The Ultimate Hero's Journey: 195 Essential Plot Stages Found in the Best Novels & Movies

Review - The Ultimate Hero’s Journey: 195 Essential Plot Stages Found in the Best Novels and Movies. - Neal Soloponte“The Ultimate Hero’s Journey” is delightful, well written very readable analysis of the plot stages of books and movies. In a very nice introductory chapter Neal in a few concise, well chosen words lays out the basic structure of a good story (not chronicles or reports). Neal uses the traditional set up of 0) Hook, 1) Setup, 2) Reaction, Epiphany, Proaction, 3) Climax, and 4) Denouement. He follows these with the types of stages found in books and movies, like plot, repetitive, symbolic. These are all well explained.Neal then throws us into a sequential listing of the 195 plot stages he found in examining books and movies. Each plot stage is on one page, matching the page numbers. Each plot stage is briefly explained, and then expanded upon by using detailed analysis of the plots of 5 movies. The movies he uses are “Star Wars,” “The Matrix,” “Harry Potter,” “Sideways,” and “Dodgeball.” This makes for exciting reading as we get the fairly complete plot outlines of each of these 5 very different movies. And while it is not quite like watching the movies themselves, those movies are full of action, emotions, and drama all of which Neal summarizes according to his 195 plot stages.Neal’s observations of plot structure are fun and readily applicable for most authors. Neal uses the five movies to good purpose. The examples of plot structure in each plot stage all well exemplify Neal’s plot stages. The reader can easily understand how the various threads and bits of action fit together to make up a good story.Neal claims that movies and novels on the average have about 60 scenes and each scene comprises thee stages (plot stages) of the hero’s journey. Also, Neal claims that the best stories have at least 80% of his plot stages. And these 5 movies, examined under Neal’s plot stages, bear that out.While the plot stage analysis varies from the more common discussion of three arcs and other devices, this system actually, in my opinion, is very compatible with that discussion. And Neal does briefly refer into the arc system even breaking his 195 plot structures into 4 acts.I recommend this book for newer authors, and for anyone wanting to explore how narration works. But I would recommend reading this in conjunction with one of the more conventional 3 arc analysis books to fully grasp the construction of narrative.

This book adds depth. Other books add twists and variants to Campbell's original Hero's Journey: by adding or subtracting stages to/from the monomyth in an attempt to modernize or simplify it - I've seen variants of Campbell's 17 stages with 12 (Vogler), 18, and 8 stages; or by promoting a 6-act structure as the modernized version of the more traditional 3 acts; and by applying the 17 (more or less) stages to various novels or movies, among which the Hunger Games, Stars Wars, Lord of the Rings, Casablanca and Harry Potter will invariably reign supreme (for some reason, Game of Thrones seems to be less straightforward an example for the Hero's Journey - probably because of its multitude of shady protagonists and anti-heroes?).Soloponte's 195 stages go much deeper than the well-trodden stages of the Journey: one layer beneath Campbell's stages. Each of the 195 steps is demonstrated for each of the same 5 stories (among them the well-known examples of Star Wars and Harry Potter - I don't hold them against him, he offered some concise insights I did not find in other analyses). So the reader can trace all 5 journeys, one step after the other, rather than seeing mere fragments.Campbell's Journey has 17 stages, whereas a typical novel has 3-4 times as many scenes. A beginning writer may get stuck between scenes because the main stages offer a topographical map of the country from north to south - but they won't show all the bends of the road. The 195 steps provide this roadmap. The writer can hardly miss an important crossroads in his story structure - he must just decide which 2-4 steps should be combined in the same scene (or should be omitted).

An essential book for anyone writing fiction. It is packed with 195 plot stages -- OK, they're based on a much smaller number of basic plot stages -- but it's an excellent start for novelists. The author provides a standard set of examples such as The Hook, The Sleeping Hero, The Villain, Foreshadowing, The Inciting Event, First Refusal of the Call, Answer to the Call, The Hero's Determination, The Villain's True Face, The Hero is Unstoppable. This book will provide excellent guidance on which plot stages to include in the type of novel you're writing -- why, and what happens if you don't include these essential stages. Plot stages are based on ancient human archetypes, and we see these stages in ancient tales of heroism, in comics and cartoons that have been handed down and re-tweaked for centuries, and in contemporary books, TV shows and movies.

I've read a lot about the Hero's Journey, I have taught classes in it, and I am familiar with most of the major versions - from Campbell's original, to Vogler's summary, to Dan Harmon's story wheel. And dozens, if not hundreds, in between. All kinds of would-be scholars and inventors and analysts trying to improve on the basic formula. I've read a WHOLE lot of them. In general, they all seem to think the Hero's Journey is too complicated, and needs to be stripped down to its bare essentials. Somewhere between Campbell's seventeen elements, and the basic three-act structure. Vogler has 12. Harmon has 8. I myself created a version with 9.Neal Soloponte's expansion is exactly the opposite: instead of saying "17 is too many," he has decided it is NOT ENOUGH, and detailed almost 200 story beats. I thought this idea was ridiculous, at first, but I keep coming back to it. Over and over. There is a lot of gold to be mined here, and while it is predictably lacking in detail toward the end (it has got to be incredibly hard to maintain your momentum through 195 steps), I return to it frequently.TL;DR - This book is awesome. If you think you might need it, you do.

I read around a dozen books to learn more about the hero's journey. But all of them contain vague references to 'The Darkest hour' 'The innermost cave' etc. Although Neal Soloponte (author) too hasn't written much deep thoughts on these (maybe she doesnt want to bog the readers down), he certainly has done one thing properly-- she has listed all the specific sequences common for matirx, harry potter, star wars etc.Hey, if the succesful ones have done it, then it must be useful right. True. But i urge you to come up with your own versions of the 195 steps in your book or it will become blank and inorganic and boring. The author too gives you the same warning.NEGATIVES; The book refers to 'sideways' as non- fantasy and non sci fi books for teaching the 195 books. I feel there were much better options than this movie. Considering the fact that sideways doesnt have even 90-100 of the 195 steps in them.POSITIVES; 1) points like snake symbolism , baptism , blindness are all common elements that we see in most successful films and novels . And the author has successfully enlisted them for us to study.2) the hero undergoes a test--the book has written about the sorting hat in harry potter and similar tests in matrix and star wars. These are the steps that i expected from this book and i am really satisfied.3) if you are looking for the most detailed plot points on the hero's journey, then this is your book

I have many books on writing to help me. Each helps me a little. This book helped me a lot. It clearly lays out the elements of story I should be looking to have in my novel. I have a lot of them in my work in progress, but now see how they work across the whole. A book that makes you feel that, at last, you do know what you’re doing. This book, together with Stealing Hollywood by Alexandra Sokoloff - perfect pair.

Deep down, all stories are indeed the same, but this book shows exactly how it is so. Written in a refreshing style and with touches of humor here and there, I highly recommend it to anyone working on their own stories--and in particular those who are stuck in the middle of them.

Here's a handy book to work through if you're stuck trying to write several scenes for your book or movie script. I find it's a good idea to find examples, from books or movies, while reading through each stage of the book. There are examples provided but it still helps to do your own comparisons to see how other writers go about structing each of their scenes. So go ahead and watch other films or read other novels. Essentially it's a good way to jump start your writing process, scene by scene.

Exhaustif ! Inspirant !