Why didn't you ask for directions? The hero's journey Storyteller's Log 12-6-2012

DISCLAIMER: I am presenting parody of Joseph Campbell's Hero's journey to make a point. While it's meant in good fun, I don't want to diminish his valuable work. It has informed my owning thinking on the subject.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces written by Joseph Campbell describes an archetypal pattern that he discovered which underlies all stories across all cultures and time periods. The most famous application of this theory is, of course, Star Wars.

Hollywood has been in a continual quest to find ways to make creating good stories easier. At one time there were two story paradigms in Hollywood. One was a fish out of water and the other was an unholy alliance. Beverly Hills Cop would be an example of a fish out of water and 48 Hours would be an example of an unholy alliance. From what I heard, if your script didn't fit either of these moulds then it would be deep-sixed.

It was Chris Volger who brought the hero's journey to the attention of Hollywood with a memo he wrote. I was fortunate to take a class at UCLA with Chris right before he published the Writer's Journey. I think that his key insight was that the writer, him or herself actually goes on the hero's journey when they write a story. I experientially believe this to be true.

I recommend his book. The Writers Journey

Now, I believe that any story structure theory should be easy to apply and easy to remember. So I am going to go off my memory of the hero's journey trusting that I remembered the important points. The hero's journey is setup like a counter clockwise journey. It maps time around a circle. Why it's counter clockwise I have no idea.
The hero starts in their ordinary world and is awakened to a call to adventure. They refuse the call only to go on the journey after all. If they didn't go there wouldn't be any story, would there? Next they meet a mentor.

The next step is they have to cross a threshold into an underworld. So they have to deal with the threshold guardians. From the beginning until they cross the threshold is ACT 1. The underworld is ACT 2. The return is ACT 3.

So far, so good. This is helpful. Let's look at the rest of the journey with the help of some visual aids.

Here is our here awakened by a call to adventure, or maybe the neighbor's dog was barking all night.

The first thing they do is to refuse the call.

Next they meet the mentor, who archetypically looks kind of like Mr. Natural. 

Next up, they cross the threshold into the hellish underworld and the tests begin. It's not multiple choice.

Anybody got a flashlight. This is where I get lost. Are we in the belly of the whale? Maybe it's the belly of a dragon? Oh, we're in the trash compactor.

In the underworld, the hero meets the goddess. If it's the heroine's journey, do they meet God???

Then they have a supreme ordeal, which is really scary as the name implies.

Finally, they cross the threshold, only after seizing the sword and return to the ordinary world.

They return with the elixir and the world is transformed.

The end.

The setup and end parts are helpful but what goes on in the middle? This was about as much as I can remember about the hero's journey and I've actively tried to use it on many stories. Obviously a lot of it didn't take in my memory. 

I think there is a difference between post analysis and prescription. The hero's journey is a great tool to analyze movies. For Chris's class, I analyzed the hero's journey for the Fisher King. It yielded interesting insights. For example, the underworld for that film was metaphorically represented by a video store- a world of celluoid dreams. All four main characters went on their own heroes' journeys.

Could I have written the Fisher King using the hero's journey as my guide? Did the writer's of the Fisher King actively write their script using the hero's journey? I don't think the hero's journey is as useful for prescription in the sense of guiding you as to what to write. This is what I want help with and many struggling writers that I know want help with. How do I not get lost in the underworld?

When I get lost, I'm not afraid to buy a map, get a GPS or ask for directions. Or explore and map my own territory. Now, I'm ready to explore, can someone point me towards north?

What do plot points plot? Storyteller's Log 12-5-2012

 

DISCLAIMER: I am presenting parody of story writing books that I've read to make a point. While it's meant in good fun, I don't want to diminish the fact that there is great information in these books which have informed my owning thinking on the subject. My advice, read them all.

