How to Always Succeed at Writing - The Importance of the Hero's Journey & Archetypes
Alright, this essay will be the start of something. Well not really, ‘cause we were already writing a series of essays on the nature of Archetypes. In the past few weeks they’ve come to be a much talked about part of this Substack, as they seem to be an important part of writing.
One thing that’s interesting to note is that there are those who’ve never read about them, or heard of the Hero’s Journey. What’s more is that a great many have heard about Campbell & Jung’s ideas and works yet take on a negative stance (for reasons that escape me). I’ve met many a amateur writers who detest the pair and others who continued their teachings, and claim that they were ‘wrong’, ‘arrogant’, or that somehow Archetypes and the Hero’s Journey is everything ‘wrong’ with writing and with Hollywood.
Not knowing that Hollywood has long deviated from the ideas of what shall henceforth be called the ‘School of Jung’. As Jung was the first to really open the way to the study of Archetypes, Adventure Cycles and other such ideas, therefore it by right should be termed such.
What is also interesting is the amount of rage that it stirs up. Something that is strange and laughable even, as the ‘haters’ of this line of thought seem to think that the pair were somehow seeking to ‘disbar’ or otherwise ‘banish’ alternative cycles and ideas. When truth is the idea of Comparative Literature is that ALL stories fall under the Hero’s Journey.
A girl goes to bring a picnic basket to granny. Hero’s Journey. Ted Mosby wishes to find love. Hero’s Journey. Christine has lost her husband and seeks to find closure. Hero’s Journey.
Riding Hood, Archetype? Damsel or rather the ‘Daughter’ Archetype. Ted; the Lover or ‘Prince Charming’ as I sometimes call the male variant as the Damsel is very often the ‘Female Archetype’ who falls in love.
The Battle-Maiden? That’s any female warrior or fighter in a story. Just as there are those such say Christine the theoretical woman seeking closure, she can be a Damsel, Lover, Priestess or Queen Archetype.
All fiction falls under this, so-called ‘Literary’ Fiction (which is usually just cheap drama not good enough to be categorized elsewhere), Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror, Historic, etc… all follow the Hero’s Journey.
The thing is every character fits into the role of an Archetype. You can’t escape it. Just as you can’t escape the Hero’s Journey.
And you wanna know what else? There’s no point in ‘trying to escape it’. So this begs the question; what is the Hero’s Journey?
Well, sit back, crack open a Jack Daniels or if you’re slightly more civilized, a Tim Hortons’ Coffee or French coffee or Japanese mocha, and pay heed to the wisdom Campbell had to offer us.
The first step of the Hero’s Journey is; The Call to Adventure. This involved the Hero (or Heroine as the term ‘Hero’ here is in the asexual sense) receiving a summons to undertake a great Quest.
This could be Bilbo being recruited to join Thorin’s Company. It could be Tom Builder’s call to build a Cathedral, Ted Mosby receiving the phone call from Lily & Marshall about their Engagement (and realizing he wants to get married too), it could be Judd Altman in ‘This is Where I Leave You’ getting the call that his dad has died.
It could be anything, and it cuts across ALL genres, ALL Fiction, ALL stories and ALL mediums.
There is sometimes a Second stage in the adventure; the ‘Refusal’) The Refusal of the Call involves the Hero refusing to rise to the Challenge.
Bowen refuses to overthrow Einon in Dragonheart, Macbethad refuses to take the throne initially in Nigel Tranter’s Macbeth the King, and you have Hercules refusing to help Demeter in Legendary Journeys to retrieve her daughter Persephone.
Meeting the Mentor
The hero must meet a mentor or teacher who will help guide them in the adventure, a kind of spiritual guide who seeks to help them. This could be Merlin who is the surrogate father and teacher to Arthur, this could be Shakespeare in Cue for Treason, or Dido’s uncle in Dido Belle, or to an extent J’onn J’ones from Justice League with the rest of the League.
There’s also say Gregory House to his staff, he’s technically their mentor just as to an extent Wilson is his Mentor.
In the Romantic Slice of Life ‘literary’ Itazura Na Kissu series, Kotoko’s father and also her love interest’s mother serve as her mentors.
