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Summary: The best starter book for story writers today...
Review: A lot of people want to write stories; screen plays, novels, kids books, comics, plays, etc. Now, Christopher Vogler has made a book that provides a basis from which to understand and breakdown existing stories and springboard you forward into your own projects. In short, this book takes a single, but thorough, distillation formula of stories as old as human storytelling and makes it understandable in stages, providing a wealth of reference to films and stories as it does so.Many slag this book because it didn't make them any more creative, and didn't hand them THEIR vision on a plate. That isn't what this book is for: it helps you understand what makes other stories appeal to an inner human esthetic. From there, you can then use prudent ability and judgement to help make YOUR stories play better to a wider audience. 'Writer's Journey' won't write scripts for you- you still have to work. If you enjoy entertainment more then you can enjoy making entertainment, this book will seriously anger and diffuse your enjoyment because it reveals the magic behind the movies. To be able to utilize 'The Writer's Journey' properly you must still apply your own experience and imagination to your own story, and not just copy the formula presented. Writing is hard work, and writing widely accepted work is extremely difficult. With information like this to create a foundation for understanding, you build your skills and improve your chances of success. It beats ignorance.
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Summary: Eye-opening content
Review: Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others SYNOPSIS from back cover: Based on the work of Joseph Campbell, this book provides an insider's look at how writers (both fiction and non-fiction) can utilize mythic structure to create powerful narratives. Writers will discover step-by-step guidelines for structuring plots and creating realistic characters. MY FEEDBACK:
First and foremost, this book delivered on what it said it would. The basic structure of a story along with essential and optional cast is presented here.
I really appreciated that Mr. Vogler kept things brief and to the point. Every section was only a paragraph or two and got to the meat of things. He didn't waste space with fifteen fillers as examples to support each and every point.
One of my writing groups recommended this as a great resource to keep handy and refer to at the beginning, middle and end of your story writing to ensure you have the essential ingredients in all marketable stories. For those of you who hate any kind of structure that makes writing look like a formula, you need to open your mind. My two cents worth: If I'm going to spend the next several years or longer working on a novel (some of you know what I'm talking about) then I want to get some return for my effort. Mimicing some overall structure can only increase my chances of positive monetary return vs. a story that sits unpublished for my great great-grandchildren to read one day after I'm dead and gone. Hopefully you get my meaning. Get the book. It is a keeper.
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Summary: Quite the Trip!
Review: Gracious readers' of my various reviews must start to feel like confessors. I say this with tongue just half in cheek because it seems like some of my recent reviews have started with confessions haha. I confess this tome took me a while to finish. That was due to subjective reasons however and in no way is a reflection of Volger's work. In this resource/book Volger draws heavily on Joseph Campbell's THE POWER of MYTH so further his analogy that writing no matter what the medium is deeply indebted to Myths and archetypes. He then proceeds to define some common archetypal characters found in stage, screen, and in fiction. After presenting in layperson's terms the various archetypes found in these mediums Volgel then places them in context as how useful they are as tools to the aspiring writer and provides examples from classic and contemporary sources. As I confessed this wasn't a breeze to read as far as I am concerned, in fact it uncharacteristically took me months to finish. This is not because Volger's book or journey was dry or pedantic, rather each unit or chapter was written to invite reflection, and for the really motivated exercises. I nibbled pieces of this rich offering happily allowing each chapter to be digested until I read more. I am an aspiring writer(unpublished but hopefully not eternally unpublished teehee), yet am too subjective to state unequivicably rather this title helps me my writing, although I suspect it is inevitable that it will. I can say without doubt that reading Vogel's Writer's Journey I am a more enriched and discerning reader of other's fiction/plays/screenplays. One last tidbit, although I have said Vogel refers to Campbell's THE POWER of MYTH frequently,in fact so much so that is in my TBR pile in VERY near future, that book is not a prerequisite for a fulfilling understanding of this one. THE WRITERS JOURNEY is a trip that is infinite in page numbers but infinite in scope as far as its resourcefulness and prose goes. Don't want to end review with bad sentence structures hahar but oh well.
