Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
imagination. T h e idea is constantly affirmed in stories that human imagination is
extremely powerful, especially when focused into a wish, but that it is difficult to
control. T h e wish and the imagination work together to create a mental image o f
the desired thing, person, situation, or outcome, so vivid that it calls the adventure into
being, and launches the hero in the direction of seeing how the wish will actually be
fulfilled, usually in an unsuspected and challenging way. T h e image may be faint and
hazy in the beginning, or detailed but highly idealized and unrealistic, a fantasy o f
the future uninformed by real experience.
But for a story or a person's life to move along it is necessary to pierce the
bubble of fantasy, and to convert wishing into something else — doing, the next
step of the pyramid. T h e essence of movies is the director's command, "Action."
Do something, actors