On the "Hero's Journey" in Books and Film

Several months ago, I picked up a copy of Christopher Vogler's THE WRITER'S JOURNEY: MYTHIC STRUCTURE FOR WRITERS. While the fact that he managed to use 'writer' twice in the title was indicative of his generally weak writing style, I thought it was an interesting look at how stories are formed using common archetypes and story arcs. He draws heavily on his experience as a screenwriter to demonstrate how most stories -- particularly blockbusters like action, fantasy, and romantic comedy -- follow a familiar cycle in which the hero/heroine goes off on a quest and must find their own holy grail before returning to their known world.

This all seems quite obvious and not worth the $17.79 that the book currently runs on Amazon (full retail is $26.95, which is steep for a paperback). However, I recently reread it, and as I've watched movies and read books over the last few days, I have been struck by how accurate his analysis was. Between yesterday and today, I watched BRUCE ALMIGHTY and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and read THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman (which I shall review sometime soon). While the stories were quite different -- man at a crossroads dealing with faith issues in a comedic manner, man on a mission to forget his ex and find love with the new girl, and small boy raised in a graveyard until he can take revenge on his family's killer -- all three of them had structures that adhered closely to Vogler's analysis of the ideal story framework.

What I find interesting about writing romance is that there is such a clearly defined set of rules for the genre -- particularly for historicals, the hero and heroine can't be involved with other people while involved with each other, the story must explore two people falling in love, and the story must end with the hero and heroine either married or engaged (almost always married). The challenge is to take a set of rules and write a story that adheres to the strictures while still feeling fresh and original. The rules provide a form that sets the reader up to be pleased and prepares them for a happy ending -- but the writer must get to that happy ending through several hundred pages that create doubt about the ending and provide the reader with a satisfying emotional journey as the hero/heroine grow through the power of love.

This is all a lovely challenge for me; when I started writing AN INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE, I only had the first section and the last mapped out. The rest all came to me while I worked through the manuscript, resulting in extensive rewriting during the second draft to fit all the pieces together. But as I begin to plot out book number two, I think THE WRITER'S JOURNEY could at least help me to set things up in a slightly more unified way, even if the process of writing itself will still lead to a massive overhaul after I finish the first draft.

I'll keep discussing craft and storytelling as I begin work on book number two. Meanwhile, what's your favorite story? What do you love about it?