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Summary: An Essential Reading, if You are Writing a Story
Review: This year, I've been immersing myself in the world of fiction writing, after having been relatively successful as a nonoficiton writer, with articles in Writer's Digest, Omni, Success, National Enquirer (several covers on health and self help) and more. This book has been a real revelation to me. I read it after reading Robert McKee's Story Structure, and then taking McKee's workshop. The integration of the Joeph Campbell Hero With a 1000 Faces concept into story creation is brilliant. McKee's book is excellent and filled with great ideas and material and Vogler's book does an amazing job of taking such a different approach to the same topic-- creating great stories. The mythic approach to story creation is based on Campbell's study of the common elements and archetypes of thousands of myths from cultures all over the world. Understanding the model enables the writer to tap into deep, deep dimensions of being human. I've found this book has helped me, not only in the novel I am working on, but also in putting together lectures for my professional work and even in creating web pages for my website. Ironically, I had already begun reading another of Campbell's books, and Vogler's book pointed me in the direction of Hero with 1000 faces, which is also well worth reading. While Vogler builds the bridges to the story idea, Campbell, of course, goes into much greater depth in the mythic and archetypal dimensions. Put them together and throw in McKee's story structure and you have a science of story that will jump start the worst case of writer's block
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Summary: An interesting set of insights . . .
Review: A finely written description of how most stories can be fitted into a mythic boilerplate, consistent with the Jungian archetypes made famous by Joseph Campbell in his analysis of mythological motifs and their resonances. As Vogler shows, the frameworks of most stories tend to be somewhat similar and the functional aspects of characters tend to recur from story to story and culture to culture. This is a very useful fact for writers to recognize and an important tool to master in the process of writing. Generally it happens on a gut level and Vogler recognizes and does not diminish this aspect of writing. But he also calls our attention to the forms that stories take and which we must know, at some level, when we write them. Still, though I have been attentive to this myself, I think that too much can be made of it at times. Vogler himself clearly shows how the mythic forms can be stretched to such an extent that, after a while, they seem to be as different as they are similar. When you take them this far, is it really the case that we're all doing the same thing within a universal framework, a la Campbell? Or is it all just a series of sometimes useful generalizations and little more?
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Summary: Solid material for serious writers
Review: Are you are humble enough to admit you don't know exactly why bestselling movies and books are so popular?
This book will show you the structure and framework behind some popular movies and explain why these common plot structures work so well. I'm definitely keeping this one on my shelf and using it as a reference. The only reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5 is I would have liked more charts, outlines, etc. to illustrate the ideas presented the in the text.
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Summary: Great for the Beginning screenwriter
Review: Writer;s Journey breaks the standard screenplay format into nine segments which it refers to as the "Heroes Journey." Starting in the ordinary world the heroes, or main character receives a "Call of Adventure" which of course is met by the Hero's "refusal of the Call"..so on ad so forth. The Idea so to help the writers identify key elements of the screenplay. The author; Christopher Vogler uses examples from "Star Wars" and other classic movies to illustrate this. If you're truly interested in screenwriting, buy this book and "Myth and the Movies. "Stuart Voytilla
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Summary: Thank God for this Book!
Review: There are many tools novelists and screenwriters use to create their art. None was as useful to me as Vogler's "Writer's Journey." This book was thrust upon me by a "mentor" -- rather forcefully, because I had "resisted the call" -- and through it I was able to enter the "inmost cave" of the novel I was trying to finish. I "seized the sword" and "returned with the elixer" and ended up with what I consider a damn fine novel ("Life Askew" -- check it out at Amazon.com). If you are writing a story, making a film or simply interested in why movies like "Star Wars" and "The Wizard of Oz" are so effective (despite their surface simplicity) pick up Vogler's book and simply read the introduction. Trust me, you will be hooked and follow the "hero's journey" to it's satisfying end.
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Summary: A roadmap to crafting stories that resonate with readers
Review: Using paradigms explored in the works of Joseph Campbell (Hero With A Thousand Faces) Christopher Vogler delivers an immensely readable, illuminating explanation of why certain classic and successful stories and films resonate so strongly with their respective audiences. Breaking it down into a roadmap of events and character archetypes, Vogler teaches by example how every writer can turn a go-nowhere story idea into a journey that will captivate readers--and editors--alike. Don't miss this great book! (For a list of additional must-have writing books, visit the Resources page at WriteWayPro's website.)
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Summary: Both a Tool and an Extended Metaphor
Review: A good tool for analysis. A significant extended metaphor for contemplation. Take Aristotle's Poetics. Add some depth psychology (soul-study) from Carl Jung. Combine with some mythic theory from Joseph Campbell. Meditate. Creates an insightful method for analyzing plot (story-myth) and archetypal character. Best served hot. Also good chilled. Makes a hearty dish that should please all soulful writers and their muses. I recommend this book to all of my creative writing students.
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