Before we get to plot points, I wish to explore plots. Here's what Apple's Dictionary has to say on the subject of plots.

plot |plät|noun1 a plan made in secret by a group of people to do something illegal or harmful: [ with infinitive ] :there's a plot to overthrow the government.2 the main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.3 a small piece of ground marked out for a purpose such as building or gardening: a vegetable plot.4 a graph showing the relation between two variables.• a diagram, chart, or map.verb ( plots, plotting , plotted ) [ with obj. ]1 secretly make plans to carry out (an illegal or harmful action): the two men are serving sentences for plotting a bomb campaign | [ no obj. ] : Erica has been plotting againstme all along.2 devise the sequence of events in (a play, novel, movie, or similar work).3 mark (a route or position) on a chart: he started to plot lines of ancient sites.• mark out or allocate (points) on a graph.• make (a curve) by marking out a number of such points.• illustrate by use of a graph: it is possible to plot fairly closely the rate at which recruitment of girls increased.PHRASESlose the plot informal lose one's ability to understand or cope with what is happening: many people believe that he is feeling the strain or has lost the plot.the plot thickens see thicken.
What parts of this apply to story writing? I believe they all do but in different ways. Obviously, number 2 is the most common usage of plot- the main events of a play, novel or movie. The first could be considered an example of one type of plot- a group making secret plans.
The last two, 3 and 4 are interesting for their application to story structure. What do plot points actually plot?

This is where I have problems with plot point theories of story. What do plot points plot? They've left off the last two aspects of the definition of plotting as a verb. They don't mark out points on a graph, they don't make a curve from the points and they don't illustrate anything. They don't show me my story's structure.

In the last post, we saw that Aristotle tried to make a plot by graphing time along the x axis and audience involvement along the y axis. But we also saw that this had limited usefulness, mainly as to help pacing.

"What if we plot something else?"

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Bunny. The problem as it exists is that each of the plot point theories followed Aristotle's rut of plotting audience involvement. Each author of the plot point theories tried to differentiate themselves by how many plot points they chose and what they called each point.

Let's look at some of these theories. (Without naming names)

One has five points.

Another one has nine points.

One might have twelve.

Why not go for fifteen?

Why stop there?

Help, I can't stop!

It's all going dark...

There is even one version that has 120 points, one for each page!

But how big is a plot point? They don't say. Does it matter? Do they come in different colors?

How to you get from one plot point to another? Jump? Careful Bunny. 

This is my problem with the plot point theories. They don't clearly show how they relate to one another.    They are too abstract to show a relationship between them. So this still leaves me lost in Act Two. How can I see if something belongs in it or not?

One theorist suggests that the plot point are like a suspension bridge taking you from the beginning to the ending. Again, like Aristotle who told us that stories have a beginning, middle and end, this is someone with a keen sense of the obvious but not really helpful to me as a writer.

There's one theory that suggests arranging them strung out on a clothes line. Interesting metaphor but it still doesn't differentiate the difference between the socks and underwear from the shirts. That reminds me, I have to go do my wash.

Was Aristotle wrong? Storyteller's Log 12-4-2012

Aristotle was an ancient greek who wrote one of the first books on storytelling circa 300 BC. He wrote a book called the Poetics. I bet he never dreamed that 2000 years later you could buy it over the internet. Well, Aristotle's Poetics is still affecting writers everywhere.

Aristotle gave us the three act structure- a beginning, a middle and an ending. He also suggested that we map the involvement of the audience over the time of the play. His chart looked like this.

This can be helpful in ways that Aristotle never imagined. We can use it to help our pacing. Watch what happens when we vary his structure. Start with a bang! We can start with something that gets the audience involved right away. After we have their attention, we can calm it down and build our story.

Another pacing issue structure is to provide a calm before the storm. Give the audience a change to rest before the big crisis and climax. Have you ever been in a museum and you get museum fatigue? Oh, another Matisse. Yawn. At a certain point you get saturated and can't take anymore in. You need to rest. Some action movies can be notorious for not giving the spectator a change to catch their breath. Ironically, instead of making the action bigger, it deadens us to the action through burnout. This calm period also provides a contrast in pacing. The calm before the storm creates tension with the audience waiting for the storm to hit.

