#christopher vogler

[mizutoyama]

Damn this book has good questions

[jeffgarvin]

Knives Out

Cover your tracks, prepare your alibi, and get ready to stare into the donut hole. This is the  hero’s journey of Knives Out. Side Quests Elixirs Dan’s Elixir: Whodunnit 2 oz. Blood orange soda 1.5 oz. Cointreau 0.5 oz. Fresh lemon juice 2 oz. Tonic water Build in glass, combining all ingredients with ice and stirring gently.   Jeff’s Elixir: Vigilance Sauvignon Blanc

[ananke-xiii]

this is music to my ears <3

thanks again to @wellofdean who was the fisrt who kindly shared with me a lot of brilliant resources about this topic!

I'll forever be here, alone in my corner, talking about this topic since my sister (who's a screenwriter) and I can never seem to agree on it. Or, in other words, until she concedes that I'm right and I can tell her "I told you so" (my fav sentence ever).

However, I gotta admit, compared to the article's main thesis, I find more interesting its opposite, underlying question: why are people still so enamoured with this concept? Why do a movie from the 70s and twos books written, respectively, in the 40s and 90s still have such a thrall on people in 2024? Why can't we let go of them?

The answer can and maybe just is: money. The structure seems to work, people seem to love it so let's just keep doing more of the same. And yet, I ask again: why do we love it? Why do we want more of it? Do we really love it and want more of it or it's just what's offered to us? So here we go again: why are they offering us only this flavor of "food" and we agree to keep feeding off of it? Much to think about!

For those of us who got desperately tired of (for a while) seeing every pitched screenplay jammed into the Procrustean bed of monomyth and then having to watch it get pieces chopped off it until it fit, this comes as a breath of fresh air...

[rozmorris]

The hidden shapes in stories and why drama isn't what you think it is - interview with @EHeathRobinson

This is a massive headline, I know. A massive headline for a massive and far-ranging conversation about storytelling. My host is Heath Robinson, whose YouTube channel has seen a stellar line-up of story nerds, including Christopher Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler, Matt Bird, author of The Secrets of Story, John Truby, author of The Anatomy of Genres, and Vic Mignogna,…

[filmcourage]

12 Stages Of The Hero's Journey (Narrated By Christopher Vogler)

Watch the video on Youtube here.

[diversamenteintelligente]

(via BELLE)

Un viaggio tra il mondo reale e quello virtuale, che porta la protagonista ad affrontare il viaggio dell'eroe. Un viaggio che ha solo due possibilità: o diventi un eroe o "muori".

[loki-zen]

it's honestly kinda funny the way they are seething with desperation to create a foil for a character who already has one in Wilson.

It's like, (RSL in Wilson getup is right there this entire time) writers: hhhuuuuugggghaaaaaaaaaaagh this is so hard! What's a foil for House? He's a bitter skinny white academic, so.. a jovial fat black businessman? No? Okay, uh.. so, running healthcare like a business, that's a cultural touchstone, make the businessman into that kind of dude maybe? No? Okay so, what if his sole motivation was to humiliate House? Yeah that's a bit empty isn't it. Okay, okay.. fuck. Right okay, so, it's a Sherlock adaptation.. so a real detective? And the inciting incident is House's own casual cruelty? Would that work? Make sure he says House lines so everyone knows he's a dark mirror or some such. Wait, we just made another character whose sole motivation is to humiliate and immiserate House? Damn. Damn. How can we possibly stop doing that. It's not like anyone can be your narrative foil and wish you well.. (Hugh Laurie and RSL are having a watergun fight on set at this point)

House was so much better once they stopped trying to give it arc villains lol

[letterboxd-loggd]

Deep End (1970) Jerzy Skolimowski

July 25th 2024

[tarysande]

Mass Effect 2: The Case for the Heroine's Journey

I have a theory. And I think it's something others--especially other storytellers--might find interesting. It explains why some people absolutely adore Mass Effect 2 while others (not as many, in my experience!) think dealing with all the companions and their personal quests is boring or irrelevant.

What it boils down to is the difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey. There a couple of takes on the Heroine's Journey (ranging from more philosophical and psychoanalytical to more story-based), and I'm going to be pulling hard from the story-based iteration, which author Gail Carriger has written a fabulous book about. I highly recommend it.

One thing I want to mention right off the bat: the gender, sex, or sexuality of your protagonist has nothing to do with whether they're a hero or a heroine.

Everyone and their dog knows the Hero's Journey. A literal ton of writing advice refers to the Hero's Journey as if it's the be-all and end-all of narrative (thanks Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Christopher Vogler); it ain't called the monomyth for nothing.

