Product Description

In 1993, The Writer's Journey became one of the most popular books on writing of the last 50 years. Now, the 2nd Edition provides new insights and observations from Vogler's pioneering work in mythic structure for writers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34737 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

Synopsis
Shows how writers can use mythic structure to give coherence and weight to both narrative fiction and nonfiction.

Customer Reviews

a very useful guide
The writer's journey is a must-read for whoever wants to write a story for any kind of media. Differently from a Syd Field's book, which is more focused on just the screenplay form(and which i recommend too), the writer's journey explores many archetypical elements that are found in any story.
There are also questions to answer throughout the book that will allow you to solve problems or stregthen you story and make it more complete.

Essential reading if you're creating a narrative
This book is essentially an interpretation of the classic "The Hero's Journey" by Joseph Campbell, although it benefits from the vast experience of the author, who is a Hollywood script consultant, and is less obsessed with Freudian/Jungian analysis. The book describes the underlying structure of all successful narratives, and points out the character archetypes that pervade literature. It really is uncanny to read the book and then watch a movie, or read a novel, and be able to identify the mechanisms at work beneath the surface. Of course, to an aspiring writer, such "secret knowledge" is simply invaluable.

It's a very readable book but I also found it monotonous. I tried to think why this is, and I think that -- ironically -- the structure of the book is at fault. It's just too flat. The author moves from subject to subject like a lecturer droning on and on. I found what he says truly fascinating but I could only take it in small chunks before my eyes glazed over---I'd read a little, close the book, do something else, read some more, close the book, do something else... and so on. There's very little joie de vivre in this book. No humour. No life. No sparkle. The book is pure information for download into your brain. That makes it terribly hard going. It's also overwritten and too long. A third or even half could be cut from the book, easily. Ironically, I understand the book started out as a seven-page memo for use internally at a film studio.

I disagree with others here who say this is a book purely for scriptwriters. That just isn't true. it's for anybody who wants to create a narrative. You could be writing a novel or even an epic poem or song lyric. It doesn't matter. The examples quoted are generally from movies, however, although the benefit of this approach is that movies tend to be extremely clear-cut in their use of the heroic template. The examples strengthen the book enormously, by the way.

Two annoyances didn't make reading the book any easier. First is the stupid font size, as mentioned elsewhere. Second is the fact that the feminine pronoun is used instead of the more usual masculine. Sentences typically read like this: "The hero comes to the end of her quest when she realises...". This drove me potty. Seriously. I was inches away from flinging the book across the room sometimes. Each time I read such a contrived attempt at political correctness it was like somebody was tapping a spoon on my head. It's just really, really annoying and very hard to ignore.

In summary, I'd say this book is a flawed masterpiece. It's too long, and too dry, but if you intend to create narratives professionally then it's quite simply required reading.

Nanoprint
The book is terrific but just a warning for those who are a bit short-sighted - the print is very small and very pale - in contrast to the earlier, heavy-type editions. Don't know what the publisher was thinking of.