Adapting Your Novel for Film by Pauline Baird Jones

of my novels, btw. It helps me keep my focus tight and concise.) Christopher Vogler uses the hero’s journey template in his book, The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure of Storytellers and Screenwriters . The hero’s journey model is definitely industry standard. (Think Star Wars. ) If you can use “hero’s journey” buzz words when pitching your script, you’ll definitely have an edge. I was struggling with a producer who wanted to cut a key character from my script. I pointed out she was a mentor and the opposition faded away. You’ll get a much better feel for the hero’s journey by reading the book, but if you’re writing a hero journey script, you do need to know the players: Hero, Mentor, Threshold Guardian, Herald, Shapeshifter, Shadow, Trickster. The stages of the journey are: Ordinary World Call to adventure Refusal of the call Meeting the Mentor Crossing the First Threshold Tests, Allies, Enemies Approach to the Inmost Cave Supreme Ordeal Reward The Road Back Resurrection Return with Elixir I could list explanations for all of these elements, but there are tons of books and articles out there about them just by doing a simple Google search. If you study the Star Wars Trilogy, you’ll be able to pick out the players and the stages fairly easily. It was definitely constructed from this classic structure. One reason this structure works so well, is that it is based on myths—which speak directly and strongly to people. I’ve been told this type of script is easier to sell, though