Handy “Heroic Journey” Structure Chart

Well, hello, AWESOME! Many thanks to Storyboard That for this super useful graphic. 

And what is this thing? Why, it is your feature screenplay structure at a glance. We here at Coverage Ink are big fans of the Hero’s Journey, aka mythological structure for movies. Most contemporary movies are based on it, as are bestselling screenwriting how-to books “The Writer’s Journey” and “Save the Cat!” So many of the feature scripts we read would be improved if they simply knew and followed the principles of the hero’s journey. 

Please, folks, don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s been around for a long time and it works really well already.  That said, you’re welcome to springboard off of it and do your own thing, by all means. But you need to know your rudiments first before you can solo.

Now this graphic may take a bit of explanation, so for that we send you off to the aforementioned two books. Ingest them, savor them. Then rejoice in knowing that the guesswork has been taken out of movie screenplay structure. You can pick them up at www.writerstore.com. They are required reading in Hollywood. Do yourself and your writing career a big favor and learn this stuff cold.

–Jim C.
Coverage Ink