the man with a thousand faces joseph campbell

His everyday life where we learn crucial details about our Hero, his true nature, capabilities and outlook on life. This is where the Hero's exists before his present story begins, oblivious of the adventures to come. This is essentially a more detailed Character Arc for your story's hero which is overlayed onto the more traditional three-act structure that many successful Hollywood movies such as Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz when analyzed appear to follow. The 12 Stages of The Hero's JourneyĪ popular form of structure derived from Joseph Campbell's Monomyth from his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces and adapted by Christopher Vogler is the Twelve Stage Hero's Journey. The trick is to initially let the ideas flow without paying too much attention to structure and then in your second pass begin to focus your story and separate the wheat from the chaff. Well, theoretically it won't but I'm sure someone will find a way! Let your characters define the story and your story define your structure and then use a formula if necessary to tighten your script. There's no point trying to write a comedy and forcing the structure of a thriller upon it - it won't work. In the end, a story should dictate the kind of structure it follows or whether it shouldn't follow a structure at all. Some try not to subscribe to any and see the whole idea of structure as 'evil', feeling that a story should evolve organically without rules confining ideas or obstructing the creative flow. The thing is, there are many forms of structure and some writers subscribe to one formula, while others subscribe to another. After facing many foes and overcoming various obstacles the hero saves the day and wins the girl. In the beginning you setup your hero (or heroine) and his story, then you throw something at him that is a great source of conflict and takes him into a whole heap of trouble. To Structure Or Not To Structure? That Is The Question.Įvery story has a beginning, a middle and an end.

The man with a thousand faces joseph campbell