All the most wonderful and inspiring stories that you have ever read follow the essential mythological outline of the Hero's Journey. If you look closely at some of the most popular and satisfying novels and movies, you can see for yourself that this is true. This structure deeply resonates for all of us as humans because it reflects the inner process we all go through in our lives as we strive to be true to ourselves and create a life that is satisfying and fulfilling.
What follows are the ten essential steps of the Hero's Journey. If you use them as a starting place to outline your own novel, you will discover that they help you create an storyline that deeply reflects the compelling, core themes of facing the greatest challenges in life and finding new strength and wisdom as a result.
The Hero's Journey In Ten Simple Steps
1. Reveal The Ordinary World of Your Character. Introduce your main character, the hero of your novel, and show us what his life is like at the beginning of your story.
2. You Character Faces a Challenge. Something happens that forces the hero to make a decision that will change his life.
3. Initial Rejection of the Call To Action. Your character does not want to make this change to begin with. It will entail a lot of effort as well as some kind of risk and he does not want to do it.
4. You Character Decides To Change. Often motivated by some key outside event, your character decides to make the change that will potentially improve his life.
5. Meeting Mentors and Helpers. As your character moves forward in your novel, he meets various people who can help and guide him along the way.
6. Your Character Learns the Skills and Perspective Needed To Succeed at His Goal. Your character proceeds to gather information and improve his skills so he will be prepared to face the challenges that he will soon encounter. We see that the stakes are getting higher as we go along.
7. Your Character Fails In His First Confrontation With the Antagonist. Your characters first attempt to overcome his fears and achieve his goal fail because he is not yet strong enough to succeed.
8. The Dark Night of the Soul. Your character experiences self-doubt and fears that he will never succeed. He is on the verge of giving up.
9. The Leap of Faith. Your character experiences a renewed inner commitment to his goal based on an inner faith that he can be, do, or have whatever he really wants.
10. Final Climactic Confrontation and Ultimate Success. Your character faces his biggest challenge and puts everything into achieving what he wants. With this final powerful effort, he finally succeeds and get what he has wanted for so long.
When you apply the structure of the Hero's Journey to your novel, the process of writing becomes much easier and more inspiring. It helps you to see where your main character needs to go and what he needs to face in order to make the story truly powerful and meaningful for you as the writer and for your readers as well. When you feel stuck and you are not sure where to go next with your writing, the structure of the Hero's Journey will always show you the next step. - 16890
What follows are the ten essential steps of the Hero's Journey. If you use them as a starting place to outline your own novel, you will discover that they help you create an storyline that deeply reflects the compelling, core themes of facing the greatest challenges in life and finding new strength and wisdom as a result.
The Hero's Journey In Ten Simple Steps
1. Reveal The Ordinary World of Your Character. Introduce your main character, the hero of your novel, and show us what his life is like at the beginning of your story.
2. You Character Faces a Challenge. Something happens that forces the hero to make a decision that will change his life.
3. Initial Rejection of the Call To Action. Your character does not want to make this change to begin with. It will entail a lot of effort as well as some kind of risk and he does not want to do it.
4. You Character Decides To Change. Often motivated by some key outside event, your character decides to make the change that will potentially improve his life.
5. Meeting Mentors and Helpers. As your character moves forward in your novel, he meets various people who can help and guide him along the way.
6. Your Character Learns the Skills and Perspective Needed To Succeed at His Goal. Your character proceeds to gather information and improve his skills so he will be prepared to face the challenges that he will soon encounter. We see that the stakes are getting higher as we go along.
7. Your Character Fails In His First Confrontation With the Antagonist. Your characters first attempt to overcome his fears and achieve his goal fail because he is not yet strong enough to succeed.
8. The Dark Night of the Soul. Your character experiences self-doubt and fears that he will never succeed. He is on the verge of giving up.
9. The Leap of Faith. Your character experiences a renewed inner commitment to his goal based on an inner faith that he can be, do, or have whatever he really wants.
10. Final Climactic Confrontation and Ultimate Success. Your character faces his biggest challenge and puts everything into achieving what he wants. With this final powerful effort, he finally succeeds and get what he has wanted for so long.
When you apply the structure of the Hero's Journey to your novel, the process of writing becomes much easier and more inspiring. It helps you to see where your main character needs to go and what he needs to face in order to make the story truly powerful and meaningful for you as the writer and for your readers as well. When you feel stuck and you are not sure where to go next with your writing, the structure of the Hero's Journey will always show you the next step. - 16890
About the Author:
Elizabeth J. Maison writes for WritersSolutions.com, a helpful website for novelists. At that site, you can read a nice NewNovelist review, a special novel writing software program that will help you incorporate the Hero's Journey into your novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment