One Last Book Study Post!
Some
of Tampa Bay’s finest children’s writers gathered on Saturday, June 28, to
debrief our online book study of Christopher Vogler’s THE WRITER’S JOURNEY.
During the session, I shared a post from Vogler’s blog that gives a shortened version of the Hero’s Journey. Vogler’s intent was to answer an email inquiry
about how to use the Hero’s Journey in short pieces such as commercials and online
presentations. I think Vogler’s advance will also have meaning for those of us
who write children’s books, especially picture books. You can read Vogler’s
entire post at https://chrisvogler.wordpress.com/category/heros-journey/. He provides
the following summary at the end of the post:
“SO…the absolute
bare minimum, I would venture, is
1. An implied
Ordinary World,
2. An efficient
Call to Adventure,
3. A distinct
Threshold Crossing,
4. A
death-and-rebirth Ordeal(or Resurrection) and
5. A Reward (or Return with the Elixir).
“In reality, almost always the other pieces are either
implied or present in truncated form, and the audience will labor mightily to
fill in any blanks you leave. For example, the audience will fill in a
wild night of partying if you just show a teenager sneaking into the house at 4
in the morning.”
