Stealing Fire from the Gods

A book review.

Stealing Fire from the Gods

by James Bonnet

published: 1999.09.01

ISBN: 0941188655

genre: Writing

reviewed:2000.12.03

This is a work on the craft story (and script) writing by a long-time Hollywood writer. The central thesis is that all components of a story fit within a 'story wheel'. The characters can be explained by their place on the wheel as they cycle through various examples of cycles in life - the rise to power, the involvment in a relationship, career cycles, etc. It is an abstraction of the Story Cycle concept by Joseph Campbell, and draws heavily on the works of Carl Jung and others.

I was quite interested with this at first blush, and have used some of the ideas contained within to check my own writing. How much, I can't say, since this stuff is difficult to consciously apply.

Overall, I found two other books, which I review here, to be more straightforward, less contrived, and more applicable to my writing on a day to day basis. These are John Braine's How to Write a Novel, and Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer.