A writer’s atlas · by Stewart Ferris
Every journey has a map.Start plotting your story here.
Campbell’s seventeen stations. Vogler’s twelve. Harmon’s circle. Murdock’s descent. Hudson’s brighter kingdom. Snyder’s fifteen beats. Compare them, use them, and create the plot of the book or script you are actually writing.
08 · Act II · Descent & Initiation
The Ordeal
Vogler’s twelve — click a station
Six maps
Choose a lens
1949 · Joseph Campbell
The Monomyth
Seventeen stations on the oldest road in story.
1992 · Christopher Vogler
The Writer’s Journey
Campbell, cut for a three-act screenplay.
2009 · Dan Harmon
Story Circle
Eight steps. Down into chaos, up into change.
1990 · Maureen Murdock
The Heroine’s Journey
Not a female hero on Campbell’s road — a different road.
2009 · Kim Hudson
The Virgin’s Promise
Becoming, not battling. Shine until the kingdom changes.
2005 · Blake Snyder
Save the Cat!
Fifteen beats. A board you can hang on the wall.
Worked examples
Stories that already walked it
Open a known plot on its natural map — then clone it into your workshop as a study copy, or start from a blank ring.
Also on the desk