But if a part of you grits your teeth every time it gets trotted out as The One Right Way to tell a story that sells or a story people love, you may have your mind blown by the concept of the Heroine's Journey. Every single one of you who tingles with excitement at the very thought of found family (or romance, for that matter)? Yeah, strap in, we're going for a ride.

I don't want to go into a lot of detail about the Hero's Journey; it's everywhere. You know it even if you don't realize you know it. So for brevity's sake, I'll give you wikipedia's one-sentence description: a hero goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. Luke Skywalker. Everyone always talks about Luke Skywalker. And on the surface, Mass Effect could seem like a Hero's Journey, right?

According to Gail, a Hero's Journey boils down to

A repeated pattern of withdrawal and return, and those withdrawals are voluntary, as voluntary withdrawal and increased isolation yields self-reliant strength.

Victory is in isolation and asking for help is bad.

But looking at it (especially ME2) through the lens of the Heroine's Journey is where it gets interesting.

This is the infographic Gail created and supplies on her website:

In her book, Gail notes that not every element has to be present to qualify a story as a Hero/Heroine's Journey and the events don't have to happen specifically in this order.

In the Heroine's Journey

The heroine's withdrawal is involuntary; something is broken and she must abdicate the power she had in order to rebuild, retrieve, or reunite with what was taken or broken.

Victory is a group effort; asking for help is a sign of strength; and the protagonist realizes that while she can't do everything herself, she has surrounded herself with people whose skills she can effectively deploy.

In the Heroine's Journey, the DESCENT is involuntary. Something is done to her or taken from her, and it breaks her familial network.

In ME2, obviously, uh, the thing that's taken from Shepard is her own life. Of course, instead of that being the end of the story, it's the inciting incident that leads to the involuntary withdrawal from her found family on the Normandy, her connection to the Alliance, and her Spectre status. Her home is literally destroyed. And then, kinda hilariously, she wakes up in the literal underworld. You know. Cerberus, dog that guards the gates of Hades?

I play a very Paragon Shepard and haven't played Renegade, so I can't speak to that. However, I can tell you that my Paragon Shep wakes up working for Cerberus and promptly proceeds to gain more Renegade points in the first couple of missions--hell, the first couple of conversations with Miranda, Jacob, and TIM--than she got in all of ME1.

Jacob: Do you trust me, Shepard? Shepard: NO, omg.

I've probably played ME2 five or six times with this Shepard, and she always strikes me as a bit off, a bit manic even, until she sees Tali. And she doesn't really start to settle or feel like herself until Archangel takes off his helmet, believes she is who she says she is, and without hesitation agrees to follow her into hell.

(As the protagonist in his own story, Garrus is also a heroine on a Heroine's Journey, by the by. Shepard's death breaks his network; C-Sec and the Council's denial of the Reapers leads to his abdication of power in the hunt for justice. His underworld is Omega. He puts together a surrogate family to fight injustice; he learns to delegate; he doesn't do it for glory... And then Sidonis's betrayal breaks the new family and sends him on another cycle. My theory, however, is that if you let him kill Sidonis, his journey takes on the revenge aspect of a Hero's Journey instead of the family and reunification structure of a Heroine's Journey.)

In ME2, the arc of recruiting an ally, earning their loyalty, and deploying their suggestions to improve the entire team's chances of survival is repeated over and over; this is the SEARCH of the cycle. And anyone who's ever tried to race their way through ME2 without doing all those loyalty missions or without scanning all those planets for resources finds out pretty quick why they're important.

So, while you potentially could race through ME1 without even recruiting several teammates (did you even know you can play that game without recruiting Garrus???), thereby making it much more of a Hero's Journey of the Strength of the Individual, you really can't do that in ME2 without massive casualties. You need the people around you. You need to build relationships. And you need to learn to delegate well, or things will absolutely fall apart during the end run.

Even the stated mission of ME2 is more Heroine's Journey. You're not fighting for glory; in fact, most of the people who used to be in awe of you now think you're a crazy terrorist. You're fighting to stop what's happening to human colonists.

The end run is so satisfying specifically because it leans in to the Heroine's Journey of information gathering and network building. You cannot beat the game as a solitary soldier. You cannot achieve a good outcome--minimal deaths, etc.--without having spent a lot of time and effort gaining the loyalty of your crew and then knowing how to deploy them to best serve the whole team.

ME2 is a story about finding and building a family after the last one is broken.

And though it's a whole other can of worms, I actually think the reason why the ending of ME3 was ultimately so unsatisfying for so many (again, not all) is because the majority of the game is once again a Heroine's Journey--team building and information gathering across the galaxy--but the endgame pulls the expected narrative out from under you. Instead of actually using the resources you've so carefully built, you're quite literally beamed up into complete isolation (weakness) and left to make a choice in isolation. It breaks the narrative promise that's been set up since the beginning of the game. And, whether you realize it or not, that's a huge part of why that lonely choice feels so hollow. Instead of a structured reunion and a rebuilt network, it's actually the broken family and involuntary descent that heralds the beginning of a new Heroine's Journey--not the the end of a successful one.

