Writer's Journey by Christopher Volger
Quotes
The experience of the proceeding stages have led us, the audience, to identify with the hero and her fate. What happens to the hero happens to us. We 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. The result of this revival is a feeling of elation and exhilaration. (p.15)
This makes sense to me. I personally do not want this big emotional wave in real life, but it is always so thrilling to have one when we are watching or reading something. More depressed the story makes me feel, happier I feel when something good happen to the character. Good story is like having a cat. One day they are so mean to us so that we doubt if they even love us, but next day they make us so happy and loved by climbing up to our bed while we’re taking a fat nap. Probably it’s not that dramatic as what Volger is saying in the book, but the basic is the same. I also like the example he brought up right after this quoted part where he says that it’s like riding roller coasters. As he says, we’re never more alive than when we’re looking death in the face!
Unless something is brought back from the Ordeal in the Inmost Cave, the hero is doomed to repeat the adventure. Many comedies use his ending, as a foolish character refuses to learn his lesson and embarks on the same folly that got him in trouble in the first place. (p.18)
I completely agree with this statement. The first thing came up to my mind is the comedy movie series Hangover, where the characters don’t learn much from their experience of having too much drinks and wake up in the biggest mess we can ever imagine so that they would still do the same in the next movie. There should be something to bring back from the adventure, but I also understand that characters refuse to have any “Elixir” can be a unique and good plot twist.
The Hero’s Journey is infinitely flexible, capable of endless variation without sacrificing any of its magic, and it will outlive us all. (p.20)
After I almost finished the practical guide of Hero’s Journey, I felt so relieved reading this quoted part. I am a kind of person who gets so anxious about not following rules (for example, AP style is my nemesis), so as I read through all of the twelve steps, I got terrified because I thought this is something we must follow as a storyteller. It was very good to know that Hero’s Journey is something flexible and capable of endless variation. I understand that most of the stories follow Vogler’s Hero’s Journey, both intentionally and unintentionally, but it also sounds concerning to me if we MUST follow these steps. It is always a good idea to have some space for our creativity!
Takeaway
The main takeaway I got from this article is that the Hero’s Journey is a skeletal framework that every story has as a foundation. We don’t have to follow it too precisely, but we do need to have a step back and take a moment to think about this before we create a story. It may sound like a series of rules we have to follow, but in reality it is not. I enjoyed reading this part a lot, and I’m sure that I can smartly put this skeletal framework into my next story while letting my creativity fly.
