Questions

I make no secret of the fact that I think Vogler's THE WRITERS JOURNEY is the hottest thing since Prada sunglasses. Not that I own Prada sunglasses, but a girl can wish, right? I do, however, own two copies of Vogler's book, just in case one of them falls to pieces from hard use.  Believe me, it gets hard use.

Vogler asks some dead-on questions that I try to answer before I start writing.  If the answers change and the work progresses, so be it. I'm not married to the original answers, just the process of asking them.
So what are they, you ask? Voila, and thanks to Mr.Vogler:

1. What is your hero's greatest fear?
2. What is the book's metaphor?
3. What are the character's inner and outer problems?
4. What is the ordeal?
5. What aspect of the hero is resurrected?

Vogler pretty much follows Campbell when it comes to story structure, therefore it's classic and time-honored. How can you go wrong with that?  If you read Vogler, you'll find concrete examples from films illustrating some of the terms in the questions, such as "ordeal" and "resurrection."  It's a writer thing, not religious. Well, it can be religious. Don't get me started. . . .

I like to ask what my hero wants above all else. What's the one thing that's beyond reach?  If I can distill the story into one sentence (Until you've lost everything, you'll never be able to get it back) and see if that sentence works for every major character, because the secondary characters are on a journey of their own that mirrors that of the hero.  That's for another blog, however.

BTW, anyone else think Rufus Sewell as Aurelio Zen on PBS is hot, hot, hot?  Wowzer, I sure do.