WU ROAD TEST: The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler

February is Plot Month at WU.  Back in 2006, I road-tested THE WRITER’S JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler to see if it was an efficient (notice I didn’t say easy) method of plotting a book.  Two manuscripts later, I’m still using Vogler as the foundation for my stories.  It’s been the best method for me to date. 

I’m reposting my Road Test of Vogler for those who missed my first post.  I’m also interested in hearing from writers who’ve used Vogler in the past.  Did you find his method useful?  Nightmarish?  Let us know in the comments.  Thanks!

Regular readers may know that I’ve recently completed my current WIP using Holly Lisle’s One-Pass Manuscript Revision process.  You can read the gory details HERE.  After a break, it was time to get back into the saddle.  I’d agreed to participate in NaNo, and I needed to get a story plotted out to a point where I’d be writing something that actually resembled a novel instead of a mishmash of scenes with no direction.My usual approach to plotting was loosely based on Debra Dixon’s Goal, Motivation, and Conflict method, vague character sketches, an ending, and a theme I wanted to examine.  I’d knock out an outline, and get to work.

Then everything’d go to hell in a handbasket.  Plot tangents, characters that had nothing to do with the story except they were cool when they wandered into my head the night before, blind alleys, you name it.  Sometimes the lack of discipline would be exciting.  Great things would come of the exploration, and it’s what I love about writing.   Other times . . . . eecch.  So I’d have this rough draft which was mostly a steaming pile of poo and it would take six months to edit.

NO MORE! I cried.  This time, I’d use a plotting method that would give me the storytelling structure I wanted, while allowing for exploration and creativity.  My writing bud Elena Greene had been telling me good things about Christopher Vogler’s mythic structure method, outlined in his book THE WRITER’S JOURNEY, (its on our WU recommended list) so I decided to give it a go.

How did it measure up?

It’s a pretty good method and it made the initial phases of plotting a breeze.  Vogler uses Jungian psychology and Joseph Campbell’s observations on myths as the foundation for storytelling.  Since stories have been told since mankind first learned to talk, the myth-based model of storytelling has been centuries in the making.  The strength of using the mythic structure is that the plot points are easily recognizable and adaptable to many types of stories.  The downside is that the plot points are universal and predictable, which can lead to hackneyed storytelling replete with trite motivations.  The challenge for the writer is to take the archetypes and freshen them.

THE WRITER’S JOURNEY is split into two parts.  Part One concerns character archetypes, which I won’t get into in this post.  Part Two, “Stages of the Journey” is a step-by-step method for plotting.

The seasoned writer will recognize many if not all of them: The Ordinary World (where the story starts), The Call to Adventure (change); Refusal of the Call (initial conflict); Mentor (viewpoint character conflict); First Threshold (first big challenge); Tests, Allies, Enemies (introducing new characters, monkey wrench, a subplot).

After these first phases are easily plotted out, this is the point where novels can careen out of control in the dreaded middle arc.  And this is where Vogler’s book is worth shelling out $25.

In a basic three-act story, the Ordeal (stage 7) comes at the midpoint of the book.  No breakthrough observation there.  But I dunno about you, but after the Ordeal (or big major challenge that the character has overcome), my stories seem to run out of gas until the climax at the end.  That’s because I wasn’t working on the aftermath of the Ordeal correctly, letting my character get their Reward (stage eight), and then complicating it up with reversals, epiphanies, and major angst during the Road Back (stage 9).  Forehead smack time.

Then Vogler gets even better.  There’s that tricky moment in every story where the overarching theme is revealed to your characters, and maybe more explicitly revealed to your reader.  This takes place in stage 10, Resurrection.  In the mythic structure, the Resurrection is the part of the story where your character symbolically dies and is reborn again.  Or it could be as simple as the moment when a character realizes they’ve been changed by their ordeal.

The final stage of your hero’s journey is stage 12, Return with the Elixir.  Subplot questions raised earlier are resolved, happy endings glow happily, or doors are left open.  In other words, The End.

Vogler helpfully asks the writer to consider different scenarios when plotting out their stories.  He also deconstructs popular movies like Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, and Titanic and shows how the screenwriters use the mythic structure to make stronger stories.

Bottom line: it’s highly recommended.  I breezed through my initial plot outline, and it gave me enough to ponder where I could steer away from the trite and reformulate into something fresher.

Vogler’s not foolproof, however.  He disagrees with the choices the writers make for Disney’s Lion King, and he makes some random cultural observations like “Australians and Germans are herophobic.”  Still, these are quibbles.  THE WRITER’S JOURNEY is a valuable tool in the writer’s arsenal, but it’s not a panacea.  As long as one makes a conscious effort to steer clear of overused plot points, it can take the agony out of plotting. Not the pain, just the agony.

Kathleen Bolton

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.

She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.

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