The Writer's Journey (Third Edition) - PDF

THE W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY M Y T H I C STRUCTURE FOR W R I T E R S THIRD EDITION CHRISTOPHER VOGLER S C R E E N W R I T I N G / W R I T I N G Christopher Vogler explores the powerful relationship between mythology and storytelling in his clear, concise style that's made i this book required reading for movie executives, screenwriters, playwrights, fiction and non-fiction writers, scholars, and fans of pop culture all over the world. Discover a set of useful myth-inspired storytelling paradigms like "The Hero's Journey," and step-by-step guidelines to plot and character development. Based on the work of Joseph Campbell, The Writers Journey is a must for all writers interested in further developing their craft. This updated and revised Third Edition provides new insights and observations from Vogler's ongoing work on mythology's influence on stories, movies, and man himself. In revealing new material, he explores key principles like polarity and catharsis, plus: A revised chapter which looks back at the Star Wars phenomenon and analyzes the six feature films as an epic on the theme of father-son relationships New illustrations and diagrams that give additional depth to the mythic principles A final chapter, "Trust the Path," an inspiring call to adventure for those who want to discover themselves through writing "This book is like having the smartest person in the story meeting come home with you and whisper what to do in your ear as you write a screenplay. Insightfor insight, step for step, Chris Vogler takes us through the process of connecting theme to story and making a script come alive. " - Lynda Obst, Producer, Sleepless in Seattle, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days; Author, Hello, He Lied "This is a book about the stories we write, and perhaps more importantly, the stories we live. It is the most influential work I have yet encountered on the art, nature, and the very purpose of storytelling. " - Bruce Joel Rubin, Screenwriter, Stuart Little 2, Deep Impact, Ghost, Jacobs Ladder Christopher Vogler is a veteran story consultant for major Hollywood film companies and a respected teacher of filmmakers and writers around the globe. H e has influenced the stories of movies from The Lion King to Fight Club to The Thin Red Line. H e is the executive producer of the feature film, PS. Your Cat Is Dead, and writer of the animated feature, Jester Till. MICHAEL WIESE PRODUCTIONS www.mwp.com " T h i s book is like having the smartest person in the story meeting come home with you and whisper what to do in your ear as you write a screenplay. Insight for insight, step for step, Chris Vogler takes us through the process of connecting theme to story and m a k i n g a script come alive." — Lynda Obst, Producer, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Sleepless in Seattle, One Fine Day, Contact; Author, Hello, He Lied "The Writers Journey is an insightful and even inspirational guide to the craft of story telling. An approach to structure that is fresh and contemporary, while respecting our roots in mythology." — Charles Russell, Writer, Director, Producer, Dreamscape, The Mask, Eraser "The Writer's Journey should be on anyone's bookshelf who cares about the art o f storytelling at the movies. N o t just some theoretical tome filled with development clichés of the day, this book offers sound and practical advice on how to construct a story that works." — David Friendly, Producer, Little Miss Sunshine, Daylight, Courage Under Fire, Out to Sea, My Girl "A classic of its k i n d full of insight and inspiration that every writer, both amateur and professional, must read." — R i c h a r d D. Zanuck, T h e Zanuck C o m p a n y Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, Reign of Fire, Driving Miss Daisy, Cocoon, The Verdict, Sting " T h e basis for a great movie is a great screenplay, and the basis for a great screenplay should be The Writer's Journey." — A d a m Fields, Donnie Darko, Money Train, Great Balls of Fire "One of the most valuable tools in understanding and appreciating the structure of a plot that's available today. The Writer's Journey is an essential tool to any writer at any stage o f their career." — Debbie Macomber, Best-selling Author, Montana "A valuable tool for any creative writer, The Writer's Journey is consistently among our top-selling books each month. Christopher Vogler's narrative helps writers construct well-developed characters that enrich their stories." — T h e W r i t e r s C o m p u t e r Store "There's not a better book to read i f you want to write movies, or anything else for that matter. I keep it on my desk, always within reach, knowing that when I get lost — and I always do — I have somebody close by to help show me the way. Chris Vogler is a (bleep)ing genius." — Scott Silver, Writer, Eight Mile " The Writer's Journey provides both fiction and nonfiction writers with powerful tools and guidelines to create remarkable stories. It is the best book of its kind." — John Tullius, Director, M a u i W r i t e r s Conference and W r i t e r s Retreat " T h i s is a book about the stories we write, and perhaps more importantly, the stories we live. It is the most influential work I have yet encountered on the art, nature, and the very purpose of storytelling." — Bruce Joel Rubin, Screenwriter, Ghost, Jacob's Ladder " T h i s book should come w i t h a warning: You're going to learn about more than just writing movies—you're going to learn about life! The Writer's Journey is the perfect m a n u a l for developing, pitching and writing stories with universal human themes that will forever captivate a global audience. It's the secret weapon I hope every writer finds out about." — Jeff Arch, Screenwriter, Sleepless in Seattle "Vogler was the genius behind The Writer's Journey, which should be on the shelf o f every screenwriter. Studies classical m y t h o l o g y and its use in moviemaking for stories." — Fade In M a g a z i n e 1 9 9 6 (From Article " T h e Top 1 0 0 People in H o l l y w o o d You N e e d to Know") " T h e Katzenberg m e m o has joined the show-biz vernacular. But there's another, lesser-known Disney m e m o whose influence arguably exceeded Katzenberg s. T h i s seven-page m e m o distills myth-master Joseph Campbell's storytelling theories into an algorithm for screenplays." — Los Angeles Times M a g a z i n e , 1 9 9 4 " T h e current industry bible... — Spy M a g a z i n e , H o l i d a y Issue, 1 9 9 7 "A seven-page m e m o by Christopher Vogler is now the stuff of H o l l y w o o d legend.... T h e idea o f a "mythic structure" has been quickly accepted by Hollywood, and Vogler s book now graces the bookshelves of many studio heads." — The London Times, 1 9 9 4 "I tell every story teller who asks, it all starts with this book. Vogler conjures up ancient tools and teaches readers how to wield them — unlocking solutions to every story problem." — Darren Aronofsky, Director, Pi, Requiem for a Dream, and The Fountain THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler Published by Michael W i e s e Productions 3 9 4 0 Laurel Canyon Blvd., # 1 1 1 1 Studio City, C A 9 1 6 0 4 tel. 8 1 8. 3 7 9. 8 7 9 9 fax 8 1 8. 9 8 6. 3 4 0 8 [email protected] www.mwp.com Cover Design: Michael W i e s e Productions Illustrations: Fritz Springmeyer & Michèle M o n t e z Book Layout: Gina Mansfield Design Editor: Paul Norlen Printed by M c N a u g h t o n & Gunn, Inc., Saline, Michigan Manufactured in the U n i t e d States of America Printed on Recycled Stock © 2 0 0 7 Christopher Vogler First Printing October 1 9 9 8 All rights reserved. N o part o f this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vogler, Christopher, 1 9 4 9 - T h e writer's journey : mythic structure for writers / Christopher Vogler. ~ 3rd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9 7 8 - 1 - 9 3 2 9 0 7 - 3 6 - 0 I. M o t i o n picture authorship. 2. Narration ( R h e t o r i c ) 3. M y t h in literature. 4. Creative writing. I. Title. PNI996.V64 2007 808.2'3-dc22 2007026844 IV for Mom and Dad TABLE OF CONTENTS I N T R O D U C T I O N : T h i r d Edition ix PREFACE: Second Edition xiii INTRODUCTION: Second Edition ~ Preparing for the Journey xxvii BOOK ONE: M a p p i n g the Journey I A Practical Guide 3 T h e Archetypes 23 Hero 29 Mentor: W i s e O l d M a n or W o m a n 39 Threshold Guardian 49 Herald 55 Shapeshifter 59 Shadow 65 Ally 71 Trickster 77 BOOK T W O : Stages of the Journey 81 Ordinary W o r l d 83 Call to Adventure 99 Refusal of the Call 107 Meeting with the M e n t o r 117 Crossing the First Threshold 127 Tests, Allies, Enemies 135 Approach to the Inmost Cave 143 T h e Ordeal 155 Reward 175 T h e R o a d Back 187 T h e Resurrection 197 Return with the Elixir 215 vi EPILOGUE: Looking Back on the Journey 231 T h e Writer s Journey 293 APPENDICES 297 Stories Are Alive 299 Polarity 315 Catharsis 341 T h e W i s d o m of the Body 355 Trust the Path 365 FILMOGRAPHY 371 BIBLIOGRAPHY 373 INDEX 374 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 407 vii INTRODUCTION Third Edition he waves are still rolling in from the pebbles in the pond that were the original Writer's Journey and its second edi tion. Since almost a decade has gone by since the second edition was launched, the ideas in that volume have been strenuously tested in a number of story-making labora tories around the world. Concepts I had developed as a story consultant for the Disney company and as a teacher of story construction have been through a fresh battery of challenges in the real world that I hope have made them stronger. T h e new chapters of this book will, I hope, reflect some of the ideas that have continued to evolve around the Hero's Journey concept. T h e r e are new chapters on the life force operating in stories, on the mechanism o f polarity that rules in storytelling, on the wisdom of the body, catharsis, and other concepts that I have developed in recent years in my lectures and in practical work in H o l l y w o o d and in Europe. I have gathered together this new material near the end of the book, in an appendix following "Looking Back on the Journey." In the nine years since the last edition, I have traveled widely, applied my ideas to writing, publishing, and producing projects of my own, and done a few more "tours of duty" as it were for major H o l l y w o o d studios. T h e first of these jobs, commencing just after the publishing o f the second edition, was a four-year return to 2 0 t h Century Fox, where I had been a story analyst at the beginning of my career. T h i s time around I was operating at a slightly higher level, as a develop ment executive for the Fox 2 0 0 0 feature film label, with more responsibility and pressure. I was involved in the research and development aspects of films like Courage IX THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler Under Fire, Volcano, Anna and the King, Fight Club, and The Thin Red Line. M y concepts o f s t o r y t e l l i n g , shaped by the patterns of mythology and the thinking of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, were now being tested not only on animated features but on big-budget, live-action movies for adult audiences. T h e office atmosphere of Fox 2 0 0 0 was a fascinating place to study the ways of power. In the past I h a d been aware o f places like it, but as a story analyst I h a d not been inside those meeting rooms where the decisions were taken about the writers, the stories, and the movies made from them. Power flows in those rooms like hot lava, and until I worked at Fox 2 0 0 0 I had only heard it rumbling. Now I was standing hip deep in it. It was the most adult environment I had ever been in, run on unspoken but rigorous principles of personal responsibility. N o whining allowed, no excuses. And the same fierce intensity was applied to the stories. Every concept, every comment, every suggestion had to pass the most stringent tests of common sense, logic, and show business instinct. I had the good fortune to work with some of the best story brains in the business, foremost among them being Fox 2 0 0 0 ' s founder Laura Ziskin, but also many talented executives, writers, directors, and producers. In this exacting laboratory I learned useful techniques for analyzing stories, ways of looking at characters and describing story situations that I hope will inform the new sections of this revised edition. Among the things I learned at Fox 2 0 0 0 was to listen to my body as a judge of a story's effectiveness. I realized that the good stories were affecting the organs of my body in various ways, and the really good ones were stimulating more than one organ. A n effective story grabs your gut, tightens your throat, makes your heart race and your lungs pump, brings tears to your eyes or an explosion of laughter to your lips. If I wasn't getting some k i n d of physiological reaction from a story, I knew it was only affecting me on an intellectual level and therefore it would probably leave audiences cold. You will find my thoughts about this in a new chapter on the wisdom of the body. W h e n my job at Fox 2 0 0 0 came to an end, as all good things must do, I wanted to write and produce some projects of my own. I soon found myself writing the screenplay for an animated feature, the result of a lecture trip to Munich. I was approached by producer Eberhard Junkersdorf to write the script for his version of the merry adventures of T i l l Eulenspiegel, Europe's favorite medieval clown. I knew x INTRODUCTION~THIRD EDITION of T i l l s colorful character from stories I had read as a child and was delighted to take up the challenge. I enjoyed working w i t h the energetic and charming H e r r Junkersdorf and his international team of artists. Eberhard is so persuasive he even got me to contribute lyrics for two songs on the film s soundtrack, which really was a challenge. T h e film was released in Germany as Till Euknspiegel, and I a m hopeful it will be released in English one day under its English title, Jester Till T h e experience taught me a multitude of lessons that I have tried to incorporate into the present edition. Next up, I got involved as an executive producer of an independent feature, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, a c t o r / d i r e c t o r / w r i t e r Steve Guttenberg s adaptation of the play and novel by James Kirkwood. T h i s took me deep into the editing room for a period of months, another of the sacred temples of the movie business and for me, a place of intense joy. I loved sitting in the dark staring at images all day long and making the pictures dance. I called it going into the submarine, a blissful world of concentra tion that called on every cell of my creativity and forced me to articulate my ideas in order to communicate with my creative partners. I could see many ways in which the editing process echoes the writing process, and imagined new possibilities for com bining the two. I learned new principles and gave the old theories a good workout. T h e process of editing seemed to me to be a lot like making a wooden boat, like one of those sleek dragon-ships the Vikings made. T h e spine of the story is like the keel, the major plot points are the ribs, and the individual scenes and lines of dialogue are the planks and rigging that complete the vessel, a vehicle for your vision that you hope will sail on the seas of public attention. Another insight from the editing room was a greater appreciation of the i m portance of focus. I realized that focused attention is one of the rarest things in the world, and that an audience is giving a lot when they devote their full attention to your work for two hours. There is only so much focus available in a given work, and it seems the more elements you take out of a composition, the more focus is poured into those that remain. Cutting lines, pauses, and entire scenes sharpened the focus on the elements that were left, as if a large number of diffuse spotlights had been concentrated into a few bright beams aimed at select important points. P.S. Your Cat Is Dead enjoyed a brief theatrical run and then was distributed on DVD. After that adventure I concentrated for a time on traveling to give seminars for various international cinema and television training programs. M o s t recently I have xi THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler gone back to the H o l l y w o o d studio world with a tour of duty at Paramount Pictures and a number of consulting jobs for other studios. I tried my hand at a new form, writing the first installment of Ravenskull, a story for a "manga," a highly stylized k i n d of comic book from Japan. T h i s is a highly cinematic form, much like writing a screenplay and with a great deal of emphasis on the visual. I hope something of what I have learned from collaborating with artists has found its way into this latest edition. It has been an intense pleasure to work with my artist friends Michèle M o n t e z and Fritz Springmeyer, whose illustrations provide the chapter headings in this volume. A n d while I'm cataloguing the influences of recent years that inform the changes in the present volume, some of m y most valuable time was spent walking the beach and thinking about why things are as they are and how they got to be that way. I tried to understand how the sun and stars move across the sky and how the moon got there. I saw that it's all waves, all of the Universe, just echoes and counter-echoes of the original cosmic sound, not the Big Bang, that's the wrong sound effect. It was more like a gong, that's it, the Great Gong, the original creative vibration that rolled out from a single pinpoint of concentration and unraveled and echoed and collided to create everything that is, and the Hero's Journey is part of that. I watch the sunsets march up and down the horizon, creating my own Stonehenge from the islands and ridge peaks that m a r k solstice and equinox, inviting me to puzzle out the place of stories and my own place in the story of everything. I hope you find your own place in that design. For those to w h o m the concept is new, bon voyage, and for those who are familiar w i t h earlier versions, I hope you find some new surprises and connections in this work, and that it serves you on your own creative journeys. Christopher Vogler Venice, California February 2 6 , 2 0 0 7 Xll PREFACE Second Edition 2©=> "I'm not trying to copy Nature. I'm trying to find the principles she's using: — R. Buckminster Fuller A book goes out like a wave rolling over the surface of the sea. Ideas radiate from the authors mind and collide with other minds, triggering new waves that return to the author. These generate further thoughts and emanations, and so it goes. T h e concepts described in The Writer's Journey have radiated and are now echoing back interesting challenges and criticisms as well as sympathetic vibrations. T h i s is my report on the waves that have washed back over me from publication of the book, and on the new waves I send back in response. In this book I described the set of concepts known as " T h e Hero's Journey," drawn from the depth psychology o f Carl G. Jung and the mythic studies o f Joseph Campbell. I tried to relate those ideas to contemporary storytelling, hoping to create a writer's guide to these valuable gifts from our innermost selves and our most distant past. I came l o o k i n g for the design principles of storytelling, but on the road I found something more: a set of principles for living. I came to believe that the Hero's Journey is nothing less than a handbook for life, a complete instruction manual in the art of being human. T h e Hero's Journey is not an invention, but an observation. It is a recogni tion of a beautiful design, a set of principles that govern the conduct o f life and the world of storytelling the way physics and chemistry govern the physical world. It's difficult to avoid the sensation that the Hero's Journey exists somewhere, somehow, as an eternal reality, a Platonic ideal form, a divine model. From this model, infinite and highly varied copies can be produced, each resonating with the essential spirit of the form. xiii THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler T h e Hero's Journey is a pattern that seems to extend in many dimensions, describing more than one reality. It accurately describes, among other things, the process o f making a journey, the necessary working parts of a story, the joys and despairs of being a writer, and the passage of a soul through life. A book that explores such a pattern naturally partakes of this multi—dimen sional quality. The Writer's Journey was intended as a practical guidebook for writers, but can also be read as a guide to the life lessons that have been carefully built into the stories of all times. Some people have even used it as a kind of travel guide, predicting the inevitable ups and downs of making a physical journey. A certain number of people say the book has affected them on a level that may have nothing to do with the business of telling a story or writing a script. In the description of the Hero's Journey they might have picked up some insight about their own lives, some useful metaphor or way of looking at things, some language or principle that defines their problem and suggests a way out of it. T h e y recognize their own problems in the ordeals of the mythic and literary heroes, and are reassured by the stories that give them abundant, time-tested strategies for survival, success, and happiness. Other people find validation of their own observations in the book. From time to time I meet people who know the Hero's Journey well although they