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Analyze Any Story

A printable set of questions for stages, character functions, mismatches and alternative readings.

Identify the work

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Start without a model

Describe who wants what, what changes their options, and what they do. Keep a note of the passage or scene that supports the description.

Events and evidence:

Vogler’s stages

For each prompt, record an event, its evidence and the reason for the comparison. Write “no clear correspondence” where appropriate. A repeated or missing stage is not automatically a flaw.

1. Ordinary World

What is familiar, and what already feels unsettled?

Event / evidence / qualification:

2. Call to Adventure

What makes a new response possible or necessary?

Event / evidence / qualification:

3. Refusal of the Call

What reasonable thing might hesitation protect?

Event / evidence / qualification:

4. Meeting the Mentor

What guidance becomes usable, and what remains the learner’s responsibility?

Event / evidence / qualification:

5. Crossing the First Threshold

What can no longer proceed on the old terms?

Event / evidence / qualification:

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies

What changes through each encounter or relationship?

Event / evidence / qualification:

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave

Which preparation creates an advantage or vulnerability?

Event / evidence / qualification:

8. Ordeal

What does the crisis change that cannot simply be reset?

Event / evidence / qualification:

9. Reward

What is gained, what remains lost, and who benefits?

Event / evidence / qualification:

10. The Road Back

Which unfinished consequence requires another commitment?

Event / evidence / qualification:

11. Resurrection

What earlier limitation is tested by the final choice?

Event / evidence / qualification:

12. Return with the Elixir

What returns to a wider world, and what cost remains?

Event / evidence / qualification:

Character functions

One person can perform several functions. A function can be shared or absent. Identify the person’s own desire as well as their relation to the protagonist.

Hero

Whose consequential choices organize the action?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Mentor

What help changes capacity without removing responsibility?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Threshold Guardian

What boundary is tested, and what does it protect?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Herald

What brings change into view, and whose message is it?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Shapeshifter

What makes trust uncertain, and what remains consistent?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Shadow

What opposition exposes the protagonist’s values or disowned possibilities?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Ally

Who contributes to the outcome, and what do they want?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Trickster

Which rule does disruption expose, and who pays for the joke?

Character / scene / independent motive:

Preserve the mismatch

Where does the model fail to help?

Record an omitted, repeated or disputed correspondence. What does the story do instead?

Try another account

Describe the same passage through causality, contrast, social power, performance, play or integration. What becomes visible?

A concrete conclusion

What did you learn about this particular work? If revising, what change addresses your original question without forcing the model?

Sources & further reading

Source notes identify the model or work discussed. Story mappings and diagnostic questions are this site’s interpretations.