who hate any kind of structure that makes writing look like a formula, you need to open your mind. My two cents worth: If I'm going to spend the next several years or longer working on a novel (some of you know what I'm talking about) then I want to get some return for my effort. Mimicing some overall structure can only increase my chances of positive monetary return vs. a story that sits unpublished for my great great-grandchildren to read one day after I'm dead and gone. Hopefully you get my meaning. Get the book. It is a keeper.

Are you are humble enough to admit you don't know exactly why bestselling movies and books are so popular?

This book will show you the structure and framework behind some popular movies and explain why these common plot structures work so well.

I'm definitely keeping this one on my shelf and using it as a reference. The only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5 is I would have liked more charts, outlines, etc. to illustrate the ideas presented the in the text.

There are many tools novelists and screenwriters use to create their art. None was as useful to me as Vogler's "Writer's Journey." This book was thrust upon me by a "mentor" -- rather forcefully, because I had "resisted the call" -- and through it I was able to enter the "inmost cave" of the novel I was trying to finish.

I "seized the sword" and "returned with the elixer" and ended up with what I consider a damn fine novel ("Life Askew" -- check it out at Amazon.com).

If you are writing a story, making a film or simply interested in why movies like "Star Wars" and "The Wizard of Oz" are so effective (despite their surface simplicity) pick up Vogler's book and simply read the introduction. Trust me, you will be hooked and follow the "hero's journey" to it's satisfying end.

I bought this book with high expectations, having read the rave reviews. The reality is that it is a laboured list of arbitrary mythological archetypes fashioned into a kind of template for use in writing stories. He cites - and is in fact some kind of apostle for - Joseph Campbell whose book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" he really seems to be summarising.

I didn't like this book. I did not get on with it. I do not feel that it could help me wrestle with the demons and demands of pegging a plot out. It is too full of politically correct genuflection for me to take it seriously. Add to this the fact that Vogler uses this ridiculous alternating personal pronoun (referring to the author every second time as 'she', etc.) which is annoying, incorrect English, and highly distracting, and you have a book which fails for me both in terms of form and content.

Other people liked it, and they are welcome to their view. If you consider yourself progressive and see no contradictions in the current ethos of "equality" and "liberalism" you probably will, too. But I found it vacuous and annoying. If you want a manly, vibrant read Robert McKee's "Story".

Gracious readers' of my various reviews must start to feel like confessors. I say this with tongue just half in cheek because it seems like some of my recent reviews have started with confessions haha. I confess this tome took me a while to finish. That was due to subjective reasons however and in no way is a reflection of Volger's work. In this resource/book Volger draws heavily on Joseph Campbell's THE POWER of MYTH so further his analogy that writing no matter what the medium is deeply indebted to Myths and archetypes. He then proceeds to define some common archetypal characters found in stage, screen, and in fiction. After presenting in layperson's terms the various archetypes found in these mediums Volgel then places them in context as how useful they are as tools to the aspiring writer and provides examples from classic and contemporary sources.

As I confessed this wasn't a breeze to read as far as I am concerned, in fact it uncharacteristically took me months to finish. This is not because Volger's book or journey was dry or pedantic, rather each unit or chapter was written to invite reflection, and for the really motivated exercises. I nibbled pieces of this rich offering happily allowing each chapter to be digested until I read more.

I am an aspiring writer(unpublished but hopefully not eternally unpublished teehee), yet am too subjective to state unequivicably rather this title helps me my writing, although I suspect it is inevitable that it will. I can say without doubt that reading Vogel's Writer's Journey I am a more enriched and discerning reader of other's fiction/plays/screenplays.

One last tidbit, although I have said Vogel refers to Campbell's THE POWER of MYTH frequently,in fact so much so that is in my TBR pile in VERY near future, that book is not a prerequisite for a fulfilling understanding of this one.

THE WRITERS JOURNEY is a trip that is infinite in page numbers but infinite in scope as far as its resourcefulness and prose goes. Don't want to end review with bad sentence structures hahar but oh well.

Writer;s Journey breaks the standard screenplay format into nine segments which it refers to as the "Heroes Journey." Starting in the ordinary world the heroes, or main character receives a "Call of Adventure" which of course is met by the Hero's "refusal of the Call"..so on ad so forth. The Idea so to help the writers identify key elements of the screenplay. The author; Christopher Vogler uses examples from "Star Wars" and other classic movies to illustrate this. If you're truly interested in screenwriting, buy this book and "Myth and the Movies. "Stuart Voytilla

Using paradigms explored in the works of Joseph Campbell (Hero With A Thousand Faces) Christopher Vogler delivers an immensely readable, illuminating explanation of why certain classic and successful stories and films resonate so strongly with their respective audiences. Breaking it down into a roadmap of events and character archetypes, Vogler teaches by example how every writer can turn a go-nowhere story idea into a journey that will captivate readers--and editors--alike. Don't miss this great book! (For a list of additional must-have writing books, visit the Resources page at WriteWayPro's website.)

A good tool for analysis. A significant extended metaphor for contemplation. Take Aristotle's Poetics. Add some depth psychology (soul-study) from Carl Jung. Combine with some mythic theory from Joseph Campbell. Meditate. Creates an insightful method for analyzing plot (story-myth) and archetypal character. Best served hot. Also good chilled. Makes a hearty dish that should please all soulful writers and their muses. I recommend this book to all of my creative writing students.