Book review: ‘The Writer’s Journey’ by Christopher Vogler
The Writer’s Journey is one of the core books in my writer’s library. Among other things, it provides a detailed discussion of the 12 parts of the Hero’s Journey. This popular story structure is found in many sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, and other stories, including cultural touchstones like Star Wars.
It also discusses 8 character archetypes, such as the hero, mentor, shadow, and shapeshifter. The book provides lots of examples of variations, so you can really understand the amazing richness of these archetypes.
I give The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler 5 stars, 19 dog-ears, and 3 Post-its.
The Hero’s Journey
In my dystopian sci-fi trilogy (Project: T.A.G.), I make extensive use of the Hero’s Journey story structure. However, I don’t hesitate to mix things up. For example, my male protagonist has to face two challenges, or threshold guardians, to cross the threshold into act 2 of book 1.
Another protagonist, when faced with the call to adventure, refuses it repeatedly. Eventually, they face a refusal disaster, which is another twist on the standard formula.
Character archetypes
Every major character in my story has been assigned one of the eight archetypes: hero, mentor, threshold guardian, herald, shapeshifter, shadow, ally, or trickster. While I, of course, love my heroes, I’ve probably had the most fun writing the shapeshifters in my trilogy.
My heroes aren’t perfect and my villains aren’t cartoon villains, but the shapeshifters are a step up in complexity. These characters aren’t just shades of grey, but actually change their colors over the course of the series. For that reason, these are the characters that will surprise readers the most.
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