Fictional Worlds I: The Symbolic Journey & The Genre System (Storytelling on Screen Book 1)

“Create Your Own World!” is a motto of visionary artists. We all enjoy escaping into, and journeying within, fictional realms. Some aspire to create their own unique artistic worlds. Fictional Worlds I is VOLUME ONE of the four-ebook set. (Visit author’s amazon page or storytellingonscreen.com for details on VOLUMES II-IV. Note that the print edition has all four parts under one cover).

Intended for all readers who love literature and film, and especially for writers, filmmakers, and videogame designers, this ebook set points at new ways of navigating, exploring, and creating entrancing fictional universes. This set aspires to make its readers more confident fictional world travelers and compelling storytellers. A holistic and evolutionary study of narrative from ancient rituals, myths and fairytales to the current day, this ebook set blends a creative and intellectual approach to writing. The themes of journey, the wonderworld, quest for knowledge, symbolic death-rebirth, conflict resolution, family, and community are at the core of this inquiry into the nature of narrative, its politics and poetics. Teaching nuts and bolts of writing fiction, these books connect the “cultural” dots in the trajectory of the dramatic arc, elucidating the power of storytelling. With Odysseus as a guide, Fictional Worlds is a journey through narrative traditions and artistic debates. VOLUME ONE focuses on the Hero’s Journey, the sea voyage, action adventure and fantasy, explaining their cultural functions, and how to write for genres. The next three volumes explore drama, tragedy, mystery, crime fiction, comedy, transmedia storytelling and poetics of tomorrow.

“Brilliant… far more than a screenwriting manual. Ranging across the globe and throughout history we have here a dazzling survey of the intellectual foundations and possibilities of the cinema. Must-reading for anyone who is interested in how and why we tell stories on screen.” –– David Desser, author of Eros plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema; co-author of American Jewish Filmmakers

“A new theory of narrative, which I find convincing and uplifting. Illuminating and useful anthropological theory of genres. Terrific choice of examples and analysis. ‘Creative Solutions for the Formulaic Plot’ will be immensely helpful to practitioners. Among interesting ideas: the murder mystery as tragedy in reverse! And the role of film noir… And ‘Ulysses as a Peter Pan for grownups’!! — I love it!” –– Linda Hutcheon, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, author of A Poetics of Postmodernism, The Politics of Postmodernism, and A Theory of Parody

“An innovative approach to teaching screenwriting, based in original scholarship of real importance. The book’s ideas are of impressive originality and practicality, and expounded with exemplary clarity. Dr. Alexander does a splendid job making a case for the new and more productive understanding of genre. The writing is generally elegant. The chapter on mystery is so brilliant that it alone makes this book worthy of a semester’s study.” –– R. Bruce Elder, filmmaker; author of Harmony and Dissent: Film and Avant-Garde Art Movements, and DADA, Surrealism and the Cinematic Effect

“There's much I admire about Fictional Worlds, starting with the core project of bridging between narrative theory, anthropological perspectives on myth and ritual, and work in screen studies. I’ve never seen the books addressing Joseph Campbell's ‘Hero's Journey’ with relation to screenwriting in the exhaustive detail and with the nuance that Alexander deploys here, and with such a rich array of examples, while tracing connections in the stories that have emerged across times and cultures.” –– Henry Jenkins, Professor, USC, author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide