Welcome and salutations, good friends! I hope you came prepared to go on a journey. A very long journey. One filled with danger, suspense, thrills, chills, epic epicness of epic levels! It’s the Hero’s Journey! Noted and detailed by Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, the Hero’s Journey, also known as the Monomyth (“borrowed” by Campbell from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake), the Hero’s Journey defines a structure that is often noted to resound through just about every story that exists. So basically, you’ve already been on this journey. You’ve been on it your whole life.
The journey comes in the three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Or as Joe Campbell calls them, the departure, initiation, and the return. Each part has its own parts which structure the story. The thing to remember about the Hero’s Journey is that your story doesn’t have to include all the parts and definitely not in the same order. Mix it up. Pull a Captain Barbossa and assume them guidelines, savvy?
THE DEPARTURE
The depature. It’s not just a section of the airport. It’s a whole third of a story. It starts with The Call to Adventure, a clarion call. Or a letter. Or simply being in the right place at the right time. It is the exposition. It is where we get an idea of the hell about to ensue. Establish your main characters, major issues, and the overall theme of the story. The setting is explained in detail here as well as how fragile the setting and situation is (need an excellent reference? Attack on Titan).
Once you’ve got a good set-up can safely assume that people won’t hate it, screw it all over with the Refusal of the Call. When Odysseus was summoned to the battlefield by the king Menelaus, he went to extremes, feigning lunacy to avoid leaving home. Heroes often say no before someone shoves them into hell. It’s not fun anymore to have a gung-ho hero that always jumps in unless that hero is insanely and stupidly over-confident. But that’s my opinion.
After the deal is made and the consent is given to go on the journey, the hero receives their help. Supernatural Aid, a tool or person that saves asses and forwards plot repeatedly. It’s called that because of the obvious fantasy theme of the steps as defined by good ol’ Joey. The aid can even be a cell phone that is integral to the story. Or a best friend. This is when you lay out your mentors and sidekicks.
Next, the hero begins the Crossing of the Threshold. The threshold is a reason to say no. An obstacle in the initial step of the journey. A discouraging scenario. Either a mother incapable of separating from her child or another “hero” in the way of the underdog. Not too hard to get past. Just keep the hero trucking, Last in the departure is the Belly of the Whale. Appropriately named, it is the feelings in the tummy one gets as they leave the known and venture into the unknown. No turning back now! Let’s go!
THE INITIATION
Face-first into the mud. A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. And even the experienced adventurer screws up in the beginning. The Road of Trials, first step of the area known as the Initiation, marks the unknown. From here on out, it’s unpredictable. This is furthest the hero’s been from home (wink, wink, nudge, nudge to Lord of the Rings fans). The inevitable transformation that eventually takes place starts here. A figurative road of terrors, horrors, and all the creepy things that go bump in the night lies ahead and it’s all for our hero. Why did they ever say yes? Only God (in this case, the author) knows.
But it’s not all bad. Especially since they get to meet a goddess. The Meeting with the Goddess is a wonderful time of love. A possible love interest appears here. A motivation. An assistance. Often a love deep rooted in their expectations and impressions of the world. Their past experiences confirm this love. This is either a really beautiful and life-confirming moment or an epic mistake because sometimes this goddess is actually a temptress. Many stories, nay, many male-oriented stories portray the Woman as Temptress. Passion and desires as a front for raw lust and self-destruction, they seek to use and annihilate the hero. Of course the goddess/temptress can be men. Don’t let the names rule you. Its guidelines! Point is, if the Goddess and Temptress are different, they represent opposing sides in a conflict. The Goddess is all that is good and wonderful and the goal to be achieved often involves the Goddess. The Temptress is the easy route and ends badly. For example, the sorceress Circe in the Odyssey liked turning men into animals. Mostly pigs. If they are the same, the Goddess is totally fake and wants to raise hell for the hero as the Temptress, but has clear and exploitable insecurities. In any case, after leaving the Temptress, beaten and defeated, either with or without a Goddess on their arm, the hero has made self-realizations. They’ve grown. They know not to take the easy way out. But they are not done toiling.
The past catches up. The ultimate power in their life, the authority. This is called the Atonement with the Father. It doesn’t have to be the dad. It doesn’t have to be a dude (hardcore fanatic Christians say otherwise). This is also a good place for a confrontation with the villain. Confusing, I know, but I did say it’s the ultimate power and what in a story has more power than the villain? Also, it’s called atonement and that implies sin. The hero has more to grow out of. Bad habits, arrogance, insecurities, guilt, it’s all used against them here and despite all the help they may get, they die. Not literally at times, but yeah, they die. Inside and/or outside. If we’re talking Supernatural, they literally die repeatedly.
Shifting to the Apotheosis. The limbo. Dead character swirls around in the vast, empty space of their own broken ego. Or Hell. Let’s just say Hell. But yeah, it’s bad. It’s a depressing cesspool of negative emotion. It’s also called the Underworld. For obvious reasons. They realize their mistakes and reform, learning to be wiser and probably more badass. But to build resolve back up is another task. But they rise. Their friends help them up and out of the pit. They are back! Preferably, in black.
The Ultimate Boon is here! The epic climax! The finale! Everything the hero learned and gained is used here to fight and win! They get what they here for! They win! So much wraps up here. Three-quarters of your questions are answered here most of the time. Defeating the villain and obtaining the magic whatever is a difficult task and suspenseful. The best writers use story delaying, giving us the reasons why this is important and the possible end, but repeatedly using the whole of the Initiation as a story-delaying method to make sure we have to wait for it. And we will wait. It’s too damn well done. We want it too badly.
THE RETURN
Now the ending can happen two ways. The hero can stay in the unknown as they have found love and joy and peace and adrenaline in the new world in the Refusal of the Return. Or they can return to a life of peace through an equally difficult process as getting there in the first place in The Magic Flight version. But we can edit out the second journey in post! Media people will get that.
In either case, they need help. In the Rescue from Without, they get help from their friends to establish peace and start a new life as victors of this awesome quest.
As they bring back the peace in either version of the ending, The Crossing of the Return Threshold requires them retaining their knowledge to not make the same mistakes as they live their new life.
Ultimately, with their new knowledge, they become Master of Two Worlds, a being that has learned and grown through strife as a new being. A diamond that now shines with the fire that made it.
And lastly, mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the Freedom to Live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past. And I think that’s a lesson we all need.
Thank you for reading all this and hopefully you enjoyed this journey. Remember to keep going on journeys. You may be Master of Two Worlds, but there is so much more!
Tell Me a Story 