The Hero's 2 Journeys

Publisher's Summary

Make your story the best it can be on two levels. Hear each superstar teacher present his unique approach to story telling.

The "Outer Journey" is the essential structural principles driving every successful plot. Each brings years of practical experience and extensive research to story structure, character arc, and how to give your story greater commercial appeal. Full of specific examples.

The "Inner Journey" is the deeper storyline that makes a story truly great. Hauge's view: The Hero moves from hiding within a protective identity to experiencing his or her true essence. Vogler's view: The Hero's inner need is invisible at first, but is revealed to the Hero by the end of the story. Full of specific examples.

This is ideal listening for all writers (including screenwriters, novelists, and playwrights), actors, filmmakers, studio executives, game designers and developers, storytellers, and anyone with a passion for movies and stories.

©2003 Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler (P)2003 Writer's AudioShop

I enjoyed this.

The audience is screenwriters, but the ideas are excellent and valuable for novelists.

Christopher Vogler and Michael Hauge conducted a workshop for writing movie scripts based on Joseph Campbell’s work. This is the recording of that workshop which includes some questions from the audience.

I rarely watch movies. My feeling is why watch a movie when I could read a book? Books have more depth. When I see movies based on books I’ve read, I’m disappointed although I do enjoy the visuals. As I listened to this lecture, I felt further reluctance to watch movies. They’re all made with the same formula! (or most of them) The first 10% is seeing the ordinary world and the call to action. Other parts include meeting the mentor, encountering tests, the supreme ordeal, and return with the elixir. These parts were first defined by Joseph Campbell. He studied mythology and found consistency in all myths in all cultures. Apparently all humans always want the same story.

During the 1970s George Lucas used these ideas when he wrote the first Star Wars movie. During the 1980s Christopher Vogler wrote a memo organizing Campbell’s ideas into guidance for movie making. Vogler worked for Disney at the time. Vogler later turned his memo into a book “The Writer’s Journey.” I was bothered by Vogler’s claim for credit. He talked as if he were “the first one” to consider using Campbell’s ideas for movie making. He never mentioned that Lucas used them earlier. On Vogler’s website (mentioned below) he states “I had discovered the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell a few years earlier while studying cinema at the University of Southern California. I was sure I saw Campbells ideas being put to work in the first of the Star Wars movies and wrote a term paper for a class in which I attempted to identify the mythic patterns that made that film such a huge success.” This rubs me wrong. Lucas clearly stated that he used Campbell’s work when he wrote Star Wars. Vogler’s comments are pompous. My distaste is the reason I did not give this 5 stars. But the subject matter is excellent. Most of the examples are from three films: The Firm, Shrek, and Titanic. I was surprised that the speakers didn’t use Star Wars as an example.

This audiobook is a good way to learn about Campbell’s ideas. The authors talk about the hero’s outer journey, his inner journey, and major character types. Hauge defines four character types: hero, reflection (friend), nemesis, and romance character (or the object of hero’s pursuit). Vogler’s website (thewritersjourney com) has a helpful summary of the outer journey and eight character types. (My thoughts, not in the lecture: Since all plots are the same, it is critical to have unique, engaging, and fascinating characters. This seminar does not discuss that.)

A couple of Hauge comments. The inner journey is to find your essence. At the end of the workshop, Hauge summarizes with three arcs that consistently occur in American movies - three transformations the character needs to make.
1. risk being who you truly are
2. risk connecting to other people (romantically or other)
3. stand up and do what is right, the honest thing, to stand up for the truth.
He says “love encompasses all of these. All great movies are love stories.”

NARRATORS:
The narrators are the authors. Their voices were fine.

17 of 17 people found this review helpful

Helpful to first time author.

I am nearly finished writing my first time 'non-fiction' book and I will be incorporating a lot of these points into it after first draft. Their advice doesn't just apply to fiction. Glad I bought it.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

More Michael Hauge

Mr. Hauge's theory on Identity vs Essence really sparked a torrent of ideas on me - and now I want to know more.

Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 hours (seem to be) all Mr. Vogler and his application of the Hero's Journey. But once you 'know' about the Hero's Journey, I don't find there's much more here to gain.

Not sure the price is right however. But take it from me, Michael Hauge is where it's at if you want to write screenplays or novels.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Great Book for Wannabees & Moviephiles

Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler have been perfecting their screenwriting methodologies for many years... This is the first time, that i know of, where they have combined their systems... Giving you two expert perspectives...

There are many books on screenwriting out there... This is one of the best... relatively simple explanations of the basic and advanced principles of writing stories for film. This book does not cover formatting, but story development...

If you've got an idea for a moive... but aren't sure... this book will help you find out...

15 of 18 people found this review helpful

Very helpful

This is a great read for anybody who loves writing fiction. The lessons apply specifically to play/script writing, but can effortlessly be applied to any kind of story, no matter the scope. I would recomend this (and I have) to anyone who has an interest of writing any kind of fiction work. Period.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Worth Listening for an introduction to writing

I give this a 2-star rating based on a parochial level of story analysis that can be found in any screenwriting basic-structure how-to manual. That being said, you do need to start somewhere and this could be helpful, but it is limited in examples and expanded explanations of approach, theory, and context. It also loses a star because the audio quality is almost unbearable, very poorly recorded. Vogler and Hauge are great at what they do, though.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Another winner for writers

This mini books captures two great teachers and like Vogler's Using Myth, I took notes all the way through. If you are learning to write fiction, run, don't walk, to get your copy. Kudos Audible and please do more of these as many of us can't get out to the conferences.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Highly Recommended!

Worth every penny. I would listen a couple times to catch everything, or pause & take notes!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A must-have for any writer

I've been following Christopher Vogler's Hero's Journey interpretation for years and always got stumped when it came to certain things that had to do with the hero's motivations. Well, that's what Michael Hauge's specialty is and I'm glad I discovered this gem of a talk that has both Vogler and Hauge discussing the hero's two journeys. Definitely crystalized a few things for me.

great for story tellers and writers

Gave me an awesome framework from which to understand movies and to tell my stories

insightful

I've listened to this several times and find it useful, inspiring and insightful. I've read Vogler's book but this is a treat.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A brilliant book

A Brilliant event with combination of two masterminds. Skilfully handled and put together. I learned so much from this book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Two journeys, one great listen!

Enjoy learning from two of the best, there’s so much information in their explanations. Brilliant!

FANTASTIC!

The material is excellent, both speakers are easy to listen to and make a lot of sense; can't wait to get their print books and relisten to both Michael Hague Audibles and take notes.
The only glitch is the frequent coughing by live audience members - annoying as FORK. Too bad they weren't edited out somehow.
But yeah, any writer can benefit from this book :)

Bliss is worth the work

incredible accessing thia level of knowledge and enthusiasm. So clear on point engaging, thought provoking and quite comforting to know the hero will always reign from within

Good summary of story telling

Good overview. got a bit lost on the process when Chris was taking but Micheal wss more systematic which really liked.

Six month review.

Any additional comments?

Both Vogler and Hauge are Grand Masters in this genre but this book/lecture is short and doesn't teach you anything that you won't already know from creative writing classes. However, they do get you thinking and give you a good overview of their two story-writing ideas, which are reasonably similar. Like I said, they are both Grand Masters in their world.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful