Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey
Stage Eight: The Ordeal
Stage Nine: The Reward
Think you know where your hero’s journey is headed? Think again. We’re diving into the Ordeal – that gut-punch moment some people still confuse with the Climax (spoiler alert: they’re not the same thing, folks). This episode had us playing cartographer through the wonderfully labyrinthine (read: headache-inducing) chapters of Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. Because apparently, writing about story structure needed its own plot twists. After untangling Vogler’s literary maze, we tackle the burning questions: When should your protagonist’s world implode in Act Two? How do you make readers lose sleep over your crisis scene? We put our hard-earned wisdom to work by dissecting John Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation Society, proving that even giant monster books need their big moment perfectly timed.
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Our Novel Approach to The Writer's Journey
We’ve chosen four novels to analyze while we read Vogler’s book, which will serve as examples to help you on your own journey to writing a novel based on the Hero’s Journey. Here’s what Kim & Renee are reading:
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End of the Road: The Last Two Stages of the Hero’s Journey
Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s JourneyStage Eleven: The Resurrection&Stage Twelve: Return with the Elixir Check it Out: The Hero’s Journey Study Guide Just when you thought you had the Hero’s...