The Dart Maker Blog

Beyond three and four act story structure, lies the Hero’s Journey.

The Hero’s Journey is the most usable story structure consisting of at least 106 stages and the template for successful contemporary stories, from Star Wars to Al Pacino Scarface to The Incredibles to War of the Worlds to The Dirty Dozen to Midnight Cowboy.
The Hero’s Journey is a valuable template because:

a) It attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) It gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Interpreted metaphorically and symbolically, it allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.

One (usually critical) stage of the journey is the Woman as Temptress.

There are two simultaneous manifestations - the physical and the spiritual. Using the word “spiritual” can be dangerous as it is interpreted in many ways, but it must be remembered that the Hero’s Journey is primarily about the Hero’s path to another (not necessarily higher) level of consciousness.

Further, though the Goddess is usually manifested as a physical female, this is not necessarily so. The Goddess and the physical female form is symbolic in many ways: of the entity that is the opposite of the Hero; the entity that completes the Hero; the Yan to the Hero’s Yin; the entity or higher cause that causes the Hero to think outside himself; the entity that causes the Hero to not think of himself; the entity for which the Hero is prepared to sacrifice himself; the entity that triggers the Hero’s change of attitude; the reward at the end of the journey; the recognition of sexuality in the equation; the entity the Hero is most afraid of; the entity the Hero is most in awe of; the state that the Hero could never have hoped to attain and so on.

The physical manifestation of the Goddess leads the Hero astray. This is often represented buy the Hero following the Goddess down a path he is unsure of. The path leads downward and into the dark and results in the Hero losing his way, battling a Serpent, undergoing a near death experience and being reborn through some form of baptism.

The spiritual manifestation is this: as this is close to the end of the journey, there is a moment when Hero is suddenly unsure whether he wishes to complete the transition. Thus he is easily led astray and to danger.

One reason for this reluctance is that this is again a Threshold from which there is no going back. Up to now there has been minor change and many a trial but no transition. Beyond this point there is atonement with the father and apotheosis. Beyond this point the Hero becomes another person - the father - he is leaving his childhood behind and a previous state of being. There is loss in that.

Another reason for reluctance is temptation to explore the “dark side,” in all its forms. It is not unusual for the antagonist to tempt the Hero to his side and the Hero to think about it or, at least temporarily, be led astray.

Spiritually, having been led astray, the Hero realises, through trials, that it is the wrong road - that he must revert to his True Calling. Just as in an earlier stage there was punishment for the Refusal, here there is punishment for “not fulfilling his destiny.”

There is much more…

The 106 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/CreativeWriting.html

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Kal Bishop, MBA

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You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

In conversation and in literature, point of view, POV, means the way the speaker, writer, or reader look at things. In literature, POV means the vantage point or position from which a writer tells a story. POV determines how much information is given to readers by the writer. Someone has to tell a story, and that someone is called the narrator.

When we discuss point of view, we look at three possible positions, four if the two forms of third person are considered separately: first person, second person, and two forms of third person.

First person has the narrator as a character in the story. The narrator is able to tell only what he or she sees, hears, knows, and thinks. Any information about happenings out of the narrator’s hearing or sight must be revealed to him by someone or something else. A first-person narrator does not know the thoughts of other characters. The narrator can be a main character or a minor character and uses pronouns such as I, me, mine, my, we (if the narrator and one or more other characters are involved), us, our, and ours.

Example of first person point of view:
Margaret spun toward me, a sneer twisting her face. “Leave me alone; just leave me alone.”

Shocked and startled, I stammered, “Ma … Margaret, I … I … don’t understand.”

Second person involves the reader. The pronouns you, yours, your are used other than in dialogue. This POV is best used in written instructions or directions. All expert sources advise writers not to use second person for essays (unless instructional), stories, or novels, because the reader is not part of the plot, action, dialogue. Writing as if the reader or readers were creates a distraction in the flow of what’s written.

Example of second person point of view:
When you reach the interstate, turn north and travel six miles to the Nowater Road exit. Take Nowater Road three miles east to Funshine Drive.

Note that sometimes “you” is the understood subject rather than written in the sentence. Using an understood “you” makes the POV second person, too.

Third person has two forms: limited and omniscient. The narrator is not a part of the story or essay, only an observer, in both forms. The pronouns used, unless in dialogue, include he, him, she, her, it, they, them.

Third person limited allows the narrator to see, hear, and know anything that one character does, including that character’s thoughts and feelings.

Example of third-person limited
Jackson watched the slaughter of animals in disgust. He couldn’t believe that others could be so cruel and ruthless. “I wonder how they can sleep at night?” he muttered to himself.

Third person omniscient gives the narrator access to the actions, words, thoughts and feelings of all the characters in the writing. The narrator sees all, hears all, and knows all.

Example of third-person omniscient:
Jackson stumbled up the incline to his car, not knowing that hostile eyes followed his every movement. Royce stared after the other man. What is he doing sneaking around here? he silently asked himself. He decided to follow his former friend.

As Jackson climbed into his car, he caught sight of his reflection in the rearview mirror. “I look as if I’ve been crawling through the wilderness.” He ran his fingers through his hair to remove some of the twigs and grass.

Some writers change from one POV to another, perhaps switching from chapter to chapter from first person to third person. If done well, that practice is an effective tool, but it is one difficult to do correctly. The most consistent method is to write in one point of view throughout the story/book/essay. The writer has less chance of confusing the reader.

Sources:
1. Notes and lesson plans from Vivian Zabel
2. Elements of Writing Third Course, Holt Rinehart Winston
3 Writer’s Companion High School, Prentice Hall

Vivian Gilbert Zabel taught English and composition for twenty-five years, honing her skills as she studied and taught. An author on http://www.Writing.Com/, a site for Writers, with portfolio http://www.Writing.Com/authors/vzabel, her books, Hidden Lies and Other Stories and Walking the Earth: Life’s Perspectives in Poetry, can be found through Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.