Description
The Course covers the twelve chief stages of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® model distilled into just eight modules.
Campbell’s Hero’s Journey® template is the most useful story template ever devised, reflecting the underlying structure of story, and giving you important cues about character and motivation.
The Hero starts his Journey in the “Ordinary World” – and completes it, mission accomplished, with his Return Home with the Elixir. But between those two points, comes the adventure, the Hero’s encounter not only with his antagonist, but also with his own deepest fears and doubts. See below for a more detailed look at the twelve stages of The Hero’s Journey® model.
How does the course work?
- The course is run via email and you’ll interact one-on-one with your facilitators, Richard and Michele.
- We present the course in eight modules, releasing one a week.
- Notes will be sent to you via email, together with excerpts from short stories, novels and works of non-fiction, plus links to video clips and scripts available online.
- Each module includes an assignment to which you’ll receive full written feedback from your facilitators.
- By the end of the course, you’ll have learned the route through the Hero’s Journey® template and be able to apply your understanding to your own writing projects.
How will you benefit?
- You will learn techniques to make your stories more dramatic and more appealing to readers.
- You will learn to motivate your character’s crucial choices and decisions.
- You will learn to recognise when a crucial element of your story is missing.
- You will learn how to mislead your readers, how to build to the sort of climax that pays off dramatically and psychologically.
- You will learn to write better stories.
Course outline:
Here are the twelve stages of the Hero’s Journey® template. The hero is either male or female, animal or even mineral. (Yes, robots can also be heroes.)
1. The Everyday World
We see the hero’s normal life at the start of the story before the adventure begins.
2. The Call to Adventure
The hero is faced with an event, conflict, problem, or challenge that prompts or invites them to begin their adventure.
3. The Refusal of The Call
The hero initially refuses the adventure because of hesitation, fears, insecurity, or one of any number of other issues.
4. Supernatural Aid
The hero encounters a guide or mentor that can give them advice, wisdom, information, or items that prepare them for the journey ahead.
5. Crossing the Threshold
The hero leaves their ordinary world and crosses the threshold into the unknown.
6. The Road of Trials
The hero learns the rules of the new world and endures tests, meets helpers, and comes face-to-face with enemies.
7. In the Belly of the Whale
The initial plan to take on the central conflict begins, but setbacks occur that cause the hero to try a new approach or adopt new ideas.
8. The Supreme Ordeal
Things go wrong and added conflict is introduced. This is the nadir of his journey – which culminates in a transformative crisis.
9. The Elixir
After surviving The Ordeal, the hero takes possession of a reward that he or she has earned that allows them to take on the biggest conflict. It may be a physical item or piece of knowledge or wisdom that will help them persevere.
10. The Magic Flight
The hero sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but they are about to face even more tests and challenges.
11. Resurrection
The climax. The hero faces a final test, using everything they have learned to take on the conflict once and for all.
12. Master of the Two Worlds
The hero brings their knowledge or ‘mastery’ (the Elixir) back to the ordinary world.
* Hero’s Journey® and any copyrighted material authored by Joseph Campbell are used under license from the Joseph Campbell Foundation (www.jcf.org)
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.