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The Hero's Journey
Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who lived from 1904 - 1987, was also a little bit of a meta-physicist. He believed our unconscious harbors a monomyth, meaning one myth that every culture taps into for the creation of hero stories. That monomyth might also exist at a spiritual level.
Cassandra Clare, a published YA author has her characters frequently (at least once per book) say, "All myths are true." What her characters mean by that is that while not every detail in every myth is true, the origin of each myth is based in factual events. She writes fiction, so her mythological philosophy is more playful than Campbell's, but it reinforces a similar concept about myths. That each holds universal truth.
Let's compare some traits fictional heroes share, to see how true it could be that there is such a things as a monomyth.
 An unusual birth story. This is not always the case, but happens often enough.
No reward without trial. The hero has to go on a journey to achieve something difficult or overcome something stronger than herself.
The hero has to realize a transformation of his consciousness.
Three primary hero types:
Accidental hero follows something, an animal, footprints, or something else that he investigates out of simple curiousity.
A hero who intentionally seeks to complete a certain quest.
A hero is thrown into an adventure and must use her wits to get through.
As the hero either performs a physically heroic task such as saving lives or a spiritual task such as learning something new, his story typically has a three-part sequence: Leaving, doing hero stuff, returning.
Some people take this hero's journey to be a blueprint for writing action/adventure stories. That is not necessarily the case. First and foremost, these markers should be used to analyze action/adventure stories to find what the hero's journey is. As a writer, you can use it as a sort of red thread to write along, but you can also just write your hero stories in whatever way you want.
Campbell's hero's journey is easily recognized in stories from thousands of years ago, like Herakles and modern stories like Harry Potter. But then you meet Henry Jones (Indiana Jones) and he doesn't have a fancy birth story. See? You can do whatever you want. Just make it fun to read.
Do you believe in the monomyth?
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Replies to my last Action/Adventure newsletter "Coming or Going" .
Do you prefer it when your main character comes to town, or when he goes on a journey?
jolanh  wrote: The great thing about Silverbolt, I prefer him to be anywhere punching things and looking awesome. Nailed it.
bryanmchunter wrote: Sometimes both can work if the story is done well.
s wrote: I prefer it when the adventure comes to the main character. He's doing his thing, being all main character-y, and then something comes along to disrupt everything.
Otherwise, hero's quest is of course tried and true.
Coming to town is more a Western cliche. Can also work in a fantasy setting.
John & James Wegner wrote: We like both. In our novel, our main characters go on a journey to a town. The most important thing though is if the story is done well. Good post. \m/ Forge on! \m/.
Paul  wrote: I can’t see that it matters, in either case they are playing on the opposing teams home turf. If he’s Coming to town the point of view needs to not be his, if he’s traveling then the POV should be his.
It’s the “Bring and Take” problem, it’s all about where you are in relation to what you’re dealing with, you can’t take yourself here and you can’t bring yourself there.
keyisfake wrote: journey, yes journey.
elephantsealer wrote: My main character going to town or going on a journey are two separate thoughts of writing. Going to town gives a character more drama because in town she/he may encounter someone who may bring past events that either gave her/him happy memories or heart breaking events that she/he does not want to remember.
Going on a journey makes a character learn many things that are helpful to her/him as she/he visits places that are new and interesting to write about or enjoy. The drama in going on a journey seems a happier time to a character, more of a learning experience rather than a past one that is either hurtful or uneventful.
Lynn Nichole wrote: I prefer neither one over the other. The biggest problem that I see in the storytelling world is the issue of existential crisis versus personal journey. There are too many stories that have enormous potential on both fronts, but lose that potential because we become preoccupied with saving the world and everyone in it (or surviving the world because everyone else is dead). The personal side of the story gets lost amid the fervor to be the big hero and save the day so that everyone else can go on living in peaceful monotony. There's very little sense of interconnectedness, of individuality within a collective society, because the only thing that matters is whether this one person (or this one specific group of people) can save the world from its own cataclysmic demise.
I like Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief series because it's not about an existential crisis that threatens all of humanity; it's about specific people who are players on the chessboard of political maneuvering. They're not trying to save the world or change the way it works; they're people who are just trying to fulfill their duties and perhaps even achieve something of their own desires along the way. I get to see people interacting with people in very human ways.
As for the stories that do revolve around an existential crisis, there are a few that I find meaningful, but only because they find a balance between the external crisis and the internal/interpersonal ones within. Square Enix's Final Fantasy: XIII is one such story. The existential crisis I think actually suffered because of the overwhelming interpersonal struggles that drove the characters' individual journeys. And Jess E. Owen did a wonderful job with her The Summer King Chronicles series, where the personal stories and interpersonal relationships both drove the plot forward and enriched the larger existential crisis that was revealed. And that personal side of the story was not lost amid the pursuit of unity and salvation; it was part of it.
Anna Marie Carlson wrote: I like it when there's a journey involved, but get excited when he/she comes back to town. It's time to go along on a journey wherever it may lead, but no matter it was a good one or not, it's always nice to come back home.
tj ~ endeavors to persevere!  wrote: I prefer that my main character stay in the story. If he or she leaves the story and goes into town or on a journey, I'd be inclined to think Stephen King put me into one of his stories.
Paul wrote: It’s all determined by who’s talking and where the other person or thing is located. It’s the Bring and Take problem. I lived in New Jersey for a couple of years, Tom’s River actually while working on a contract at NAEC (Navel Air Engineering Center), Lakehurst. I drove over the area where the Hindenburg crashed every day going to work.
A friend would frequently ask me, “Hey, Paul, could you bring me home?” My answer was always, “No, Sal, I can’t, we’re here.” After a couple times Sal would act embarrassed and admit he’d screwed it up, but he never changed. I noticed that pattern a lot from others I worked with and others I just knew as friends. My wife’s doctor had the same problem; they never understood that it was all about Position.
I actually went through the same problem with several of my kids and grand kids too.
Monty  wrote: You have awakened room for thought. |
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Action/Adventure: March 31, 2021 Issue [#10675]
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