Also, incidentally? It's Heroine's Journeys that usually get satisfying instead of distracting-the-hero-from-his-real-mission romance, banter, fully realized side characters, and humor.

[seasononesam]

sam winchester + christopher vogler's the hero’s journey in seasons 1 & 2 [in/sp]

Sam is that very classic Joseph Campbell [hero] with the prophecy and all that. - Eric Kripke

[xythlia]

FANFIC WRITING RESOURCE MASTER POST

so in the spirit of wanting to see writers thrive I've decided to make a big master post of every single resource I use in order to create my works. It can be really hard to find concrete resources and it's frustrating to feel like you just don't know how to do something or how to get started but no worries hopefully you can find answers in this post ^⁠_⁠^

ON WRITING SMUT

› writing resources to keep on hand while you write

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Smut Fic by QuinnAnderson on AO3

The Sexy Thesaurus by Laurel Clark

Lewd Vocabulary in Erotic Fiction Survey by KJ Scott (from a survey done on r/fanfiction)

75+ Ways To Say Heart Pounded by Kathy Steinemann

Ways To Describe Breath & Breathing by Kathy Steinemann (everything on her site is super helpful tbh)

21 Other Words For Vagina by Lisette Marshall

The Gay Sex Positions Guide (be advised this is a photo guide!)

Writing Sex Scenes by Michael La Ronn (video resource)

GENERAL HELPFUL WRITING TOOLS

› things that can help when you feel stuck on certain words, want to avoid repetitive sentences, or check your spelling and grammar

Reverse Dictionary (search for words based on their definition)

Related Words (help you find words related to another word or phrase)

Describing Words (find adjectives)

Words to Use (reference that groups subject related words by parts of speech)

Wordhippo (has synonyms/antonyms/ect based on different definitions)

Netspeak (search for words you don't know yet/internet slang)

OneLook (thesaurus/dictionary)

Fighters Block (overcome writers block by setting it up as a game to achieve a certain word count)

Scribens (lesser known spelling and grammar check but does more! Helps prevent word repetition, rephrasing, vocab enhancement, + other stuff)

THE BASICS OF WRITING

› helpful resources to give you a solid foundation for your writing

7 Fundamentals of Writing by Michael Stover

Fundamentals of Writing by Jim Westergren

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

› this section is books on writing I recommend reading, you can either purchase them or if you know how to pirate you can get them that way too

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

The Elements of Style by William Strunk & E.B. White

Ernest Hemingway on Writing by Larry W. Phillips

The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler

[mizutoyama]

Finished reading all the different stages of the journey in Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. Feels weird to say as someone who has read a lot of books, took some literature classes and was overall exposed to a lot of stories through movies, TV shows and video games, but it helped me better understand story structures (and that it’s also ok to deviate from that specific structure if the story calls for it).

Wasn’t sure if that book would help me when I bought it, but so far, I have zero regrets.

[jeffgarvin]

The Sting

Identify your mark, stack the deck, and know your escape route. This is the hero’s journey of The Sting. Side Quests Elixirs Dan’s Elixir: Gordon’s Bourbon, Straight Jeff’s Elixir: Old Fasioned 2 oz. Ezra Brooks 99 Bourbon 1/4 tsp. simple syrup Orange peel Bourbon cherry

[sillygoblinantics]

Just minding my business trying to get myself in the groove of Bonnie’s day out and….

Do I have permission to just use the “that’s you Lily” art?

Lily you’ve shown to never appreciate a story and whine about it being too long and either skip/not read OR refuse to fucking finish it!

EAT YOUR FUCKING SOUP LILY YOU ASKED FOR IT SO EAT IT

It’s almost like it’s a fundamental aspect or structure to writing… maybe make your own opinion rather than constantly stealing others.

Here’s food for thought: maybe the reason everything looks the same to you, it’s a sign that you have not really broadened your perspective of media?

Lily.

Sometimes skipping for the plot cuts context from anything that might’ve been mentioned in the silly unrelated storyline.

You do this Lily, you’ve done this, admitted to doing this and by god do I wish I could link a compilation video of you saying these things to point to as reference

You know those moments are still important to the overall story, right?

Moments like that help the audience or reader (which was implied as being the topic) better know the multiple facets of the cast/character. But those moments are also interwoven with the plot via reflection and worry, just the general thoughts the character(s) have of the threat or plot in the story. It’s not all quiet and peaceful in the slice of life moment. That is the calm before the storm.

