FARGO and the “Hero’s Journey”

I often challenge people to prove me wrong about something. This isn’t as much about “proving I’m right” but testing the position. If I ask people to mention a movie that won’t relate to the Hero’s Journey, which I did yesterday, that is about seeing what aspects of the writing process I’ve yet to factor in. Predictably, someone could mention a movie that is so minimalistic (structurally speaking) that it’s a little like saying “the world is round!” and having someone show you a snapshot of the horizon and saying “so why is the horizon a straight line?”

Because you are looking at a tiny, tiny, fraction of the complete arc. Still relates to the circle (in story or life, its more like a spiral. Nothing ever returns to the exact same place it started) but its difficult to see while standing on the ground. Get in a plane, fly up high, and you start seeing the curve.

ANY story structure is an attempt to take you up in that plane, or onto a space station, where you can really see that disk. Flat Earthers miss this entirely, and so can writers and readers if they don’t find a perspective that works for them.

In that sense, it is an error to think I’m saying the Hero’s Journey is “the best”. Best for what? Not for writing stories per se. I think Robert McKee’s structures are the most complete. But a little complicated. The simplest structure is probably “someone wants something, and something gets in the way.” Working with newbie writers, it is amazing how many miss this, because they want to write “slice of life”…