Storytelling and the Hero’s Journey
By Yuvi Zalkow | March 5, 2022 |
So my video today is different than previous videos. For one, it is FORTY MINUTES LONG!!@#$!@#!! But also, it’s not something that all of y’all will necessarily want to ride along with me on. For that reason, I want to talk about why I made the video regardless of whether you sacrifice a chunk of your day for my obsessive video about some dude in some video game.
Ever since I read The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler twenty years ago (and then explored the ideas of Joseph Campbell who inspired this book), I’ve been fascinated with the hero’s journey and how it works (or doesn’t work) in my favorite stories. I can no longer watch a movie or read a book without assessing that story for the qualities of this storytelling structure. And when I’m writing my novels, I often think about the hero’s journey, at least after the first draft. (I usually ignore it for the first draft so that I can focus on getting to know the voice, unencumbered by any structure.) To be honest, I’ve probably created my own variant of how this journey works since it has rummaged around in my head for so many years.
One of my favorite phases in this journey is The Reward (aka “Seizing the Sword”). This is the spot in the story where the hero comes back from a big conflict (The Ordeal) with some treasure. In my stories (and in many stories), this treasure isn’t exactly a physical treasure, but just some wisdom or insight or lesson. And after they get this reward, the hero can prove what they’ve learned in a subsequent conflict (The Resurrection). I love when this happens in a story, like when we get to see how Luke Skywalker decides—to hell with this fancy targeting system on my spaceship, I’ll just use what I learned about the force to blow up the Death Star! (Oops. Did I just spoil that movie for someone?! I figure if you haven’t seen it in the past 45 years, I’m allowed to spoil it a little bit…) So, when I’m working on a draft of one of my stories and I’m not getting the desired response from other readers, I look through my story to see if I’ve overlooked any of these storytelling steps.
I don’t treat this structure as the only way to tell a story and I don’t stick to this structure too rigidly, but it is one useful tool I like to use when I realize that my early drafts suck, which they always do. 😜
Alongside this fascination with the hero’s journey, I have become a gamer in the past few years. In particular, I love games that have a well-written narrative. And I recently stumbled onto a game called Red Dead Redemption 2 (which came out in 2018). Among other great qualities, this game has a remarkable story arc for the hero (Arthur Morgan). After clocking in too many hours with this game, I realized that I felt emotions for Arthur Morgan like no other video game hero I’d encountered. So I wanted to analyze the main narrative for the qualities of the hero’s journey. I was surprised to see how well the story followed the hero’s journey, while also not falling for the most obvious tropes. Although my video is VERY LONG, I’ve tried to make it accessible to non-gamers. I also added clear chapter markers, so you can skip to the sections that are most interesting to you. (For instance, before analyzing the game, I do a four-minute summary of the steps in the hero’s journey as I see them, using Star Wars as an example.)
Anyway, regardless of whether you indulge my gaming obsessions, I’m curious, do you use the hero’s journey or another storytelling structure as you write your stories? If so, do you use this structure from the first draft, or does the structure fall into place later?
My heart goes out to the people struggling and suffering in and around Ukraine 🇺🇦. I honestly don’t know the best way to help, but I’ve donated to a few orgs, including Voices of Children and HIAS. (I wrote this message on Feb 28, so this situation may be different at the time of publication…)
Yuvi Zalkow is the author of the novel I Only Cry with Emoticons (Red Hen, 2022) as well as A Brilliant Novel in the Works. His stories and essays have been published in Catapult, Narrative Magazine, Carve Magazine, Rosebud, The Los Angeles Review, and others. Yuvi received an MFA from Antioch University. He uses his poor drawing skills to make YouTube videos and mobile apps that ooze with his worries and anxiety.
Hey Yuvi – First, I really enjoyed the video (didn’t seem long to me at all). Second, wow–I’m a bit shocked by the storytelling in a game. Sorry, but this is the shock of a 60 year old dude who literally hasn’t played a video game since Space Invaders and Pac-Man (in an mall arcade, in the late 70s early 80s). I like the way you approach the Hero’s Journey–plugging it in after a draft and seeing where it aids your understanding of the early evolution of a story. For me that’s how just about every storytelling tool works best (I’m not a true pantser, as I always have some version of an end I’m seeking; but I’m absolutely not a plotter).
Lastly, wow #2–Arthur’s journey is remarkably similar to that of my male protagonist in my (forthcoming) debut trilogy. Huh. Maybe there’s hope for my tragic little tale after all. Thanks for the perfect way to start a weekend of storyteller’s work.
Thanks for watching, Vaughn!! As a somewhat new gamer (after leaving gaming around the time of Pac-Man!)… I was also shocked by how in-depth the storytelling could be. That’s cool that you found similarities with your trilogy. I’d love to hear more about it (or read about it) soon… Take care!
Thanks, Yuvi, I greatly enjoyed the video — my first exposure to this kind of thing (except for, as with Vaughn, crude forerunners of the gaming genre ages ago). I can certainly see why you bonded with Arthur, and the way you tied this success of the story to the strengths of archetypal structure was clear and informative. For me it prompted many questions and observations in regard to my own story work in progress–glad for that. Thanks much for your masterful work on this, and I love how you seem to so thoroughly enjoy it! Best wishes for success with your upcoming novel.
Thanks so much, Thomas! I was nervous about whether I could make this entertaining for people who don’t play these games, so I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. And glad that it sparked some thoughts with your work in progress. Wish you the best with your writing!
Story structure has long fascinated me–The Hero’s Journey, Save the Cat, etc. I’ve never used it as a road map beforehand, but I have found it to be useful at casting a backwards look over my work to see whether the structure held true for a story that’s not been outlined or pre-planned in any way. And it’s always surprising and gratifying to discover that the structure is there. I think that’s because we internalize familiar patterns, even when we’re not aware they’re there. All that reading I did as a child and beyond paid off.
You’ve made me curious about your video, so I hope to find time to watch it later.
Good to hear from you, Beth! (I’d never heard of Save the Cat beforehand… Just read up on it and it looks really interesting.) I can relate to what you’re saying… Sometimes I’m surprised at how much a story can follow a classic storytelling structure without having thought at all about the structure while writing… I find it all very fascinating. (The only time it was a problem was during a brief period when I thought it was essential to think about storytelling from the first word of the first draft… my stories were NOT good during that phase… 😜)
“Save the Cat! Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody is a very interesting look into that particular theory on structure, as applied to novels. It can be noted that it’s not essentially different from the Hero’s Journey; it just has different labels and ways of describing the arc.