The Hero's Journey

A metaphor for life or a story structure?

Simply put, a hero’s journey is a story structure in which a hero embarks on an adventure, overcomes obstacles, and is transformed by the experience.

Joseph Campbell popularized the patterned structure, and today many see the hero’s journey as a universal narrative structure.

For those attempting to write a simple yet compelling novel, especially if you are trying to complete it during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month this November), the Hero’s Journey is a good beginning. Not wanting any added stress in my life, I did not sign up for NaNoWriMo, but I have used November as a catalyst to focus on generating words every day of this month.

This has led me to think about the hero’s journey while I add to the 20,000 words I’ve accumulated toward my second novel, a story with a single protagonist. I originally created seven major plot points to aim for while writing. While not an outline, I thought this would help keep me from overwriting. However, at about 8,000 words, I had already missed the first plot point by a mile and was spinning off in an entirely different direction. Writing without an outline is called “pantsing,” and although not my intent, I was pantsing up until 20,000 words. My hope is that I can drape my 20,000 beginning over the hero’s journey structure, maybe spray it with some water, tug it back into shape, and when I add the remaining 65,000 words, it will take shape into a logical and compelling plot.

At the inciting incident, my hero is an 18-year old man set loose in western Pennsylvania in the early 70s. He is about to face all the hurdles of a young life, compounded by a lack of life experience, emotional support, and money. 

In Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he details all the stages of the journey. He enumerates 17, not all of which must be included. He organizes them into three divisions, or acts: The departure (or separation), the initiation, and the return. Loosely speaking, this echoes what I think of as a beginning, middle, and end. In addition to my own partially-written story, I will use The Hobbit to illustrate excellent examples of the divisions of The Hero's Journey.

In the departure, the hero leaves her ordinary world to embark on her adventure. There are many ways and reasons one leaves their everyday existence to embark on an adventure. It can be voluntary or involuntary. She may not be seeking adventure at all. The journey can be desired or unwanted. However it happens (the inciting incident,) the hero sets forth. Bilbo Baggins' ordinary life in the shire is interrupted by a chaotic visit from the dwarfs and then the wizard who invites and coerces Baggins to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug. He is a perfect example of a reluctant hero, one who does not seek adventure.

During the initiation (a term that sounds awfully sci-fi/fantasy to my ear) she faces obstacles either head on or with the help of others, and will face the central crisis of her story. More than likely, the hero is in an entirely different place when confronted with these obstacles. In the novel I’m writing, the hero’s early life happens before the inciting incident, at a strictly-disciplined boarding school. When he comes of legal age he must leave the routine of that stifling environment and attempt to survive on his own. His new world looks very ordinary—just a small town in 1974 Pennsylvania. It is neither magical nor obviously perilous. It’s populated with townspeople, coworkers, bureaucrats and potential friends or rivals. But despite appearances, his new world is vastly different from that of his former life, and it is rife with obstacles. Thinking again about the Hobbit, the central crisis is an internal one, for Bilbo Baggins misses his comfortable home but gradually begins to enjoy the discovery and adventure. Along the way, during the initiation, he faces Gollum, the spiders, the goblins, the dragon, and more.  

When a hero returns, she must return to her ordinary world, the one she left, now with whatever knowledge or reward she has gleaned from her adventure. She may be hunted or chased, she may be unwilling or eager to return. An outside force might drive her back. But the circle must be completed in The Hero's Journey.

Rereading about the cycle every hero must traverse has been a good reminder of my goal: to bring my protagonist back to where he started instead of letting following each intriguing thread whereever it leads.

Bilbo Baggins does return home. He is rewarded with the ring of Sauron and a fortune, the latter he gives away, showing that he has learned from his adventure to not be greedy, to stay true to himself, and to enjoy the magic along the way.

It's worth remembering that we are the heroes in our own stories. We begin in one place, embark on journeys that cycle us through experiences, and return again to the starting point, richer in some way. Think about the journey you are currently on. What inciting incident launched you on the adventure? What happened in your departure, your initiation, your return? You can ponder this for all of your life's journeys. If you need something to journal about, consider your present adventure, your present obstacles, your present movement forward. Will you learn to appreciate the magic of the journey? Are you on the NaNoWriMo journey? If so, stop reading this and get back to writing but please like it before you go.