Crossing the Threshold
This involves the Hero crossing into the Unknown. Luke enters the Bar in Mos Eisley. Ted walks up to Robin and asks her out, Tom Builder enters the locality of Kingsbridge, Buck steps off the air-field and into the Arctic north to take a bite at the man with the Club in Call of the Wild.
This is a final crossing from the ordinary world and into that of the unknown. All stories have it.
Tests, Allies & Adversaries
The hero must navigate tests such as those which Watson must overcome in the various mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, figure out who is innocent and to be trusted and who is the culprit.
Goku must prove himself worthy to be trained by Master Roshi, in order to learn the ‘Turtle School’ of Martial Arts, must befriend Launch & Krillin, and becomes familiar after the Tournament with the Red Ribbon Army and must defeat them.
This is where the ‘First Act’ takes place, where the Hero lurches into the middle of things, discovering just what he’s in for. Rocky Balboa for example in the context of the series has for a Call the invitation to the match against Apollo Creed, and his first ally in all this is Micky and he must also make allies of Paulie and Adrienne and figure out how to defeat Apollo and more importantly the demon of depression that exists within his own heart. The Test for Rocky is the training montage.
Usually at this point there is also the ‘Meeting with the Goddess’ Campbell notes this as something very important in the Hero’s Cycle. Basically the Goddess represents Femininity.
The Goddess in Star Wars was arguably Leia, in TMNT it was April O’Neil, in the Garfield movie it was Liz the Vet.
Inversely female character have a meeting with the ‘God’ that is to say the representative of Masculinity. And it is this emblem of Maleness they seek thereafter in order to find Balance (more on this later).
The Descent into the Cave
Now as you might all have noticed the Training Montage for Rocky comes after he descends into a dark place and squabbles with Micky, the truth is any of these steps can come before one another or after another. Every character’s journey is arguably slightly different even as they have ALL the same kind of ‘straight line’ so to speak (this is a metaphor, I know the road and story is meant to zig-zag).
The Descent into the Cave is a metaphorical descent into inner darkness, where the character fails and must confront his innermost demons and doubts.
Hercules must confront his inability to save Iolaus, and make peace with him before he can go save Mabon in Legendary Journeys. Ted must have one last rebound to Jeannette before he can decide once and for all to commit to going to Barney’s wedding. Andy Dufresne must go down into Solitary for two months before he could break loose from Shawshank that fateful night.
The Ordeal
The Climax of the Story. The Character usually must face something like a great enemy or overcome a great inner flaw. Basically Luke must defeat Vader, Ashitaka must confront the monk who stole the head of the Spirit of the Forest, Prince Philippe must defeat Maleficent to save Aurora, Will Hunting must overcome his own insecurities and trauma inflicted on him by his family abandoning him and his foster-dad’s abuse.
Climax of the story people, nothing more.
Reward
This is the moment of Realization, wherein the lead realizes some profound truth or otherwise finds some semblance of peace. They crack the code as in the Da Vinci Code, or in Sherlock Holmes 2009 or in the Hound of Baskerville, or Fenn realizing that he must have faith to bring Alice back to life, or Paul realizes that to defeat Dracula he must believe in God, or there’s the sad realization on the part of Takauji that to save Japan he must poison his brother Tadayoshi.
The Return Journey
The hero returns home to find home has changed, or that he himself has changed fundamentally. Frodo comes back to the Scouring of the Shire, the return of Siomon at the end of Crown of Blood to save his country from Cinaed’s tyranny (here’s the link), in Rom-Coms this is tied in with the Realization as the hero realizes they’ve been a jerk, and race off to the Airport or to the laundromat or wherever their lover has gone to win them back.
But ultimately it is the last challenge before the Hero can
Resurrection
There is a psychological, physical, sexual, whatever you want it to be return from the dead.
Jesus returns to life after 3 days, Joseph in the story of Jacob’s sons’ finds new spiritual life that he might forgive his brothers. Sabrina Spellman comes back from no longer believing in Love to go for Harvey Kinkle at 12;36, Luthien sings to Mandos so that he decides to return Beren to her.
Campbell talked of how this is the hero pulling themselves from darkness, how this is tied in with the Return Journey & Realization, it can be.
