[From our deconstruction of hundreds of Hollywood blockbusters and sitcoms....; 188 stages of the Hero's Journey you need to know about...]

The Hero's Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the Hollywood movies we have deconstructed are based on this template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

The Hero's Journey:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Interpreted metaphorically, laterally and symbolically, allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

and more...

The Hero's Journey: One Story versus the Basic Plots

There is an argument between the One Story concept [that all stories are structured around the Hero's Journey] versus the concept of Plots [that there, for example, seven basic plots].

The above is misleading. Both are true.

It is true that there is only One Story [the Hero's Journey] - you can see this by analysing our deconstructions of hundreds of successful Hollywood stories and analysing our Complete Hero's Journey document. The essence of story is transformation and the process of that transformation, at the root level, is the Hero's Journey.

The various plots mentioned [Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, Voyage and Return, The Quest, Comedy, Tragedy, Rebirth etc] are simply variations of the method of transformation [types of Journey] and this is verified by the fact that multiple plots can be found in many single stories. In other words, whether the plot is Riches from Rags, Return from the Voyage etc, the frame is still the Hero's Journey.

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