Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters. This is the template you must master if you are to succeed in the craft.
[The terminology is most often metaphoric and applies to all successful stories and screenplays, from The Godfather (1972) to Brokeback Mountain (2006) to Annie Hall (1977) to Lord of the Rings (2003) to Drugstore Cowboy (1989) to Thelma and Louise (1991) to Apocaplyse Now (1979)].
THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY
THE HERO'S JOURNEY:
a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.
b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.
c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharses, of which there are usually four).
d) Gives you a universal structural template upon which you can superimpose your situational story. This is why stories such as Alien (1979), Gladiator (2000), Midnight Cowboy (1969), American Beauty (1999), The Graduate (1967) and many others (all deconstructed at the URL below) appear to be different but are all constructed, almost sequence by sequence, in the same way.
and more...
[simply go to http://www.screenplay-structure.com/ or http://www.story-structure.org/ or http://www.heros-journey.info/ or http://www.monomyth.info/ for full details]
*****Expansion of Consciousness*****
The Hero's Journey is all about the Hero gaining a capacity that he (or she) previously lacked.
Whilst the Oracle may be capable of defeating the Antagonism, this is not his purpose.
The Oracle's purpose is to guide the Hero toward an Expansion of Consciousness.
The Expansion of Consciousness (an intangible) is represented by a tangible (the Sword).
The Oracle tells the Hero that he (or she) must Journey and retrieve the Sword.
The tangible is often a bride, treasure or fire (power), but in contemporary stories can be represented by any physical thing. In Syriana (2005), the Sword is a post-it note. In The Matrix (1999), Morpheus is the Sword.
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Go to http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html for more info on the 188+ stage Hero's Journey....
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