may never have heard it called by that name. W h e n they read about it or hear it described, they experience the pleasurable shock of recognition as the patterns resonate with what they've seen in stories and in their own lives. I had the same reaction when I first encountered these concepts in Campbell's book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and heard h i m speak about them with passion. Campbell himself felt it when he first heard his mentor, Heinrich Zimmer, speak about mythology. In Zimmer he recognized a shared attitude about myths — that they are not abstract theories or the quaint beliefs of ancient peoples, but practical models for understanding how to live. A PRACTICAL GUIDE T h e original intent of this book was to make an accessible, down-to-earth writing manual from these high-flying mythic elements. In that practical spirit, I am gratified to hear from so many readers that the book can be a useful writing guide. Professional writers as well as novices and students report that it has been an effective design tool, validating their instincts and providing new concepts and principles to apply to xiv PREFACE their stories. Movie and television executives, producers, and directors have told me the book influenced their projects and helped them solve story problems. Novelists, playwrights, actors, and writing teachers have put the ideas to use in their work. Happily, the book has won acceptance as one of the standard H o l l y w o o d guidebooks for the screenwriting craft. Spy magazine called it "the new industry Bi ble." Through the various international editions (U.K., German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Icelandic, etc.) it has radiated to greater Hollywood, the world community of storytellers. Filmmakers and students from many countries have reported their interest in the Hero's Journey idea and their appreciation for the book as a practical guide for designing and troubleshooting stories. The Writer's Journey, meanwhile, has been put to work in many ways, not only by writers in many forms and genres, but by teachers, psychologists, advertising executives, prison counselors, video game designers, and scholars of myth and pop culture. I am convinced the principles of the Hero's Journey have had a deep influ ence over the shaping of stories in the past and will reach even deeper in the future as more storytellers become consciously aware of them. Joseph Campbell's great accomplishment was to articulate clearly something that had been there all along — the life principles embedded in the structure of stories. H e wrote down the un written rules of storytelling, and that seems to be stimulating authors to challenge, test, and embellish the Hero's Journey. I see signs that writers are playing with the ideas and even introducing "Campbellian" language and terms into their dramas. T h e conscious awareness of its patterns may be a mixed blessing, for it's easy to generate thoughtless clichés and stereotypes from this matrix. T h e self-conscious, heavy-handed use of this model can be boring and predictable. But if writers absorb its ideas and re-create them with fresh insights and surprising combinations, they can make amazing new forms and original designs from the ancient, immutable parts. XV THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vbgkr QUESTIONS AND CRITICISMS "It takes a great enemy to make a great airplane." — Air Force saying Inevitably, aspects o f the book have been questioned or criticized. I welcome this as a sign the ideas are worthy of argument. I'm sure I've learned more from the challenges than from the positive feedback. W r i t i n g a book may be, as the historian Paul Johnson says, "the only way to study a subject systematically, purposefully and retentively." Harvesting the response, both positive and negative, is part of that study. Since the book came out in 1 9 9 3 I have continued to work in the story end of the movie business, at Disney, Fox, and Paramount. I've had the chance to try out the Hero's Journey concepts with the big toys. I saw where it works but also where my understanding of it fell short and needed to be adjusted. M y beliefs about what makes a good story were tested in the toughest arenas on earth — Hollywood story conferences and the world marketplace — and I hope my understanding has grown from the objections, doubts, and questions of my esteemed colleagues, and from the reaction of the audience. At the same time, I kept up a schedule of lecturing about The Writer's Journey that took me far afield from the literal, geographic bounds of Hollywood, into the greater-world Hollywood, the international film community. I had the fortune to see how the ideas of the Hero's Journey unfold in cultures different from the one I grew up in, as I traveled to Barcelona, M a u i , Berlin, Rome, London, Sydney, and so on. Local tastes and thinking challenged many facets of the Hero's Journey idea severely. Each culture has a unique orientation to the Hero's Journey, with something in each local character resisting some terms, defining them differently, or giving them different emphasis. M y theoretical framework has been shaken from every angle, and I think is the richer for it. A FORM, NOT A FORMULA First, I must address a significant objection about the whole idea of The Writer's Journey — the suspicion of artists and critics that it is formulaic, leading to stale XVI PREFACE repetition. W e come to a great divide in theory and practice about these principles. S o m e professional writers don't like the idea o f a n a l y z i n g the creative process at all, and urge students to ignore all b o o k s a n d teachers a n d "Just do it." S o m e artists make the choice to avoid systematic thinking, rejecting all principles, ideals, schools of thought, theories, patterns, and designs. For them, art is an entirely intuitive process that can never be mastered by rules of t h u m b and should not be reduced to formula. A n d they aren't wrong. At the core o f every artist is a sacred place where all the rules are set aside or deliberately forgotten, and nothing matters but the instinctive choices of the heart and soul of the artist. But even that is a principle, and those who say they reject principles and theories can't avoid subscribing to a few of them: Avoid formula, distrust order and pattern, resist logic and tradition. Artists who operate on the principle of rejecting all form are themselves dependent on form. T h e freshness and excitement of their work comes from its contrast to the pervasiveness o f formulas a n d p a t t e r n s in the culture. However, these artists run the risk o f reaching a l i m i t e d audience because m o s t people can't relate to totally unconventional art. By definition it doesn't intersect w i t h commonly held patterns of experience. T h e i r work might only be appreciated by other artists, a small part of the community in any time or place. A certain amount of form is necessary to reach a wide audience. People expect it and enjoy it, so long as it's varied by some innovative combination or arrangement and doesn't fall into a completely predictable formula. At the other extreme are the big H o l l y w o o d studios who use conventional patterns to appeal to the broadest cross-section of the public. At the Disney studios, I saw the application of simple story principles, such as making the main character a "fish out of water," that became tests of a story's power to appeal to a mass audience. T h e minds guiding Disney at that time believed that there were proper questions to ask of a story and its characters: Does it have conflict? Does it have a theme? Is it about something that can be expressed as a well-known statement of folk wisdom like "Don't judge a book by its cover" or "Love conquers all"? Does it present the story as a series of broad movements or acts, allowing audiences to orient and pace themselves in the narrative? Does it take viewers someplace they've never been, or make them see familiar places in new ways? D o the characters have relevant back- stories and plausible motivations to make them relatable to the audience? D o they XVII THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vbgler pass through realistic stages o f emotional reaction and growth (character arcs)? A n d so on. Studios have to use design principles and apply some k i n d of standards to evaluating and developing stories, if only because they produce so many of them. T h e average studio or division in H o l l y w o o d has bought and is developing one hundred fifty to two hundred stories at a time. T h e y must spend more resources evaluating thousands of potential projects submitted by agents each year. To handle the large number of stories, some of the techniques of mass production, such as standardization, have to be employed. But they should be employed sparingly and with great sensitivity for the needs of the particular story. S T A N D A R D LANGUAGE A most important tool is a standardized language that makes possible the thousands of communications necessary to tell so many stories. N o one dictates this language, but it becomes part of everyone's education in the unwritten rules of the business. Newcomers quickly learn the lingo, concepts, and assumptions that have been passed down by generations of storytellers and filmmakers. T h i s provides everyone with a shorthand for the rapid communication of story ideas. M e a n w h i l e new terms and concepts are always being created to reflect chang ing conditions. Junior studio executives listen carefully for signs of insight, philoso phy, or ordering principle from their bosses. People take their lead from the leader. Any terms of art, any aphorisms or rules of thumb are seized upon and passed down, becoming part of the corporate culture of that studio and the general knowl edge of the industry. It's especially true when those bits of received wisdom lead to successful, popular entertainments. T h e Hero's Journey language is clearly becoming part of the storytelling common knowledge and its principles have been used consciously to create hugely popular films. But there is danger in this self-awareness. Overreliance on traditional language or the latest buzzwords can lead to thoughtless, cookie-cutter products. Lazy, superficial use of Hero's Journey terms, taking this metaphorical system too literally, or arbitrarily imposing its forms on every story can be stultifying. It should be used as a form, not a formula, a reference point and a source of inspiration, not a dictatorial mandate. xviii PREFACE CULTURAL IMPERIALISM Another of the clangers of standardized language and methods is that local differ ences, the very things that add zest and spice to journeys to faraway places, will get hammered into blandness by the machinery of mass production. Artists around the world are on guard against "cultural imperialism," the aggressive export of Hollywood storytelling techniques and the squeezing out of local accents. American values and the cultural assumptions of Western society threaten to smother the unique flavors of other cultures. M a n y observers have remarked that American culture is becoming world culture, and what a loss it would be if the only flavorings available were sugar, salt, mustard, and ketchup. T h i s problem is much on the minds of European storytellers as many coun tries with distinct cultures are drawn into a union. T h e y are striving to create sto ries that are somewhat universal, that can travel beyond their national borders, for local audiences may not be numerous enough to support the always-growing cost of production. T h e y are up against intensely competitive American companies that aggressively courts the world market. M a n y are studying and applying American techniques, but they also worry that their unique regional traditions will be lost. Is the Hero's Journey an instrument of cultural imperialism? It could be, if naively interpreted, blindly copied, or unquestioningly adopted. But it can also be a useful tool for the storyteller in any culture, if adapted thoughtfully to reflect the unique, inimitable qualities of the local geography, climate, and people. I found that artists in Australia were acutely conscious o f cultural imperial ism, perhaps because that country's people have had to struggle to create their own society. T h e y have forged something distinct from England, independent of America and Asia, influenced by all o f them but uniquely Australian, and humming with the mysterious energy of the land and the Aboriginal people. T h e y pointed out to me hidden cultural assumptions in my understanding of the Hero's Journey. W h i l e it is universal and timeless, and its workings can be found in every culture on earth, a West ern or American reading of it may carry subde biases. One instance is the Hollywood preference for happy endings and tidy resolutions, the tendency to show admirable, virtuous heroes overcoming evil by individual effort. M y Australian teachers helped me see that such elements might make good stories for the world market but may not reflect the views of all cultures. T h e y made me aware o f what assumptions were being carried by Hollywood-style films, and of what was not being expressed. xix THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler In my travels I learned that Australia, Canada, and many countries in Europe subsidize their local filmmakers, in part to help preserve and celebrate local dif ferences. Each region, department, or state operates as a small-scale movie studio, developing scripts, putting artists to work, and producing feature films and television shows. For America, I like to imagine a version of a decentralized Hollywood in which every state in the U n i o n functions like a movie studio, evaluating the stories of its citizens and advancing money to produce regional films that represent and enhance the culture of the locality while supporting the local artists. HEROPHOBIC C U L T U R E S Here and there in my travels I learned that some cultures are not entirely comfortable with the term "hero" to begin with. Australia and Germany are two cultures that seem slightly "herophobic." T h e Australians distrust appeals to heroic virtue because such concepts have been used to lure generations of young Australian males into fighting Britain's bat tles. Australians have their heroes, of course, but they tend to be unassuming and self-effacing, and will remain reluctant for much longer than heroes in other cultures. Like most heroes, they resist calls to adventure but continue demurring and may never be comfortable with the hero mantle. In Australian culture it's unseemly to seek out leadership or the limelight, and anyone who does is a "tall poppy," quickly cut down. T h e most admirable hero is one who denies his heroic role as long as possible and who, like M a d M a x , avoids accepting responsibility for anyone but himself. German culture seems ambivalent about the term "hero." T h e hero has a long tradition of veneration in Germany, but two W o r l d Wars and the legacy of Hitler and the N a z i s have tainted the concept. N a z i s m and German militarism manipulated and distorted the powerful symbols of the hero myth, invoking its passions to en slave, dehumanize, and destroy. Like any archetypal system, like any philosophy or creed, the heroic form can be warped and used with great effect for ill intention. In the p o s t - H i t l e r period the idea of hero has been given a rest as the cul ture re-evaluates itself. Dispassionate, cold-blooded anti-heroes are more in keeping with the current German spirit. A tone of unsentimental realism is more popular at present, although there will always be a strain of romanticism and love of fantasy. Germans can enjoy imaginative hero tales from other cultures but don't seem com fortable with home-grown romantic heroes for the time being. XX PREFACE THE HERO A S W A R R I O R More generally, the Hero's Journey has been criticized as an embodiment of a male- dominated warrior culture. Critics say it is a propaganda device invented to encourage young males to enlist in armies, a myth that glorifies death and foolish self-sacrifice. There is some truth in this charge, for many heroes of legend and story are warriors and the patterns of the Hero's Journey have certainly been used for propaganda and recruitment. However, to condemn and dismiss these patterns because they can be put to m i l i t a r y use is s h o r t s i g h t e d and n a r r o w - m i n d e d. T h e w a r r i o r is only one of the faces of the hero, who can also be pacifist, mother, p i l g r i m , fool, w a n derer, hermit, inventor, nurse, savior, artist, l u n a t i c , lover, clown, king, victim, slave, worker, rebel, adventurer, tragic failure, coward, saint, monster, etc. T h e many creative p o s s i b i l i t i e s of the form far outweigh its potential for abuse. GENDER PROBLEMS T h e Hero's Journey is sometimes critiqued as a masculine theory, cooked up by men to enforce their dominance, and with little relevance to the unique and quite different journey of womanhood. There may be some masculine bias built into the description of the hero cycle since many of its theoreticians have been male, and I freely admit it: I'm a man and can't help seeing the world through the filter of my gender. Yet I have tried to acknowledge and explore the ways in which the woman's journey is different from the man's. I believe that much of the journey is the same for all humans, since we share many realities of birth, growth, and decay, but clearly being a woman imposes dis tinct cycles, rhythms, pressures, and needs. There may be a real difference in the form of men's and women's journeys. Men's journeys may be in some sense more linear, proceeding from one outward goal to the next, while women's journeys may spin or spiral inward and outward. T h e spiral may be a more accurate analogue for the woman's journey than a straight line or a simple circle. Another possible model might be a series of concentric rings, with the woman making a journey inward towards the center and then expanding out again. T h e masculine need to go out and overcome obstacles, to achieve, conquer, and possess, may be replaced in the woman's journey by the drives to preserve the family and the species, make a home, grapple with emotions, come to accord, or cultivate beauty. xxi THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler Good work has been done by women to articulate these differences, and I recommend books such as M e r l i n Stone's When God Was a Woman, Clarissa Pinkola Estes' Women Who Run with the Wolves, Jean S h i n o d a Bolen's Goddesses in Everywoman, M a u r e e n M u r d o c k ' s The Heroine's Journey, and The Woman's Dictionary of Myth and Symbols as starting points for a more balanced understanding of the male and female aspects o f the Hero's Journey. ( N o t e to men: If in doubt on this point, consult the nearest woman.) THE C O M P U T E R CHALLENGE S h o r t l y after the first edition o f this book came out, a few people (threshold guardians) jumped up to say the technology of the Hero's Journey is already ob solete, thanks to the advent of the computer and its possibilities of interactivity and nonlinear narrative. According to this batch of critics, the ancient ideas of the Journey are hopelessly mired in the conventions of beginning, middle, and end, of cause and effect, of one event after another. T h e new wave, they said, would dethrone the old linear storyteller, empowering people to tell their own stories in any sequence they chose, leaping from point to point, weaving stories more like spider webs than linear strings of events. It's true that exciting new possibilities are created by computers and the non linear thinking they encourage. However, there will always be pleasure in "Tell me a story." People will always enjoy going into a story trance and allowing themselves to be led through a tale by a masterful story weaver. It's fun to drive a car, but it can also be fun to be driven, and as passengers we might see more sights than if we were forced to concentrate on choosing what happens next. Interactivity has always been with us — we all make many nonlinear hypertext links in our own minds even as we listen to a linear story. In fact, the Hero's Journey lends itself extremely well to the world of computer games and interactive experi ences. T h e thousands of variations on the paradigm, worked out over the centuries, offer endless branches from which infinite webs of story can be built. THE C Y N I C ' S RESPONSE Another of my deep cultural assumptions that was challenged as I traveled is the idea that one person can make a difference, that heroes are needed to make change, and xxii PREFACE that change is generally a good thing. I encountered artists from Eastern Europe who pointed out that in their cultures, there is deep c y n i c i s m about heroic efforts to change the world. T h e world is as it is, any efforts to change it are a foolish waste of time, and any so-called heroes who try to change it are d o o m e d to fail. T h i s point of view is not necessarily an antithesis o f the Hero's Journey — the pattern is flexible enough to embrace the cynical or p r a g m a t i c philosophies, and many of its principles are still operative in stories that reflect them. However, I must acknowledge that not every person or culture sees the m o d e l as optimistically as I do, and they might be right. BUT W H A T ABOUT... It's exciting to see that there is no end to what can be learned from the Hero's Journey concepts. I find surprising and delightful turns of the path every time I pick up a new story, and life itself keeps teaching new angles. M y understanding of the Shadow archetype, for example, continues to evolve. I have been impressed all over again by the power of this pattern, especially as it operates within the individual as a repository for unexpressed feelings and desires. It is a force that accumulates when you fail to honor your gifts, follow the call of your muses, or live up to your principles and ideals. It has great but subtle power, operating on deep levels to communicate with you, perhaps sabotaging your efforts, upsetting your balance until you realize the message these events bring — that you must express your creativity, your true nature, or die. A car accident a few years ago taught me the rebellious power of the Shadow, showed me that I was distracted, out of harmony, heading for even greater disasters if I didn't find a way to express my personal creative side. Occasional puzzled looks on the faces of students taught me that I hadn't com pletely thought through some aspects of the pattern. Some people were confused by the various turning points and ordeals of the model, particularly by the distinction between the midpoint, which I call the Ordeal, and the climax o f the second act, which I call T h e R o a d Back. Trying to explain this led me to a new realization. Each act is like a movement of a symphony, with its own beginning, middle, and end, and with its own climax (the highest point of tension) coming just before the ending of the act. These act climaxes are the major turning points on the circular diagram: xxiii THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vbgler Beginning and Ending (climax of Act Three and of entire story) ntire story) jf w The Road Back First Threshold (climax of (climax of Act Two, Act One) Part Two) Ordeal (climax of Act Two, Part One) Lecturing in R o m e , I came u p o n a further development o f this idea, an alternate way of graphing the Hero's Journey: not as a circle, but as a diamond. I was explaining that each act sends the hero on a certain track with a specific aim or goal, and that the climaxes of each act change the hero's direction, assigning a new goal. T h e hero's first act goal, for instance, might be to seek treasure, but after meeting a potential lover at the first threshold crossing, the goal might change to pursuing that love. If the ordeal at the midpoint has the villain capturing the hero and lover, the goal in the next movement could become trying to escape. A n d if the villain kills the lover at T h e R o a d Back, the new goal of the final movement might be to get revenge. T h e original objective might be achieved as well, or there might be some overall goal (to learn self-reliance or come to terms with past failures, for example) that continues to be served in all movements as the hero pursues changing superficial goals. To illustrate this concept I drew the hero's goals in each movement as straight lines, vectors of intention, rather than curves. Straightening out the curves of the circle created sharp, 90-degree turns at the quarter points and revealed the drastic changes that may occur in the hero's objectives. Each straight line represents the hero's aim in that act — to escape the constraints of the ordinary world, to survive in a strange land, to win the boon and escape the strange land, to return home safely with something to share that revives the world. PREFACE I was amused to realize I had just drawn a baseball diamond (in reverse.) I've often felt that the layout of game-playing fields produces patterns that overlap with the design of the Hero's Journey. Baseball can be read as another metaphor of life, with the base runner as the hero making his way around the stages of the journey. Perhaps the best way to explore the endless possibilities o f the Hero's Journey is to apply it to a number o f films or stories. To that end M i c h a e l W i e s e Productions has prepared a b o o k and C D - R O M entitled Myth in the Movies. These examine a large number of popular movies through the lens of the Hero's Journey. It's a way to test the idea and see for yourself i f it's valid a n d useful. One can see how it operates in a general way and how it transforms in specific cases. A n d from the comparison of many examples and from the interesting exceptions, one can find more of the principles, values, and relationships that give the craftsperson command of the form. At the end of this second edition I have added a few new elements in a section called " L o o k i n g Back at the Journey." Here I have used the tools o f mythology and the Hero's Journey to analyze some key films, including Titanic, The Lion King, Pulp Fiction, The Full Monty, and the Star Wars saga. I hope these will demonstrate some of the ways that the mythic principles continue to be explored in popular entertainment. xxv THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler U n l i k e the stories of heroes, which eventually come to an end, the journey to understand and articulate these ideas is truly endless. Although certain human conditions will never change, new situations are always arising, and the Hero's Journey will adapt to reflect them. N e w waves will roll out, and so it will go, on and on forever. xxvi INTRODUCTION Second Edition ^ PREPARING FOR THE J O U R N E Y "This is the tale I pray the divine Muse to unfold to us. Begin it, goddess, at whatever point you will." —The Odyssey of H o m e r invite you to join me on a W r i t e r s Journey, a mission of discovery to explore and map the elusive borderlands be tween myth and modern storytelling. W e will be guided by a simple idea: All stories consist of a few common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies. T h e y are known collectively as The Hero's Journey. Understanding these elements and their use in modern writing is the object of our quest. Used wisely, these ancient tools of the storytellers craft still have tremendous power to heal our people and make the world a better place. M y own Writer's Journey begins with the peculiar power storytelling has always had over me. I got hooked on the fairy tales and Litde Golden Books read out loud by my mother and grandmother. I devoured the cartoons and movies pouring out of T V in the 1 9 5 0 s , the thrilling adventures on the drive-in screens, the lurid comic books and mind-stretching science fiction of the day. W h e n I was laid up with a sprained ankle, my father went to the local library and brought back wonder stories of Norse and Celtic mythology that made me forget the pain. A trail of stories eventually led me to reading for a living as a story analyst for Hollywood studios. T h o u g h I evaluated thousands of novels and screenplays, I never got tired of exploring the labyrinth of story with its stunningly repeated patterns, xxvii THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler bewildering variants, and puzzling questions. W h e r e do stories come from? How do they work? W h a t do they tell us about ourselves? W h a t do they mean? W h y do we need them? H o w can we use them to improve the world? Above all, how do storytellers manage to make the story mean something? Good stories make you feel you've been through a satisfying, complete experience. You've cried or l a u g h e d or both. You finish the story feeling you've learned s o m e t h i n g a b o u t life or a b o u t yourself. Perhaps you've picked u p a new aware ness, a new character or a t t i t u d e to m o d e l your life on. H o w do storytellers m a n a g e to p u l l that off? W h a t are the secrets of this ancient trade? W h a t are its rules and design principles? Over the years I began to notice some common elements in adventure stories and myths, certain intriguingly familiar characters, props, locations, and situations. I became vaguely aware there was a pattern or a template of some sort guiding the design of stories. I had some pieces of the puzzle but the overall plan eluded me. T h e n at the U S C film school I was fortunate enough to cross paths with the work of the mythologist Joseph Campbell. T h e encounter with Campbell was, for me and many other people, a life-changing experience. A few days of exploring the labyrinth of his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces produced an electrifying reorga nization of my life and thinking. Here, fully explored, was the pattern I had been sensing. Campbell had broken the secret code of story. H i s work was like a flare suddenly illuminating a deeply shadowed landscape. I worked with Campbell's idea of the Hero's Journey to understand the phe nomenal repeat business of movies such as Star Wars and Close Encounters. People were going back to see these films as if seeking some kind of religious experience. It seemed to me these films drew people in this special way because they reflected the universally satisfying patterns Campbell found in myths. T h e y had something people needed. The Hero with a Thousand Faces was a lifesaver when I began to work as a story analyst for major movie studios. In my first jobs I was deeply grateful for Campbell's work, which became a reliable set of tools for diagnosing story problems and prescribing solutions. Without the guidance of Campbell and mythology, I would have been lost. It seemed to me the Hero's Journey was exciting, useful story technology which could help filmmakers and executives eliminate some of the guesswork and expense of developing stories for film. Over the years, I ran into quite a few people who had xxvm INTRODUCTION~SECOND EDITION been affected by encounters with Joe Campbell. W e were like a secret society of true believers, commonly putting our faith in "the power of myth." Shortly after going to work as a story analyst for the W a l t Disney Company, I wrote a seven-page memo called "A Practical Guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces" in which I described the idea of the Hero's Journey, with examples from classic and current movies. I gave the memo to friends, colleagues, and several Disney execu tives to test and refine the ideas through their feedback. Gradually I expanded the "Practical Guide" into a longer essay and began teaching the material through a story analysis class at the U C L A Extension W r i t e r s ' Program. At writers' conferences around the country I tested the ideas in seminars with screenwriters, romance novelists, children's writers, and all kinds of storytellers. I found many others were exploring the intertwined pathways o f myth, story, and psychology. T h e Hero's Journey, I discovered, is more than just a description of the hid den patterns of mythology. It is a useful guide to life, especially the writer's life. In the perilous adventure of my own writing, I found the stages o f the Hero's Journey showing up just as reliably and usefully as they d i d in books, myths, and movies. In my personal life, I was