“Hey Mr. Bilbo! Where are you off to?”

“Can’t stop, I’m already late!”

“Late for what?”

“I’m going on an adventure!”

— The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey

Any and all Hobbit fans are tickled and delighted when we watch Bilbo Baggins run through The Shire and giddily shout that he’s going on an adventure, because we all know an adventure in a fictional realm like Middle Earth is going to be worth the watch or the read. A simple line like that or; “Yer a wizard, Harry.” makes you want to turn the page and find out what more there is to those charismatic lines. As we turn those pages we follow the hero of the story through trial and error, love and loss, mistakes made and lessons learned. Each story may be unique to the hero you’ve chosen to follow, but they all have one thing in common. American writer Joseph Campbell called this “The Heroes Journey”.

The theory of this common pattern in story telling was developed by anthropologist Edward Taylor in 1871. Scholars like Otto Rank, Lord Raglan and Carl Jung since added to the theory with their own observations of studying myths. Campbell was the one to write the book “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” in 1949.

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”— Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With A Thousand Faces. 1949.

In Campbell’s theory, there are as many as seventeen stages in a monomyth, but not all stages occur in every single story. Some writers focus on only one or a select few, depending on how far there imagination takes them.

Although this seems like a formula authors must follow to write a good story, it is not. The continuing pattern tends to happen on a more accidental circumstance and the heroes journey can be organized in different ways, especially not in any particular order.

One way is dividing the plot into three acts. All stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. So you typically start with the “Departure”. When the tornado rips up Dorothy’s house and sweeps her away from Kansas to Oz or when Alice falls down the rabbit hole from the English countryside to Wonderland are both perfect examples. Second is “Initiation”, which usually contains a road of trials. Commonly the hero faces three obstacles to complete his or her journey, but again that is only a suggestion. Remember, Hercules had twelve labors. And lastly, the third and final act is “The Return”. Overall, conquering the evils of the story and winning the day. Let’s go through Campbell’s steps, shall we?

Departure

The Call to Adventure

This step is pretty self-explanatory to anyone who has seen or read an adventure story. The call to adventure is that knock on your door by company you didn’t expect, your letter to Hogwarts or the difficult choice of keeping your mouth shut or volunteering as tribute to spare your younger sibling. It can happen in any form at any time, but it is the action that gives the hero motivation to start their quest.

The setting always begins in a very mundane and ordinary world or at least whatever is ordinary to the hero. Living in a castle under the sea may be fantastical to us, but to the little mermaid it’s normal everyday life and our world, the human world, is strange and otherworldly. From that world, the hero is taken or chooses to leave and embarks on a journey into the unknown. Without the call to adventure, whether if it’s the heroes choice to leave and get into trouble or they get taken away against their will, we wouldn’t have a story.

Refusal of the Call

Sometimes, our hero is not so keen on going out into the world and asking for what they don’t want so-to-speak. “It’s a dangerous business, walking out one’s front door.” — Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit. Come on, let’s face it, given the opportunity to slay Smaug the Terrible and steal the Arken Stone from him, would you risk your life against a fire-breathing dragon? I love dragons (especially Smaug), but I know better than to go into a dragon’s den and wake the beast. Even in fiction we have to be a little realistic. Of course most heroes are going to be unwilling to give up the happy, quiet life they have.

Refusal of the call can also be in the form of someone or something preventing the hero from embarking on the journey. The Dursley’s went so far as to camp out on this remote island in the middle of nowhere, hoping the wizarding world would never find Harry and he would never become the great wizard we all know him to be. Be honest Potter fans, who wouldn’t want to go to Hogwarts and learn magic?

It is shortly after the refusal of the call that something happens that either puts the heroes home, family or the hero themselves in danger . . . or all of the above. When your whole world is crumbling around you, something has to be done. The hero can’t refuse anymore and the crossing of the threshold begins. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

Supernatural Aid

First we must rally the troops. The hero is going to need help, no matter how special or powerful they are. This is where the sidekicks usually come in.



The new friend that acts as the hero’s conscience, the voice of reason, the glue that holds the hero together when he or she is falling apart. Most importantly, these characters remind the hero of something important, whether it’s “some people are worth melting for” or “just keep swimming”, sidekicks are surprisingly wise.

Now that we have our trusty and lovable friends we can actually cross the threshold into adventure.



Crossing the Threshold

Cue Bilbo Baggins again! “I’m going on an adventure!” as he leaves his Hobbit-hole, quite literally crossing the threshold of his home and running after the dwarves. This is another one that is pretty self-explanatory and as i’ve built up in the previous steps, you get the idea. Time to grab what you can, get out and save the world!



Belly of the Whale

As Campbell explains, “The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown and would appear to have died.” This stage is the metamorphosis of the main character. A rebirth if you will.

The hero is meant to be a dynamic character. Adventure tales typically have morals and its creators are trying to teach readers a valuable lesson. In order to convey such messages, the hero must change. Princess Tiana was once a workaholic with no sense of what was really important in life. Yes, it’s good to be a hard worker, but it’s bad to get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life.



Initiation

The Road of Trials

Here is the meat and potatoes of the heroes journey! The trials! As I said before, there are typically three trials a hero must face in order to complete his or her journey, but they are not limited to only three. The twelve labors of Hercules.

These trials can be anything! They can be a test of strength or power, they can be a series of a battle of wits, they can be trials of the heart. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone is a perfect example. When Harry and his friends go looking for the stone, trying to stop whoever is trying to steal it, they split their strengths as they make their way through magic security.

