Going on the Hero’s Journey (Start)

at Friday, April 08, 2011

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12 days to uncover the hero in all stories - coming from the Hero's Journey (also known as Writer's Journey):
“The Hero with a Thousand Faces” (1949) by Joseph Campbell brings us the monomyth concept of the Hero’s Journey. George Lucas even admits that Star Wars was heavily influenced by his theory and many Hollywood films thereafter incorporate the resulting Hero's Journey (Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola …).

But what is it?
digitaljournal.com
Campbell discovered that all hero myths are basically the same story. He describes a universal pattern that lies in literally all literature, from jokes to novels. There are differences in the details, but fundamentally it’s the same. Basically there is always a journey: the hero leaves the ordinary world, comes into unfamiliar terrain, undergoes some sort of change or growth and journeys back home with something new.
Christopher Vogler has slightly adapted the Hero with a Thousand Faces into the Hero’s Journey in his screenwriter guide.

In the next 12 days, I will explore his concept, because I think that writer’s can learn from it just as much as the filmmaker’s already have. Although I advise to not follow the Hero’s Journey step by step like successful Hollywood films, because we should strive to write excellent work and not just for the masses.

 

6 Comments:

  1. Li said...
    Friday, April 08, 2011 1:08:00 am  
    I've never read "Hero With..." but I've read bits of Campbell's work in relation to myth and archetypes. This should be an interesting series of posts!
    Apfel said...
    Friday, April 08, 2011 4:52:00 am  
    I agree with Li, this should be super interesting. Now that you mentioned it in your post about the common pattern concept I see it too, wonder why it never occurred to be before.
    alexia said...
    Saturday, April 09, 2011 5:42:00 pm  
    Interesting concept! It makes sense, and does seem like it could apply to most literature.
    Ju Dimello said...
    Saturday, April 09, 2011 7:56:00 pm  
    Waiting for the 12 days :) Thanks for reminding us of something we lose track while writing....

    Following you from A-Z challenge!
    Sarah Allen said...
    Sunday, April 10, 2011 4:27:00 am  
    This is great stuff! Very interesting, and I love your examples. Star Wars is the best :)

    Sarah Allen
    (my creative writing blog)
    Abhishek said...
    Tuesday, April 19, 2011 1:41:00 am  
    Wow!! I didn't know about it earlier!!

    Thanks for sharing it!! Gonna read all the 12 posts now!!!

    with warm regards
    CatchyTips for Writers

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