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]
*****A Period of Desolation*****
One effect of refusing ones Dharma is a Period of Desolation. When one refuses ones Dharma, he (or she) is cursed to wander the desert aimlessly, cursed not to live up to ones potential, cursed to regret, forever living a slow death, cursed to eternal frustration. In Star Wars (1977), Luke looks up at the moons, frustrated. In The Incredibles (2004), Mr Incredible is Interdicted from being the superhero. This results in a period of passivity and frustration.
Expectation. Periods of desolation lead to others expecting action from the Hero. In The Incredibles (2004), the little boy wonders when "something will happen."
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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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