This week I want to talk a little more about story structure, specifically one of the better known ones, "The Hero's Journey". The Hero's Journey was a term based on the research of writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell, Campbell studied myth, and was really interested in things in myths that reach across cultural boundaries and that many classic myths and legends share. In looking at these, he discovered a certain story structure in these myths that have come to be called "The Hero's Journey", in summary it is about the patterns that many older myths go through, and how many traditional protagonists change over the course of their adventure.

As a structure analysis, it's really useful, because it can help highlight the points that these stories share, and helps us understand them on a more simple level. It also helps us analyze all of the countless modern stories that have been influenced by the structure, and follow how it's evolved more easily.

So lets get to the basic paraphrased structure...

FIRST STAGE: The Call to Adventure - The main character is in a normal place, going along his normal life, when he is given a glimpse of some kind of bigger world than what he is used to, and is offered a chance to go along with it.

SECOND STAGE: Refusal: - The main character fears this bigger world and the unknown, and at first refuses the call or is kept from this adventure by outside influences.

THIRD STAGE: The Mentor: - The main character meets a Mentor character who has had experiences with this bigger world before, and provides the main character with some kind of aid or encouragement that helps him pass through the refusal stage and move on.

FOURTH STAGE: The Threshold: - The main character is finally pushed out of his normal circumstances and sets off into the bigger world.

FIFTH STAGE: The Trials: - The main character goes through a series of challenges in his journey that force him to change in some way. Usually accumulating new allies or skills along the way.

SIXTH STAGE: The Travel: - The main character and any compatriots moves through their journey and eventually discover what they have to do to accomplish the final goal.

SEVENTH STAGE: The Conflict: - The main character faces a major challenge, such as a primary antagonist, the death of an ally, or their own major fears or problems.

EIGHTH STAGE: The Bounty: - Something is gained from this conflict, in the form of some kind of realization, skill, salvation, or treasure.

NINTH STAGE: The Return: - The main character begins the journey home. This can often follow a desire to not leave, or being chased away from the Journey by outside forces.

TENTH STAGE: The Final Conflict: - The main character faces the final challenge, such as overcoming or avoiding death, and defeats the final obstacle standing in their way.

ELEVENTH STAGE: Journey Finished: - The main character returns to their old world, changed in some way. This is of course the basic structure, and it can get a little bit more complicated and in-depth depending on the style, but you can see these same story rhythms in countless stories, especially large-scale fantasy or science-fiction stories such as The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and (one of the biggest admitted adaptations of the cycle) Star Wars.

Your story obviously doesn't have to follow these rhythms, and it doesn't have to be in those genres, but understanding how many of these stories work can be an important step in understanding different types of ideas about story structure, and how to better structure your own story. If you have any questions, or suggestions for subjects you'd like to know more about, please post on the thread in Mogulville.