Storytellers love structures like The Hero’s Journey, the 15 beats of Save the Cat, or just the traditional three acts that both The Hero’s Journey and Save the Cat are built around. But time and again I’ve seen writers follow them and get a complete … read more »
I outlined the Heroine’s Journey last week, but it’s more fun to watch it in action. Because this structure is about a character who’s out of balance and makes a course correction, it’s often used for villains who take a heel-face turn. Here’s five villains … read more »
The Hero’s Journey has become widely popular. Unfortunately, the original was clearly intended for men and not women. In response, some feminists have created their own, female-centered version. Lucky for us storytellers, both can be abstracted to work for a wide array of stories. Read more »
Chris, Oren and Mike discuss mythic structure and the wide variety of works that use it. They talk about the themes that make the journey effective, and how it can help writers craft better stories. Read more »
In The Hero of a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell demonstrated that many of the most popular stories, even over thousands of years and across cultures, shared a specific formula. That formula is now commonly referred to as mythic structure, or the hero’s journey. Even if … read more »
It can be tough to pull together the plot for a novel. There’s a lot that goes into it, and it’s hard to make sure that you have it all straight in your head before you start writing. Sometimes the only way to be sure … read more »