Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
as more storytellers become consciously aware of them. Joseph Campbell's great
accomplishment was to articulate clearly something that had been there all along
— the life principles embedded in the structure of stories. H e wrote down the un
written rules of storytelling, and that seems to be stimulating authors to challenge,
test, and embellish the Hero's Journey. I see signs that writers are playing with the
ideas and even introducing "Campbellian" language and terms into their dramas.
T h e conscious awareness of its patterns may be a mixed blessing, for it's easy
to generate thoughtless clichés and stereotypes from this matrix. T h e self-conscious,
heavy-handed use of this model can be boring and predictable. But if writers absorb
its ideas and re-create them with fresh insights and surprising combinations, they can
make amazing new forms and original designs from the ancient, immutable parts.