Not a Star Wars Fan from the Beginning I’m not a fan of the Star Wars movies. The original 1977 Star Wars (now known as Stars Wars: Episode 4 “A New Hope”) was a disappointment for me. Don’t get me wrong – it was a milestone in moviemaking history. The complexity of the film, the special effects, the marketing, Lucas’ […]
SPOILERS AHEAD My daughter Amber recommended The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix) to me because she knows I loved the period piece “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and am a chess nut. Good call on her part. After watching Episode One “Openings” I thought I might write a series of reviews of the show discussing its use of story devices and comparing it […]
I just found out about Shawn Furey’s “Awesomize Your Life” seminar next week (March 23rd, 2019) in Augusta, Maine. Shawn is a leader in the heroism science community and applies his special knowledge of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to help facilitate psycho-educational groups and provide one-on-one counseling to people in recovery from opioid addiction. He’s a true hero. So, he asked […]
In Writer’s Digest, author Dustin Grimmel gives these 7 ways to engage readers. Do you agree? Evoking Emotion #1: Positive moral judgments about the protagonist Evoking Emotion #2: A protagonist who wants something really badly Evoking Emotion #3: A protagonist who pursues their desires Evoking Emotion #4: A protagonist who never gives up Evoking Emotion #5: Characters who do the […]
Star Wars has been a phenomenally popular movie franchise. The original Star Wars came out in 1977 and was an instant success. But when I first watched it, I was not impressed. My first impression was that it was the King Arthur legend in outer space. Even at the age of 14 I had expectations of my science fiction adventures. […]
The following is a digest of a movie in the format of the Agile Writer Method. The Story Abstract gives a high-level overview of the story. The Hero Abstract gives an overview of the Hero (protagonist). The Storyboard is an 8-stage breakdown of the story along with elements of the Hero’s Journey (by Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler). You can learn more […]
At Agile Writers we use the Hero’s Journey and break it down into 8 stages to tell a compelling story. But compelling stories don’t come just from novels. Here is the Agile Storyboard in a nutshell: The Hero – learning about the hero in her ordinary world The Special World – something happens to the hero and she is cast into […]
When I started on my journey to discover the secrets to great stories, my first stop was Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” In it, Campbell dissects the elements of the great mythical stories from antiquity to today and from around the globe. He observes that the same patterns emerge. A hero starts out in their ordinary […]