Stage 9 of the Journey: The Epilogue

Vogler, Christopher. Vogler, Christopher. “Epilogue: Looking Back on the Journey.” The Writer's Journey. Third. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 1998. 231 – 290.

Summary:

As Vogler brings his book, The Writer’s Journey, to a close, he lists several famous movies which exemplify the use of his structure, including Titanic, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, and The Full Monty. Vogler goes on to analyze the character archetypes and the plot development of those movies in order to help synthesize the ideas that he has presented. Vogler was careful to note that the 12-step structure, which he has presented, is purely a guideline to start from; writers are meant to create unique and interesting stories that branch off from his skeletal structure. Do not expect to use his format and come away with an award winning story or movie.

Reaction:

Looking at the comparisons, it is interesting to see the ways that stories differ and to see that Vogler’s structure applies to all sorts of genres. Also, this section of the book is important to look at because it puts all of Vogler’s ideas together, instead of looking at one single point of a story or movie. The Epilogue is an important piece of the book, because Vogler’s ideas cover a lot and he really needed to reiterate all of those points as a whole. Personally, I feel as though this book has been very repetitive, but in a way that is a good thing; it really emphasizes the concepts that Vogler is trying to make.

Questions:

1.Can Vogler’s skeletal structure be found in television shows, both fictional and reality? What about in documentaries?

2.When looking at comparisons like the ones Vogler made, is it important to notice the variations? Are they what makes the story better?

3.How would you feel about a series of stories or movies that changes perspective in each piece (i.e., the first movie comes from the Hero’s perspective, the second movie comes from the Villains perspective, etc.)? Does that reverse the Hero and Villains roles? How would the audience feel about each movie if they only saw one movie compared to seeing the whole series, or even seeing them out of order.