I would recommend Lily some books but she doesn’t read anything or even reread to fix her own writing.

But for you guys! I’d be more than happy to recommend these for yall starting out or needing refreshers!

Save the Cat! — Blake Snyder

Visual Storytelling • How to Speak to your Audience without Saying a Word — Morgan Sandler

The Writer’s Journey - 3rd Ed • Mythic Structure for Writers — Christopher Vogler

And these!

Oki ima go back to drawing now

[roughdraftmonth]

what's the plan? outline methods & tips!

Hey, Rough Drafters!

This is for all the outline fans out there. Here are some tips on different outline structures that might help you while you blueprint your Rough Draft! I hope there is something helpful here whether you are new to outlining or a veteran. This is not a comprehensive list. I totally recommend digging into other narrative structures, seeing how they tick, and deciding what works for you!

✏️ The Hero’s Journey • Created by Joseph Campbell (using the simplified terms from Christopher Vogler)

The Hero’s journey is the backbone of most outline structures. The only difficult thing is a lot of these terms are still derived from classic mythic structure and are less applicable today. However, since it has been so well dissected and discussed, there are so many resources to help transpose the terms to narratives that involve less sword-and-shield-heroism. It might take a little time to understand each beat and what it can mean for you and your story, but this is such a well loved structure and will give your story some solid backbone! This structure is best suited for an adventure story where characters travel from one place to another, but you can get creative about what that adventure or journey looks like. At its most basic, though, the hero’s journey will help take your characters on quests in a far off place—whether it’s in the stars, across the continent, or in a world of your own making.

⭐ Great media examples of ‘journey’ narratives are: Star Wars (pick one really), Little Miss Sunshine, Lord of the Rings, and Life of Pi.

✏️ Save the Cat • Created by Blake Snyder

Save the Cat was originally intended for screenwriting. Its best application is in scripting, whether that be screenwriting, plays, games, or comics. The first and last beats help to set a tone for your story, which is crucial for script writing and opening/ending shots in films, but this concept can be just as important in prose. Consider using guidelines from this structure to plan your first and last scenes before you get to November.

⭐ You will recognize Save the Cat in most films, and you can find beat sheets to match films for example on the Save the Cat website.

✏️ Six Stage Outline by Michael Hauge

This structure is great to keep simple with bullet points or expand for more depth. In this outline there are only 11 beats—6 stages and 5 turning points. Turning points are the highest moment of external conflict. Ideally, internal and external conflict escalate at each turning point. Identity deals with character’s misbeliefs about themselves as the narrative drives them to be their most authentic self. This outline focuses on developing both internal and external struggles. If your story is particularly character-driven, this structure might be the one for you.

⭐ Many stories follow this structure but the one I was taught off of is the greatest movie of all time. Shrek.

Try drawing your arc with notes out on paper. This arc can silly: include dead ends, drop offs, spirals, tangles, anything! This helps visualize the ups and downs of the narrative. Also great to do after you’ve completed outlining for a visual aid.

Sometimes... one outline model is not enough! Mix and match your favorite terms and structures in the manner you feel best assists your narrative structure. Don’t be afraid to make it your own!

Read in your medium (novels, scripts, poems, etc.) and notate pages and scenes where the major beats happen. This really helps engage your brain and makes you more familiar with plot structure!

My favorite method to outline is the MLA outline structure. Using a template like this helps me put all of my ideas into place. I don’t have an excuse for not knowing what to do. This helps lock me in!

✏️ Uh oh, Secret Plantser Agenda!

If outlining the ending first doesn’t work for you, outline everything EXCEPT the ending! Leave something for you to discover once you get there!

Sometimes you need to take a step back. Maybe don’t make a 10 page outline. Maybe make 10 bullet points. Outline as much or as little as you need to.

Occasionally overplanning can cause me to lose the joy in my writing! Make sure to really experiment to find what works best with you and your style! Sometimes that means... making a less in-depth outline. This is a call out post for me (Sarah with an ‘h’) specifically.

✏️ Technically, I like to combine elements of all three of these plot structures, but Michael Hauge’s 6 stage outline is my favorite. It’s a very good structure for adjusting to your outlining style, whether you want to do just the bare bones plot points, or you want to use them as the waypoints as you plot out scene by scene. I like to use the stages and turning points as the headings and subheadings to my outline. I hope these tips are able to help you in your outlining journey, both planner and plantser alike. If you know of any other helpful tips for outlining, please share them with us!

Thanks for tuning in, happy drafting!

-Sarah with an ‘H’

[filmcourage]

The Hero's Journey Is Not A Formula - Christopher Vogler via FilmCourage.com.