Hermione uses her knowledge to help them escape the Devil’s-Snare, by remembering from herbology class that Devil’s-Snare hates sunlight and produces light from her wand to release them from the deadly plant. Harry uses his Quidditch skills to capture the correct flying key to unlock the door. If you didn’t understand that sentence, you’re either too young or too old or you’re on the wrong blog. Ron uses his exceptional chess skills to help them cross the chessboard guarding the door to the room where the stone is hidden. Ultimately, he helps Harry reach the goal of their small quest.

Now consider your favorite story, franchise, book series, whatever has a story to follow and think of all the shenanigans the hero has to go through to reach their goal. That is the road of trials. It’s the learning process of the main character before they complete their metamorphosis.



Meeting with the Goddess

The Goddess is the ultimate prize of the hero. It can be his or her intended love-interest, but it doesn’t have to be. Take Disney’s “Moana” for example. She doesn’t have a love-interest. Her love is for the sea and to have the freedom to explore it. After her quest is accomplished and she more or less saves the world from dying, her father finally grants her the freedom she’s always desired and we see her teaching him how to sail and voyage just before the credits start to roll.

Everyone loves a good love story and every story is a love story, but remember guys; NOT ALL LOVE IS ABOUT BEING FOR ANOTHER PERSON! We are finally coming into an age where we realize that marriage is not everyone’s happily-ever-after and those people deserve to have fairy tales too.



The Temptress

This is more of an archetype than a step, which I will discuss archetypes in a separate post. Overall, this could be categorized under the Road of Trials because the Temptress is the embodiment of “temptation” for the hero. It’s meant to lure him or her away from their path. The big bad wolf of “Little Red Riding Hood” is an example of The Temptress, as silly as that sounds. Again, The Temptress doesn’t have to be a woman (or a man) that’s just the title. The big bad wolf uses charm and persuasion to convince Red to stray from her intended path and right into the hands of danger. A good hero will be terribly tempted, but their willpower should always overcome the temptation.



Atonement With the Father



Ah! The most famous scene in all of “Star Wars”. Note that if you ever take a class on the heroes journey, “Star Wars” is the first thing the teacher will talk about. Why? Because George Lucas had Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” open while he was writing the franchise. He may have followed it step for step for step.

This is the climax of the story. You’re in the middle of the chaos now. At this point the hero is facing an entity or thing with the power of life and death. It’s the most important confrontation in the plot because it is the moment when the hero will determine the fate of the world.

The hero is not only here to defeat the villain or the great oppression that is condemning everyone and everything. The hero is here to find out the truth of this enemy’s motives. He or she makes themselves vulnerable to the horror and tragedy of the antagonist and ultimately comes to understand the validations for such evil.



Apotheosis

This step is simply just the ending of atonement with the father. Now the hero is armed with knowledge they didn’t have before and is prepared for the most difficult part of the quest. This step is a bridge-crossing to the next step.



The Ultimate Boon

Success! Congratulations! You’ve made it through the heroes journey! You’ve accomplished the goal you intended to achieve at the beginning of your quest! Yes, the ultimate boon is the achievement of the journey. My little Arthurian knights, you have found the holy grail.



Return



Refusal of the Return

But wait there’s more! Don’t go just yet. There’s still just a little bit more to the story. After all, you’ve got to tie up some loose ends right? It starts with the refusal of the return.

If you discovered a place like Oz or Hogwarts, would you want to leave? No! Of course not! So why should the hero want to leave? Especially after they may or may not have met a few new friends along the way that they might not want to let go of. And maybe they find they truly belong in the world that they just excavated.

Just before boarding the Hogwarts Express, Harry turns and looks up at the castle and says, “I’m not going home. Not really.”



The Magic Flight

This may happen before or during the Refusal of the Return. Once the hero has won their prize there’s a possibility they’re going to have to escape the place it’s been kept and guarded.

Remember when Shrek forgot to slay the dragon? Yeah, this is that kind of mess. The way it collaborates with the Refusal of the Return is that it can also act as a force upon the hero to make them leave the world they don’t want to leave.



Rescue from Without

This step is the Hogwarts express, coming from the outside world, basically beckoning Harry saying, “come on, it’s time to go back to reality, until you’re needed here again.” Whether the hero wants to leave the magical world or not and whether the hero has trouble escaping the guards or not, in either situation they will need help and the only help they can get now is from the outside.



The Crossing of the Return

Threshold

The same threshold the hero crossed to begin their adventure is the one they will cross when they return from it. The hero must maintain the knowledge and change they earned on their journey after this threshold is crossed and they settle back into their mundane world.



Master of Two Worlds

Characters like Harry Potter and the Pevensies from “The Chronicles of Narnia” have the opportunity to live two different lives. One in the supernatural world and one in the normal world. Comic book superheroes often conclude their origin stories with this step.



Freedom to Live

At last, the “happily ever after” page. The final step of the heroes journey. After having mastered all the trials, and in some cases facing death itself, the hero is forever changed. This grants them the freedom to live. Hence the “living” happily ever after part.

This all may seem like some formula for writing books, but it’s not. These aren’t rules to follow when writing fiction. This is all just an observation of the ritual of storytelling. So remember you don’t have to write your story in this particular order. It can be written in any order that you choose and you don’t have to use every single step. Some of these steps may not be necessary for your story. And more likely than not you subconsciously have these steps already written into your plot.

Now you know where it all comes from! Keep reading writing or doing both and have fun with it!