(pun related title to be added later)

Okay so it's late and I was at work until late and i'm already over this 4 point framework of form because lying in bed last night thinking about the few things i've written I came to an early conclusion that makes me think I can push on past it further into Vogler's world of what writing can be.

I think the key to formulating one of these 4 point story plans is to start with the ordeal in your mind first and plot your other story points around that.

I'll make my argument about this in a minute but first let me address the other two points Vogler makes about form to get the whole context.

The hero must move on his journey from the ordeal to a place called the road back, this is point 3. Then from the junction marked as heading on the road back the fourth point is not surprisingly the end. Now in his story scenario the road back equals the lovers escaping from the clutches of their villain heading towards safety. He throws in a twist in which the woman dies and the journey back becomes the journey to revenge.

Admittedly this story model doesn't completely make sense to me and seems kind of vague and stupid, but then people have accused me of being vague and stupid myself so probably best to keep trying to follow it through to some kind of conclusion.

Now in my mind if you start with an opening journey that leads to a change of journey then no matter how great your opening premise it will be bound to those subsequent rules, but if you start with the ordeal in your mind, which is in essence the heart of these kind of stories then every other point will be created in harmony with the guts of your story.

Let me introduce a basic example that I started plotting out in my head last night. It would be a young adult fantasy novel.

The ordeal I would start with would be an all out battle declared between the few remaining gnomes and faeries that live in the forest land that surrounds a small country village.

Now working backwards from the ordeal I need a character who is starting out on a journey but who's initial course is altered in a natural way to lead them smack bang into the middle of the battle. So I imagined a teenage girl who has had some behavioural problems over the years and who has exhausted her parents efforts to contain her so in an act of desperation they ship her off to live with her eccentric Uncle and Aunty in a small village because they're the only one's willing to try and put up with her.

Arriving at their house the young girl has made a conscious decision to try and start afresh in her new life and to prove to everybody that she can be someone other than the trouble maker they all have her pegged as. However not long after arriving she rather surprisingly makes friends with a faerie.

Now in the village she has a boy cousin who unbeknownst to her is friends with the village gnomes. This magical connection runs in the family you see. Anyway the boy and some gnome or gnomes kill one of the faeries and so our main character becomes personally involved in helping the faeries go to war with the gnomes and boy, inadvertently causing a lot of mischief in the village as the battle's stakes raise.

Turning at the story's point of ordeal the girls kindly eccentric Uncle gets seriously hurt as a result of the battle and the hero of the story starts to feel bad for everything that has happened since she arrived and determines to make everything right before more bloodshed ensues.

Where the story ends depends on what her success was at bringing the war to a peaceful end.

Okay so maybe that's not a perfect outline but everything flowing into and out of the stories main conflict still now makes the most sense to me. Time to move onto what's after this four point outline.