Imagine this.
A youth who lives a carefree life is suddenly thrust into a situation where they must leave behind everything they know to embark on a journey full of uncertainties and dangers to accomplish a specific task. Along the way, they meet companions and other unusual characters who either aid them or try to stand in their way. The events that unravel during this journey all lead up to one ultimate decision, one ultimate goal to make what had ultimately gone wrong right again. The youth succeeds, becoming a hero in the process, and they are rewarded with the opportunity to return home or begin a whole new life. Yet even with their newfound success, even though their journey has ended, the hero has grown and learned much, having been forever changed by their experience.
Sounds familiar, right? This will surely bring to mind many popular stories portrayed in books and movies. That is because this is a common story arc that has been used time and time again, yet remains as well-received as ever, called the Hero’s Journey, or the monomyth. Beginning as early as mythological stories written by ancient Egyptians and Greeks to modern-day franchises, the Hero’s Journey follows three rites of passage:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder (separation). Fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won (initiation). The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man (return).”1
These three rites of passage – separation, initiation, and return – are broken down into twelve smaller steps:
Separation
- The ordinary world
- Call of adventure
- Reluctant to the call
- Meeting the mentor
- Leaving into the Unknown
Initiation
- Tests, allies, and enemies
- The approach
- The ordeal
- The reward
Return
- The journey back
- The resurrection
- Returning with the elixir
Perhaps the two most well-known uses of the Hero’s Journey in today’s media can be found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series and George Lucas’s Star Wars. When one follows Frodo Baggins’s and Luke Skywalker’s journeys by following the aforementioned steps, each story travels along the same basic path. While it is relatively common to find this arc in genres such as fantasy and science fiction, any genre can benefit from a hero’s journey. Other examples include Disney’s The Lion King (children/Shakespearean), Homer’s The Odyssey (mythology), L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (classic/family), Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games series (dystopian), and so many more.
For those longing to write a story about their own unwritten heroes, a hero’s journey may seem like a large undertaking since the hero must endure much to reach his or her ultimate conclusion. Yet by structuring one’s story following the main steps of the outlined Hero’s Journey, a new hero’s adventure will rise to entertain and inspire the masses.
Learn more about writing strong protagonists.
Further reading
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (in-depth/scholar-level)
Christopher Vogler’s “A Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces” (reference)
Notes
1. Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Third Edition (Novato, California: New World Library, 2008), 23.
