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]
HERO'S JOURNEY TIP OF THE DAY: PAST THE BELLY OF THE WHALE, THERE IS NO GOING BACK
The Belly of the Whale is a form of Netherworld, a place of transit. The Hero is past his (or her) Old Self (following the Transformations that have been engaged in, in the First Threshold), yet s/he has not embarked upon the deeper Transformations (that lead to the New Self), which will occur during the Road of Trials and beyond.
One element of the Belly of the Whale stage of the Hero's Journey, is the denial of an option to return to the Ordinary World and the Ordinary Self. Beyond this point, there is No Going Back.
In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Butch and Sundance learn that the posse is ordered not to stop until they are dead.
In Brokeback Mountain (2005), once Ennis and Jack Twist have had sex, there is no way back. It is something that cannot be undone.
In The Insider (1999), once Wigand has whistleblown, there is no going back.
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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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