The other thing I found useful with Aristotle's map was what happens when you vary the ending. Sometimes structural flaws can still be successful movies. Take this quiz and see how you do. 

What movie starts with a bang like this?

What movie looks like this camel back?

What movie looks like a receding mountain range? It's not Snow White and the Seven Drawfs.

What movie looks like a sand dune that was blown away?

What movie looks like a shark fin?

No, it is not Jaws.

So there is your quiz. The answers are below. But first I have some more thought about Aristotle. I think what happened is that with Aristotle we got into a rut that over time became a freeway that every writer rides along without thinking that there's no other way. In some ways he's like the philosopher, Descartes. You know, the,  "I think, therefore I am" guy. Well, we've been suffering with the cartesian subject ever since. He split reality into mind and matter and everybody believed him. (except mystics and post-cartesians)

Here's my problem with Aristotle. There are three parts to a story a beginning, middle and end. OK, I grant you he had a keen sense of the obvious. But tell me, does that help you write a story? It doesn't help me. He also never told anyone that you should start at the end but that's another subject.  

Does his mapping audience involvement help you write a story? I find it helps discover my pacing but it doesn't help me write a story.

I have learned from Aristotle but it wasn't enough. I, like Diogenes*, have kept searching.

ANSWERS

Yes, good old James Bond. Every 007 movie starts with a big action sequence. Then he returns to headquarters to get his new mission (the one of the movie) and he gets his cool gadgets.

Remember, Remy, the little rat chef from Ratatouille? I felt like the movie ended in the middle about an hour into it. There was a big fat happy ending right in the middle of the movie and I thought it was over. My spider sense was saying something's wrong here. Then the villain came back and the movie started over.

I loved Lord of the Rings and never wanted it to end. But I really didn't want it to end six or seven times! 

I hated The Remains of the Day. (My personal opinion) Most people will love or hate a movie because of the ending. Think if that's true for yourself. This movie felt like Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, the romantic longing was so intense you could cut it with a knife. The filmmakers promised us fireworks. But all we got was a dud. Anthony Hopkins never went after Emma Thompson. I mean come on, it's Emma Thompson. She's right up there with Emma Peel. 

No Country for Old Men was even worse. (My personal opinion) This movie was good. It took me along for the ride right till the end and then... nothing. I was angry when it was over. Couldn't they write an ending? 

Interestingly, some people read my clues as iconic images rather than graphs. In retrospect, I unconsciously did this when I pointed out that the graph that looked iconically like a shark fin was not Jaws. The other one was The Remains of the Day graph looked iconically like the deserts of  Lawrence of Arabia.

* Diogenes of Sinope was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived around the time of Aristotle. He was also known as Diogenes the Cynic, and most famous for carrying a lamp and searching for an honest man. I did not know that he was notorious for his philosophical stunts and this was one of them, he would carry his lamp in the daytime.

Artrage makes painting easy

The first two images here were painted on site with acrylic on canvas. I had wanted to paint more realistically however at the time I really didn't understand the components of color- hue, saturation and value. They were completed when I was in college. What I like about these is their spontaneity and aliveness. They feel psychedelic which is fun.

 (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Artrage studio http://www.artrage.com/artrage-studio.html is a really cool inexpensive painting software. It lets you take a photo and "paint" over it. It picks up the colors automatically. (if you choose to do that.) It has a wide range of brushes and variations. What I love is how it teaches you about color. We don't see what we think we see. You can see some results below which were all based off of photos. 

This last one took about an hour. It would have taken me days to paint this traditionally. Looking at it again, I feel it lacks a clear focal point I might have been stronger to move the group on the right to a more centered position or remove them and make the girl on the foreground blanket the focal point.