The Hero’s Journey Overview

As much as I love the 3-Act Structure, it’s important to look at other forms of story structure. One of the most popular fantasy structures (though it is also used in some other types of genre fiction) is called The Hero’s Journey, based on a “monomyth” theory popularized by Joseph Campbell. It involves a character who goes on an adventure, faces a rising set of challenges, and returns home changed from who they were or what misbelief they had in the beginning of the story.

5 Notes About The Hero’s Journey:

1. The Hero’s Journey is a common fiction template used to define the stages of a story. Used most of in SFF, but also seen in many other genres.

2. Hero starts off in their normal world until something happens to change their circumstances, a “call to action.”

3. Hero resists the call, until something else happens that makes them decide to answer.

4. As the hero answers the call, they enter a new world. They face a series of challenges, followed by a dark moment, also called dark night of the soul.

5. The climax sees the hero fight the antagonist, often one on one, and return to their world changed in some way.

You can see that the stages of the Hero’s Journey can help with both character arc and plot arc when applied to your manuscript. What other templates do you use?