thankful to have this map to guide my quest and help me anticipate what was around the next bend. T h e usefulness of the Hero's Journey as a guide to life was brought home forcefully when I first prepared to speak publicly about it in a large seminar at U C L A. A couple of weeks before the seminar two articles appeared in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, in which a film critic attacked filmmaker George Lucas and his movie Willow. Somehow the critic h a d got h o l d o f the "Practical G u i d e " and claimed it had deeply influenced and corrupted H o l l y w o o d storytellers. T h e critic blamed the "Practical Guide" for every flop from Ishtar to Howard the Duck, as well as for the hit Back to the Future. According to him, lazy, illiterate studio executives, eager to find a quick-bucks formula, had seized upon the "Practical Guide" as a cure- all and were busily stuffing it down the throats of writers, stifling their creativity with a technology the executives hadn't bothered to understand. W h i l e flattered that someone thought I had such a sweeping influence on the collective mind of Hollywood, I was also devastated. Here, on the threshold o f a new phase of working with these ideas, I was shot down before I even started. Or so it seemed. xxix THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler Friends who were more seasoned veterans in this war of ideas pointed out that in being challenged I was merely encountering an archetype, one of the familiar characters who people the landscape of the Hero's Journey, namely a Threshold Guardian. T h a t information instantly gave me m y bearings and showed me how to handle the situation. C a m p b e l l h a d described how heroes often encounter these "unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten" them. T h e Guardians seem to p o p u p at the various thresholds of the journey, the nar row and dangerous passages from one stage of life to the next. Campbell showed the many ways in which heroes can deal with T h r e s h o l d Guardians. Instead of attacking these seemingly hostile powers head-on, journeyers learn to outwit them or join forces with them, absorbing their energy rather than being destroyed by it. I realized that this Threshold Guardian's apparent attack was potentially a blessing, not a curse. I had thought of challenging the critic to a duel (laptops at twenty p a c e s ) but now reconsidered. W i t h a slight change in attitude I could turn his hostility to my benefit. I contacted the critic and invited h i m to talk over our differences o f opinion at the seminar. H e accepted and joined a panel discussion which t u r n e d into a lively and entertaining debate, illuminating corners of the story world that I h a d never glimpsed before. T h e seminar was better and my ideas were stronger for being challenged. Instead of fighting my T h r e s h o l d Guardian, I h a d absorbed h i m into my adventure. W h a t had seemed like a lethal blow had turned into something useful and healthy. T h e mythological approach had proven its worth in life as well as story. A r o u n d this time I realized the "Practical G u i d e " and Campbell's ideas did have an influence on H o l l y w o o d. I began to get requests from studio story departments for copies o f the "Practical Guide". I heard that executives at other studios were giving the p a m p h l e t to writers, directors, and producers as guides to universal, commercial story patterns. Apparently H o l l y w o o d was finding the Hero's Journey useful. M e a n w h i l e Joseph Campbell's ideas exploded into a wider sphere of aware ness w i t h the Bill M o y e r s interview show on PBS, The Power of Myth. T h e show was a hit, cutting across lines of age, politics, and religion to speak directly to people's spirits. T h e b o o k version, a transcript o f the interviews, was on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell's venerable xxx INTRODUCTION~SECOND EDITION warhorse of a textbook, suddenly became a hot bestseller after forty years of slow but steady backlist sales. T h e PBS show brought C a m p b e l l s ideas to millions and illuminated the impact of his work on filmmakers such as George Lucas, John Boorman, Steven Spielberg, and George Miller. Suddenly I found a sharp increase in awareness and ac ceptance of Campbell s ideas in Hollywood. M o r e executives and writers were versed in these concepts and interested in learning how to apply them to moviemaking and screenwriting. T h e Hero's Journey model continued to serve me well. It got me through reading and evaluating over ten thousand screenplays for half a dozen studios. It was my adas, a book of maps for my own writing journeys. It guided me to a new role in the Disney company, as a story consultant for the Feature Animation division at the time The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were being conceived. Campbell's ideas were of tremendous value as I researched and developed stories based on fairy tales, mythology, science fiction, comic books, and historical adventure. Joseph C a m p b e l l d i e d in 1 9 8 7. I met h i m briefly a couple o f t i m e s at seminars. H e was still a striking man in his eighties, tall, vigorous, eloquent, funny, full of energy and enthusiasm, and utterly charming. Just before his passing, he told me, "Stick with this stuff. It'll take you a long way." I recently discovered that for some time the "Practical G u i d e " has been required reading for Disney development executives. D a i l y requests for it, as well as countless letters and calls from novelists, screenwriters, producers, writers, and actors, indicate that the Hero's Journey ideas are being used and developed more than ever. A n d so I come to the writing of this book, the descendant of the "Practical Guide." T h e book is designed somewhat on the model of the I Ching, with an intro ductory overview followed by commentaries that expand on the typical stages o f the Hero's Journey. Book One, Mapping the Journey, is a quick survey of the territory. Chapter I is a revision of the "Practical Guide" and a concentrated presentation of the twelve-stage Hero's Journey. You might think of this as the m a p of a journey we are about to take together through the special world of story. Chapter 2 is an introduction to the archetypes, the dramatis personae of myth and story. It describes eight common character types or psychological functions found in all stories. xxxi THE WRITER'S JOURNEY ~ THIRD EDITION Christopher Vogler Book Two, Stages o f the Journey, is a more detailed examination of the twelve elements of the Hero's Journey. Each chapter is followed by suggestions for your further exploration, Questioning the Journey. An Epilogue, Looking Back on the Journey, deals with the special adventure of the Writer's Journey and some pitfalls to avoid on the road. It includes Hero's Journey analyses of some influential films including Titanic, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, The Full Monty, and Star Wars. In one case, The Lion King, I had the opportunity to apply the Hero's Journey ideas as a story consultant during the development process, and saw firsthand how useful these principles can be. T h r o u g h o u t the book I make reference to movies, both classic and current. You might want to view some of these films to see how the Hero's Journey works in practice. A representative list of films appears in Appendix I. You might also select a single movie or story of your choice and keep it in m i n d as you take the Writer's Journey. Get to know the story of your choice by reading or viewing it several times, taking brief notes on what happens in each scene and how it functions in the drama. R u n n i n g a movie on a V C R is ideal, because you can stop to write down the content of each scene while you grasp its meaning and relation to the rest of the story. I suggest you go through this process w i t h a story or movie and use it to test out the ideas in this book. See i f your story reflects the stages and archetypes o f the Hero's Journey. ( A sample worksheet for the Hero's Journey can be found in Appendix 3. ) Observe how the stages are adapted to meet the needs of the story or the particular culture for which the story was written. Challenge these ideas, test them in practice, adapt them to your needs, and make them yours. Use these concepts to challenge and inspire your own stories. T h e Hero's Journey has served storytellers and their listeners since the very first stories were told, and it shows no signs of wearing out. Let's begin the Writer's Journey together to explore these ideas. I hope you find them useful as magic keys to the world of story and the labyrinth of life. xxxii BOOK ONE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE 2©=> i "There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before." — W i l l a Cather, in O Pioneers! n the long run, one of the most influential books of the 2 0 t h century may turn out to be Joseph Campbells The Hero with a Thousand Faces. T h e ideas expressed in Campbell's book are having a major impact on storytelling. Writers are becoming more aware of the ageless patterns which Campbell identifies, and are enriching their work with them. Inevitably Hollywood has caught on to the usefulness of Campbell's work. Filmmakers like George Lucas and George M i l l e r acknowledge their debt to C a m p b e l l and his influence can be seen in the films of Steven Spielberg, John Boorman, Francis Coppola, and others. It's little wonder that Hollywood is beginning to embrace the ideas Campbell presents in his books. For the writer, producer, director, or designer his concepts are a welcome tool kit, stocked with sturdy instruments ideal for the craft of storytelling. W i t h these tools you can construct a story to meet almost any situation, a story that will be dramatic, entertaining, and psychologically true. W i t h this equipment you can diagnose the problems of almost any ailing plot line, and make the corrections to bring it to its peak of performance. 3 T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION Christopher Vogkr T h e s e tools have stood the test of time. T h e y are older than the Pyramids, older than Stonehenge, older than the earliest cave paintings. Joseph C a m p b e l l ' s c o n t r i b u t i o n to the tool k i t was to gather the ideas together, recognize them, articulate them, name them, organize them. H e exposed for the first time the pattern that lies behind every story ever told. The Hew with a Thousand Faces is his statement of the most persistent theme in oral tradition and recorded literature: the myth of the hero. In his study of world hero myths Campbell discovered that they are all basically the same story, retold endlessly in infinite variation. H e found that all storytelling, consciously or not, follows the ancient pat terns of m y t h and that all stories, from the crudest jokes to the highest flights of literature, can be understood in terms of the Hero's Journey: the "monomyth" whose principles he lays out in the book. T h e pattern of the Hero's Journey is universal, occurring in every culture, in every time. It is as infinitely varied as the human race itself and yet its basic form remains constant. T h e Hero's Journey is an incredibly tenacious set of elements that springs endlessly from the deepest reaches of the human mind; different in its details for every culture, but fundamentally the same. Campbell's thinking runs parallel to that of the Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung, who wrote about the archetypes: constantly repeating characters or energies which occur in the dreams of all people and the myths of all cultures. Jung sug gested that these archetypes reflect different aspects of the human mind — that our personalities divide themselves into these characters to play out the drama of our lives. H e noticed a strong correspondence between his patients' dream figures and the common archetypes of mythology. H e suggested that both were coming from a deeper source, in the collective unconscious of the human race. T h e repeating characters of world myth such as the young hero, the wise old man or woman, the shapeshifter, and the shadowy antagonist are the same as the fig ures who appear repeatedly in our dreams and fantasies. That's why myths and most stories constructed on the mythological model have the ring of psychological truth. Such stories are accurate models of the workings of the human mind, true maps of the psyche. T h e y are psychologically valid and emotionally realistic even when they portray fantastic, impossible, or unreal events. 4 A PRACTICAL GUIDE T h i s accounts for the universal power of such stories. Stories built on the model of the Hero's Journey have an appeal that can be felt by everyone, because they well up from a universal source in the shared unconscious and reflect universal concerns. T h e y deal with the childlike universal questions: W h o am I? W h e r e did I come from? W h e r e will I go when I die? W h a t is good and what is evil? W h a t must I do about it? W h a t will tomorrow be like? W h e r e did yesterday go? Is there anybody else out there? T h e ideas embedded in mythology and identified by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces can be applied to understanding almost any human problem. T h e y are a great key to life as well as a major instrument for dealing more effectively with a mass audience. If you want to understand the ideas behind the Hero's Journey, there's no substitute for actually reading Campbell's work. It's an experience that has a way of changing people. It's also a good idea to read a lot of myths, but reading Campbell's work amounts to the same thing since Campbell is a master storyteller who delights in illustrating his points with examples from the rich storehouse o f mythology. Campbell gives an outline of the Hero's Journey in Chapter IV, " T h e Keys," of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. I've taken the l i b e r t y o f amending the outline slighdy, trying to reflect some of the common themes in movies with illustrations drawn from contemporary films and a few classics. You can compare the two outlines and terminology by examining Table One. 5 T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION Christopher Vogler TABLE ONE COMPARISON OF O U T L I N E S AND TERMINOLOGY The Writer's Journey The Hero with a Thousand Faces ACT ONE DEPARTURE, SEPARATION Ordinary W o r l d W o r l d of Common Day Call to Adventure Call to Adventure Refusal of the Call Refusal of the Call Meeting with the M e n t o r Supernatural Aid Crossing the First Threshold Crossing the First Threshold Belly of the W h a l e ACT Two DESCENT, INITIATION, PENETRATION Tests, Allies, Enemies Road of Trials Approach to the Inmost Cave Ordeal Meeting with the Goddess W o m a n as Temptress Atonement with the Father Apotheosis Reward T h e Ultimate Boon A C T THREE RETURN T h e Road Back Refusal of the Return T h e M a g i c Flight Rescue from W i t h i n Crossing the Threshold Return Resurrection Master of the Two Worlds Return with the Elixir Freedom to Live 6 A PRACTICAL GUIDE I'm retelling the hero myth in my own way, and you should feel free to do the same. Every storyteller bends the mythic pattern to his or her own purpose or the needs of a particular culture. That's why the hero has a thousand faces. A note about the term "hero": As used here, the word, like "doctor" or "poet," may refer to a woman or a man. THE HERO'S J O U R N E Y At heart, despite its infinite variety, the hero's story is always a journey. A hero leaves her comfortable, ordinary surroundings to venture into a challenging, unfamiliar world. It may be an outward journey to an actual place: a labyrinth, forest or cave, a strange city or country, a new locale that becomes the arena for her conflict with antagonistic, challenging forces. But there are as many stories that take the hero on an inward journey, one of the mind, the heart, the spirit. In any good story the hero grows and changes, mak ing a journey from one way of being to the next: from despair to hope, weakness to strength, folly to wisdom, love to hate, and back again. It's these emotional journeys that hook an audience and make a story worth watching. T h e stages of the Hero's Journey can be traced in all kinds of stories, not just those that feature "heroic" physical action and adventure. T h e protagonist of every story is the hero of a journey, even if the path leads only into his own mind or into the realm of relationships. T h e way stations of the Hero's Journey emerge naturally even when the writer is unaware of them, but some knowledge of this most ancient guide to storytelling is useful in identifying problems and telling better stories. Consider these twelve stages as a map of the Hero's Journey, one of many ways to get from here to there, but one of the most flexible, durable and dependable. 7 T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION Christopher Vogler THE STAGES OF T H E HERO'S JOURNEY 1. ORDINARY W O R L D 2. C A L L TO ADVENTURE 3. REFUSAL OF THE C A L L 4. MEETING WITH THE M E N T O R 5. CROSSING THE F I R S T THRESHOLD 6. T E S T S , ALLIES, ENEMIES 7. APPROACH TO THE INMOST CAVE 8. ORDEAL 9. REWARD (SEIZING THE S W O R D ) 1 0. T H E ROAD BACK 1 1. RESURRECTION 1 2. R E T U R N WITH THE ELIXIR THE HERO'S JOURNEY MODEL Crisis Climax 1 1 1 c ss , V ^ ^ y ^ S ^ ^ 0 ACT I AC:TII ACT III Approx. 3 0 screenplay pages 6 0 screei îplay pages 3 0 screenplay pages 8 A PRACTICAL GUIDE T H E HERO'S J O U R N E Y 9 T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION Christopher Vogler 1. T H E ORDINARY W O R L D M o s t stories take the hero out of the ordinary, mundane world and into a Special World, new and alien. T h i s is the familiar "fish out of water" idea which has spawned countless films and T V shows ( " T h e Fugitive," " T h e Beverly Hillbillies," Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Wizard of Oz, Witness, 48 Hours, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, etc.). If you're going to show a fish out of his customary element, you first have to show him in that Ordinary W o r l d to create a vivid contrast with the strange new world he is about to enter. In Witness you see both the city policeman and the Amish mother and son in their normal worlds before they are thrust into totally alien environments: the Amish being overwhelmed by the city, and the city cop encountering the 19th-century world of the Amish. You first see Luke Skywalker, hero of Star Wars, being bored to death as a farmboy before he sets out to tackle the universe. Likewise in The Wizard of Oz, considerable time is spent to establish Dorothy's drab normal life in Kansas before she is blown to the wonderworld of Oz. Here the contrast is heightened by shooting the Kansas scenes in stern black and white while the O z scenes are shot in vibrant Technicolor. An Officer and a Gentleman sketches a vivid contrast between the Ordinary World of the hero — that of a tough Navy brat with a drunken, whore-chasing father — and the Special W o r l d of the spit-and-polish Navy flight school which the hero enters. 2. T H E C A L L TO ADVENTURE T h e hero is presented with a problem, challenge, or adventure to undertake. Once presented with a Call to Adventure, she can no longer remain indefinitely in the comfort of the Ordinary World. Perhaps the land is dying, as in the King Arthur stories of the search for the Grail, the only treasure that can heal the wounded land. In Star Wars, the Call to Adventure is Princess Leia's desperate holographic message to wise old Obi Wan Kenobi, who asks Luke to join in the quest. Leia has been snatched by evil Darth Vader, like the Greek springtime goddess Persephone, who was kidnapped to the underworld by Pluto, lord of the dead. H e r rescue is vital to restoring the normal balance of the universe. 10 A PRACTICAL GUIDE In many detective stories, the Call to Adventure is the private eye being asked to take on a new case and solve a crime which has upset the order of things. A good detective should right wrongs as well as solve crimes. In revenge plots, the Call to Adventure is often a wrong which must be set right, an offense against the natural order of things. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantes is unjusdy imprisoned and is driven to escape by his desire for revenge. T h e plot of Beverly Hills Cop is set in motion by the murder of the hero's best friend. In First Blood R a m b o is motivated by his unfair treatment at the hands of an intolerant sheriff. In romantic comedies, the Call to Adventure might be the first encounter with the special but annoying someone the hero or heroine will be pursuing and sparring with. T h e Call to Adventure establishes the stakes of the game, and makes clear the hero's goal: to win the treasure or the lover, to get revenge or right a wrong, to achieve a dream, confront a challenge, or change a life. W h a t ' s at stake can often be expressed as a question posed by the call. W i l l E.T. or Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz get home again? W i l l Luke rescue Princess Leia and defeat Darth Vader? In An Officer and a Gentleman, will the hero be driven out of Navy flight school by his own selfishness and the needling of a fierce M a r i n e drill instructor, or will he earn the right to be called an officer and a gentleman? Boy meets girl, but does boy get girl? 3. REFUSAL OF THE C A L L ( T H E RELUCTANT HERO) T h i s one is about fear. Often at this point the hero balks at the threshold of adventure, Refusing the Call or expressing reluctance. After all, she is facing the greatest of all fears, terror of the unknown. T h e hero has not yet fully committed to the journey and may still be thinking of turning back. Some other influence — a change in circumstances, a further offense against the natural order of things, or the encouragement of a M e n t o r — is required to get her past this turning point of fear. In romantic comedies, the hero may express reluctance to get involved (maybe because of the pain of a previous relationship). In a detective story, the private eye may at first turn down the case, only to take it on later against his better judgment. II T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION Christopher Vogler At this point in Star Wars, Luke refuses Obi W a n s Call to Adventure and returns to his aunt and uncle's farmhouse, only to find they have been barbecued by the Emperor's stormtroopers. Suddenly Luke is no longer reluctant and is eager to undertake the quest. T h e evil of the Empire has become personal to him. H e is motivated. 