Return
The Hero returns to the Shire/Kansas/Home/to Timbucktoo, with the Great Boon (which is the realization, the power the Bacon-flavoured Chips that will change life as he knows it), the Hero is to return in Glory to change the local community for the better, they thus re-enter the living/ordinary/Normie world and spread the Good News of the Great Boon, hurra for them.
Freedom to Live
This can also be called the Balance.
Basically the Hero has discovered the Great Boon, the Knowledge of how to live better, or has overcome the external and internal problems that plagued him. Dracula’s dead, and the heroes can return home to merry England to marry, or they’ve discovered how to not be a total jerk-wad to their loved one, or you have them having figured out how to save Downtoun Abbey from going broke for the millionth time.
What is the Great Boon or Balance? Balance of the sexual energies within, and being at peace with the world around oneself, being in unity with the Spirit of Truth, being in unity with nature, or with Love itself.
It’s internal Wisdom. It means that the character has completed their character arc.
I’ll understand if some feel this to be complex, and that’s fine. We’ll be reading through Campbell’s book the Hero with a Thousand Faces and his Divine Feminine book, in order to better explain each process and chapter. We’ll be going over this in the coming weeks so never fear.
And if you feel offended by the notion of this walkthrough, humble pie should be in ample supply down the road. Thing is that Campbell figured out the perfect writing guide.
His intent and that of Jung and the rest of their students was never to ‘make stories boring’ or to somehow ‘limit stories’ but rather offer a way to keep Writers from screwing it up. They meant to help you out.
The idea was for you to say; ‘alright Belle is my Amazon Archetype’, ok so that’s her archetype, and she’s on a Hero’s Journey to retrieve the Liberty Bell. Ok, so that’s the idea. Campbell & Jung figured out that part. Now for you the Writer to figure out the story’s inner-details, the journey, the plot and the character’s arc.
Arguably they’re taking away the dreary part from you, and leaving you with the fun part of writing and creating.
If you find that offensive, I can’t help you. It’s a matter of pride at that point. If you think you can do better, sorry but that’s your problem.
I know this isn’t fun to hear, but the truth is that Archetypes are a proven fact. Just as the Hero’s Journey. The sooner you square with that knowledge and humbly accept the Truth, the sooner you can bend to its power and write a masterpiece. And trust me as Musashi once said you cannot defeat, break or bend from the Truth but must acknowledge it.
Once you have bent your spirit to the Truth, and recognized you are powerless before it, your story WILL follow the Hero’s Journey and your character WILL fit into a designate Archetype you can worry about the funner details of the World, Character-Backstory, Culture, Character Personality, Plot, Villain-details, Support Cast and other stuff that makes writing fun.
You know that stuff you take so much pride in and should take pride in and joy in? That stuff’s entirely in your hands. Just as the Jung School intended. Their goal was never to subtract from your story but to smooth out the rough-edges, smooth out the hard parts and leave you free to deal with the tough stuff.
Would you yell at the Dish-Washer for scrubbing and soaping up and drying the Dishes? Or yell at the Dryer for drying your clothes? So why yell at the idea of Archetypes? Just accept what you can’t change and change what you can.
There’s plenty of stuff to worry about with regards to your story.
Now kudos to the likes of
for getting me thinking earlier when we got into a discussion of Greek literature, and Muses and such.In case you missed it here’s the book Crown of Blood enjoy kids and remember that the next Archetype/Hero’s Journey post will be next week and will be a podcast about this very topic.
I've only read parts of Hero with a Thousand Faces, but most modern books on writing, whether novels or screenplays, whether they have 3, 4, 5, or 6 Acts, whether it's Truby, Brooks, Hauge, or Snyder...all fit relatively well into the short version of the Hero's Journey. I think the full Hero's Journey that Campbell describes has more steps.
Some interesting exceptions are Propp's Morphology of a Folktale and Dent's Master Plot.
I've tried finding older books on writing to see what advice existed prior to Campbell, but without much luck.
I've use the Hero's Journey before. It can be very flexible when you mix up the archetypes Mentor and temptress for example. Or switch up the order, when facing the big bad the Hero goes into refusal of the call. keep it fresh.
Check the Eastern writing archetypes of the five man band. It's complementary. Or watch an old episode of G Force.