The Hero’s Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters:

The Hero’s Journey:

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

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

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

The Hero’s Journey is also a study of repeating patterns in successful stories and screenplays. It is compelling that screenwriters have a higher probability of producing quality work when they mirror the recurring patterns found in successful screenplays.

Consider this:

• Titanic (1997) grossed over $600,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Star Wars (1977) grossed over $460,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Shrek 2 (2004) grossed over $436,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• ET (1982) grossed over $434,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Spiderman (2002) grossed over $432,000,000 – uses the Hero’s Journey as a template.

• Out of Africa (1985), Terms of Endearment (1983), Dances with Wolves (1990), Gladiator (2000) – All Academy Award Winners Best Film are based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Anti-hero stories (Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

• Heroine’s Journey stories (Million Dollar Baby (2004), Out of Africa (1980) etc) are all based on the Hero’s Journey.

Screenwriting Misconceptions: Description

It is said, quite rightly, that film is a visual medium and that screenplays should seek to create visual images with words.

However, screenwriters often interpret this to mean that description should be non-existent.

Whilst description should not be excessive, it should be remembered that the screenplay is a word document that will be read by a reader (and hopefully more senior decision makers) and that words must be used to create pictures in the mind of those decision makers; description has a place in the screenplay.

Lets use Dances with Wolves as an example (2000). Much is made of the “Frontier” and the “Majesty of the Prairies”. These scenes required slightly more description to communicate the message and make those scenes captivating in the screenplay.

Learn more…

The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/

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Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/

One of the few rules in brainstorming is “every input is welcome.” How useless an idea might appear at first sight, it might be the opening for a new fruitful thought or a chain of next steps. Do not criticize, do not laugh at an idea others brought in. Be positive!

Brainstorm meetings can be organized in a democratic way; you could make sure you do not see the others and that the others do not see you. You do not initially know who the idea is from. More important is that one idea should generate another – as one article at ezinearticles.com fires another. The democratic brainstorm could be arranged by a set of computers that are connected. This way you could arrange a brainstorm meeting at any point during the day.

So far for the brainstorming. What is important is that little yet very powerful rule. Make sure that you have a positive attitude and the creativity follows.
Now you also know when you criticize others, you are not in the creative gear. You are more likely to be in reverse.

When we criticize we destroy more than we create. The question you have to answer for yourself is, “what do I value more?” For sure it is easier to delete a document than to write one. But it gives more satisfaction, writing one than deleting one.

If you want to be (more) creative, watch out for the critical (wo)man inside you.

© 2005 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days.

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Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. You may be the most intelligent writer in the world, and have breaking information, which, if people actually read it, would benefit them and their business.

Problem: most, if not all, publishers of articles don’t have the time to read the whole article unless they are “captured” within 7 seconds. So that tells us that, when submitting your articles to newsfeed services, publishers, bloggers, and the like, you have about 7 seconds to capture their attention (and I personally believe that is a liberal amount of time – my experience tells me more like two seconds).

Example: An excellent article was written just today, if you were to be as fortunate as me and have read the content of it. But the title almost instantly created a “deletion response” from me. That is a big problem – if the title of your article does not capture the attention of the potential publisher, then what is the point?

Titles must be captivating, yet relevant as well to the content of the article. Major mistake would be to post an article with a title that has nothing to do with the content – but that is a completely different discussion.

In summation, please spend time on an effective title – and that will get your article read and spread across the Internet.

For further information, please visit ArteWorks Business Class at http://www.arteworks.biz.

Matt Foster is President and CEO of ArteWorks Business Class, located at http://www.arteworks.biz.