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A review by thekarpuk
The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
2.0
The most effective movie moment on writing I've ever seen came in "Wonder Boys" when Rip Torn very dramatically intones, "I...am... A WRITER!" It's said without any trace of irony. This is a common feature in writers both amateur and professional. No empathy, no sense of irony.
If you've seen a lecture about story structure, you've probably been listening to someone regurgitate this same set of values.
It's doubly funny because from what I can tell, Vogler essentially rewrote Joseph Campbell while dumbing it down for writers.
You learn about a set of archetypes, then a series of steps that Campbell suggests are Jungian archetypes that crop up everywhere.
I find this whole monomyth concept thoroughly overstated. Many of these points are so vague as to be meaningless, while others can be simplified or even removed. Books like "Save the Cat" suggest that a writer must follow all of them. Vogler at least has the decency to suggest that these are merely guides, not rules.
I don't think Joseph Campbell did the work he did because he wanted to create easy lesson for hacky screenwriters (for some reason all these books seemed geared towards movies). He seemed to just find the reoccuring events of fiction fascinating.
The thing is, these archetypes only really seem good for creating a boy's first adventure. Many mature story diverge so greatly from the formula that it's more of an act of creativity to make them fit.
When I was at the GDC this year, I listened to a two hour lecture by a member of the Pixar writing staff. Here's their story structure:
Exposition
Inciting Incident
Progressive Complications
Climax
Resolution
Funny how the formula used by one of the most successful studios is roughly the same structure explained to me in grade school.
Though there were a few interesting points in this fairly thick book, I feel like these guides succeed and keep getting written for all the wrong reasons.
Wannabe writers want a shortcut. They want a blue print to art, a way to bypass understanding things like human empathy, harnessing irony, or the need to practice. They don't want to put in the 10,000 hours of work for mastery suggested by the book Outliers. Writing was a wild hair urge summoned up in college, and they want results right-the-hell now!
A lot of the things you need to know about writing can be gleaned from a careful examination of what makes you care about the works you love. Ira Glass once stated that people get into writing because they have good taste, and want to add to the amazing conversation of ideas that their taste has created.
To me the best advice on the matter is, "You should write more. You should read more." And pay attention while you do both.
If you've seen a lecture about story structure, you've probably been listening to someone regurgitate this same set of values.
It's doubly funny because from what I can tell, Vogler essentially rewrote Joseph Campbell while dumbing it down for writers.
You learn about a set of archetypes, then a series of steps that Campbell suggests are Jungian archetypes that crop up everywhere.
I find this whole monomyth concept thoroughly overstated. Many of these points are so vague as to be meaningless, while others can be simplified or even removed. Books like "Save the Cat" suggest that a writer must follow all of them. Vogler at least has the decency to suggest that these are merely guides, not rules.
I don't think Joseph Campbell did the work he did because he wanted to create easy lesson for hacky screenwriters (for some reason all these books seemed geared towards movies). He seemed to just find the reoccuring events of fiction fascinating.
The thing is, these archetypes only really seem good for creating a boy's first adventure. Many mature story diverge so greatly from the formula that it's more of an act of creativity to make them fit.
When I was at the GDC this year, I listened to a two hour lecture by a member of the Pixar writing staff. Here's their story structure:
Exposition
Inciting Incident
Progressive Complications
Climax
Resolution
Funny how the formula used by one of the most successful studios is roughly the same structure explained to me in grade school.
Though there were a few interesting points in this fairly thick book, I feel like these guides succeed and keep getting written for all the wrong reasons.
Wannabe writers want a shortcut. They want a blue print to art, a way to bypass understanding things like human empathy, harnessing irony, or the need to practice. They don't want to put in the 10,000 hours of work for mastery suggested by the book Outliers. Writing was a wild hair urge summoned up in college, and they want results right-the-hell now!
A lot of the things you need to know about writing can be gleaned from a careful examination of what makes you care about the works you love. Ira Glass once stated that people get into writing because they have good taste, and want to add to the amazing conversation of ideas that their taste has created.
To me the best advice on the matter is, "You should write more. You should read more." And pay attention while you do both.