4. M E N T O R ( T H E W I S E O L D M A N OR W O M A N ) By this time many stories will have introduced a Merlin-like character who is the hero's Mentor. T h e relationship between hero and M e n t o r is one of the most common themes in mythology, and one of the richest in its symbolic value. It stands for the bond between parent and child, teacher and student, doctor and patient, god and man. T h e M e n t o r may appear as a wise old wizard (Star Wars), a tough drill sergeant (An Officer and a Gentleman), or a grizzled old boxing coach (Rocky). In the mythology of " T h e M a r y Tyler M o o r e Show", it was Lou Grant. In Jaws it's the crusty Robert Shaw character who knows all about sharks. T h e function of Mentors is to prepare the hero to face the unknown. T h e y may give advice, guidance or magical equipment. Obi W a n in Star Wars gives Luke his father's light-saber, which he will need in his battles with the dark side of the Force. In The Wizard of Oz, Glinda the Good W i t c h gives Dorothy guidance and the ruby slippers that will eventually get her home again. However, the M e n t o r can only go so far with the hero. Eventually the hero must face the unknown alone. Sometimes the M e n t o r is required to give the hero a swift kick in the pants to get the adventure going. 5. CROSSING THE F I R S T T H R E S H O L D N o w the hero finally commits to the adventure and fully enters the Special W o r l d of the story for the first time by Crossing the First Threshold. H e agrees to face the consequences of dealing with the problem or challenge posed in the Call to Adventure. T h i s is the moment when the story takes off and the adventure really gets going. T h e balloon goes up, the ship sails, the romance begins, the plane or the spaceship soars off, the wagon train gets rolling. Movies are often built in three acts, which can be regarded as representing I ) the hero's decision to act, 2 ) the action itself, and 3 ) the consequences of the action. 12 A PRACTICAL GUIDE T h e First Threshold marks the turning point between Acts One and Two. T h e hero, having overcome fear, has decided to confront the problem and take action. She is now committed to the journey and there's no turning back. T h i s is the moment when Dorothy sets out on the Yellow Brick Road. T h e hero of Beverly Hills Cop, Axel Foley, decides to defy his boss's order, leaving his Ordinary W o r l d of the Detroit streets to investigate his friend's murder in the Special W o r l d of Beverly Hills. 6. T E S T S , ALLIES, AND ENEMIES Once across the First Threshold, the hero naturally encounters new challenges and Tests, makes Allies and Enemies, and begins to learn the rules of the Special World. Saloons and seedy bars seem to be good places for these transactions. Countless Westerns take the hero to a saloon where his manhood and determination are tested, and where friends and villains are introduced. Bars are also useful to the hero for obtaining information, for learning the new rules that apply to the Special World. In Casablanca, Rick's Cafe is the den o f intrigue in which alliances and enmities are forged, and in which the hero's moral character is constantly tested. In Star Wars, the cantina is the setting for the creation of a major alliance with H a n Solo and the making of an important enmity with Jabba the Hutt, which pays off two movies later in Return of the Jedi. Here in the giddy, surreal, violent atmosphere of the cantina swarming with bizarre aliens, Luke also gets a taste of the exciting and dangerous Special World he has just entered. Scenes like these allow for character development as we watch the hero and his companions react under stress. In the Star Wars cantina, Luke gets to see H a n Solo's way of handling a tight situation, and learns that Obi W a n is a warrior wizard o f great power. There are similar sequences in An Officer and a Gentleman at about this point, in which the hero makes allies and enemies and meets his "love interest." Several aspects of the hero's character — aggressiveness and hostility, knowledge of street fighting, attitudes about women — are revealed under pressure in these scenes, and sure enough, one of them takes place in a bar. 13 T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION Christopher Vogler O f course not all Tests, Alliances, and Enmities are confronted in bars. In many stories, such as The Wizard of Oz, these are simply encounters on the road. At this stage on the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy acquires her companions the Scarecrow, T i n W o o d s m a n and Cowardly Lion, and makes enemies such as an orchard full of grumpy talking trees. She passes a number of Tests such as getting Scarecrow off the nail, oiling the T i n Woodsman, and helping the Cowardly Lion deal with his fear. In Star Wars the Tests continue after the cantina scene. Obi Wan teaches Luke about the Force by making him fight blindfolded. T h e early laser battles with the Imperial fighters are another Test which Luke successfully passes. 7. APPROACH TO THE I N M O S T CAVE T h e hero comes at last to the edge of a dangerous place, sometimes deep underground, where the object of the quest is hidden. Often it's the headquarters of the hero's greatest enemy, the most dangerous spot in the Special World, the Inmost Cave. W h e n the hero enters that fearful place he will cross the second major threshold. Heroes often pause at the gate to prepare, plan, and outwit the villain's guards. T h i s is the phase of Approach. In mythology the Inmost Cave may represent the land of the dead. T h e hero may have to descend into hell to rescue a loved one (Orpheus), into a cave to fight a dragon and win a treasure (Sigurd in Norse m y t h ) , or into a labyrinth to confront a monster (Theseus and the M i n o t a u r ). In the Arthurian stories the Inmost Cave is the Chapel Perilous, the dangerous chamber where the seeker may find the Grail. In the modern mythology of Star Wars the Approach to the Inmost Cave is Luke Skywalker and company being sucked into the Death Star where they will face Darth Vader and rescue Princess Leia. In The Wizard of Oz it's Dorothy being kidnapped to the W i c k e d Witch's baleful casde, and her companions slipping in to save her. T h e title of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom reveals the Inmost Cave of that film. Approach covers all the preparations for entering the Inmost Cave and confronting death or supreme danger. 8. T H E ORDEAL Here the fortunes of the hero hit bottom in a direct confrontation with his greatest fear. H e faces the possibility of death and is brought to the brink in a battle with a 14 A PRACTICAL GUIDE hostile force. The Ordeal is a "black moment" for the audience, as we are held in suspense and tension, not knowing if he will live or die. T h e hero, like Jonah, is "in the belly of the beast." In Star Wars it's the harrowing moment in the bowels of the Death Star when Luke, Leia, and company are trapped in the giant trashmasher. Luke is pulled under by the tentacled monster that lives in the sewage and is held down so long that the audience begins to wonder if he's dead. In E. T, the lovable alien momentarily appears to die on the operating table. In The Wizard of Oz Dorothy and her friends are trapped by the Wicked Witch, and it looks like there's no way out. A t this point in Beverly Hills Cop Axel Foley is in the clutches of the villain's men with a gun to his head. In An Officer and a Gentleman, Zack M a y o endures an Ordeal when his M a r i n e drill instructor launches an all-out drive to torment and humiliate him into quitting the program. It's a psychological life-or-death moment, for if he gives in, his chances of becoming an officer and a gentleman will be dead. H e survives the Ordeal by refusing to quit, and the Ordeal changes him. T h e drill sergeant, a foxy W i s e O l d Man, has forced him to admit his dependency on others, and from this moment on he is more cooperative and less selfish. In romantic comedies the death faced by the hero may simply be the temporary death of the relationship, as in the second movement of the old standard plot, "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl." T h e hero's chances of connecting with the object of affection look their bleakest. T h i s is a critical moment in any story, an Ordeal in which the hero must die or appear to die so that she can be born again. It's a major source of the magic o f the heroic myth. T h e experiences of the preceding stages have led us, the audience, to identify with the hero and her fate. W h a t happens to the hero happens to us. W e are encouraged to experience the brink-of-death moment with her. Our emotions are temporarily depressed so that they can be revived by the hero's return from death. T h e result of this revival is a feeling of elation and exhilaration. T h e designers of amusement park thrill rides know how to use this principle. Roller coasters make their passengers feel as i f they're going to die, and there's a great thrill that comes from brushing up against death and surviving it. You're never more alive than when you're looking death in the face. T h i s is also the key element in rites of passage or rituals of initiation into fraternities and secret societies. T h e initiate is forced to taste death in some terrible 15 T H E W R I T E R ' S JOURNEY ~ T H I R D EDITION Christopher Vogler experience, and then is allowed to experience resurrection as he is reborn as a new member of the group. T h e hero of every story is an initiate being introduced to the mysteries of life and death. Every story needs such a life-or-death moment in which the hero or his goals are in mortal jeopardy. 9. R E W A R D (SEIZING THE S W O R D ) Having survived death, beate

The Writer's Journey (Third Edition) - PDF

Document Details

Tags

Related

Summary

Full Transcript

Upgrade to continue