Today we have the great privilege of having Lewis Jorstad with us to share about how to use the Hero’s Journey to outline our stories. Lewis is an editor and book coach who also leads the thriving writing community over at The Novel Smithy.
Without further ado- take it away, Lewis!
Outlining an Epic Adventure With the Hero’s Journey
Deep down, outlining a novel is my happy place—and the hero’s journey is one of the best tools for planning an epic adventure.
Whether you’ve traditionally thought of yourself as a planner, or lean more on the pantsing side, there’s a lot of value in outlining a novel (even just the basics). It gives you space to step back and test your ideas, puzzle through tricky plot holes and questions, and build confidence that your story will work.
It’s a powerful way to mitigate writer’s block too. When you have a map of your novel’s key moments, it’s a lot easier to keep moving forward when self-doubt creeps in.
But, why outline with the Hero’s Journey?
Though story structures like Save the Cat or the Four Act Structure are more widely known, the Hero’s Journey might just be the perfect fit for your story. This structure is all about coming of age, setting out to face the unknown before returning home a changed person. It’s a mainstay of fantasy and science fiction, and it’s an ideal structure if you’re writing any kind of heroic adventure.
So, let me take you through a quick tour of how you plan your novel with the Hero’s Journey!
What is the Hero’s Journey?
The biggest difference between the Hero’s Journey and other forms of structure, is that the Hero’s Journey is cyclical. This structure is built around two phases, which circle around each other throughout the story:
- The Known World: Your hero’s starting place. The known world is familiar and safe, but held back by some hidden flaw, forcing the hero to begin their journey.
- The Unknown World: The new, magical, and often frightening world your hero enters as their quest begins. This is where they’ll learn new skills, meet new allies, and uncover the flaw holding back their known world.
Sometimes these are literal worlds, but many are more metaphorical.
For example, the unknown world of How to Train Your Dragon is the world of dragons. Hiccup doesn’t leave home when he enters his unknown world—but he does uncover a new perspective when he realizes dragons aren’t evil. As he learns to tame, ride, and befriend dragons, he’s put at odds with his known world of Vikings, setting up the central conflict of the story.
Alongside these two worlds, the Hero’s Journey also features a handful of specific story beats, which help you pace your plot and character arcs:
- The Ordinary World
- The Call to Adventure
- Refusal of the Call
- Meeting the Mentor
- Crossing the First Threshold
- Tests, Allies, and Enemies
- Approaching the Cave
- The Ordeal
- A Reward
- The Road Back
- Resurrection
- Returning With the Elixir
Each of these mark key points within the story, charting your hero’s path as they’re pushed into the unknown by your core conflict, struggle to adapt to this new world, gain a key reward (be that a physical object, power, or knowledge), and finally return home to heal their known world.
Want to dig deeper into this structure? You can read more about the Hero’s Journey here!
5 Steps for Outlining Your Hero’s Journey
Step One: Choose Your Conflict
Now that you know the basics, it’s time to start planning!
Your first step is to choose your core conflict.
This goes for any type of story, Hero’s Journey or not. Your core conflict is the primary obstacle, challenge, or threat that will drive your plot, acting as the main barrier your hero has to fight against. What threat pushes your hero out into the unknown? What upends their life, and what will they have to face when they return to their known world at the end of the story?
Before moving on, make sure you’re clear on this—it’s the foundation your story will build from. Once you have a core conflict you’re happy with, add it as the first piece of your outline.
Step Two: Choose Your Hero
Next up, who is the titular hero of your Hero’s Journey?
This will be your protagonist, the central character of your novel. They’re who readers will follow throughout your story, grow to love and identify with, and ultimately see your world through their eyes.
When choosing your hero, think carefully about what they offer that no one else could. What perspective do they bring that’s unique to them? This is why characters like Mulan, Luke Skywalker, or Hiccup work so well as heroes. Both see their world differently than the people around them, and approach problems in their own ways.
The result is a protagonist readers are excited to follow!
Step Three: Map Your Known and Unknown Worlds
From there, you’ll want to decide on the two sides of your hero’s world.
What is their known or normal world at the start of the story—the place they feel secure and safe, even if they’re unhappy? This should be where their flaws and insecurities are strongest, or where the flaws of their larger world are most powerful.
Then shift your focus to their unknown world. What new, strange, or foreign place (or situation) will they find themselves in, thanks to that core conflict you chose a moment ago? What will they learn, experience, and struggle against as they’re tested by the unknown?
Step Four: Chart Your Hero’s Arc
The Hero’s Journey is a story of change like any other, and that means your hero needs to grow as a person to complete their story (ie: they need a character arc). This growth is what will allow them to return to their known world and create a positive difference for the people around them.
So, what does your hero have to learn to return home?
What beliefs, flaws, or behaviors do they need to overcome?
In Hiccup’s story, this arc of change is all about his self-worth. At the start of his story, he believes he’s less valuable than other people because he’s different. He’s not “good enough” to be a Viking—but what he learns throughout his story is that being different is ok. He embraces his unique perspective, and that allows him to resolve the core conflict of his story. Without that transformation, his Hero’s Journey would be left incomplete.
Step Five: Plan Your Key Story Beats
Finally, your last step is to plan out the twelve story beats we discussed earlier.
Looking back over the Hero’s Journey, how will those key events manifest in your story? This is a great way to make sense of the timeline of your novel, and start to see how your vision might translate to actual words on paper.
As you go, consider both the plot side of these beats (how they’re moving your conflict forward, or revealing a new angle) as well as the character side (how they’re teaching your hero a lesson, or showing who they are). That way, these key turning points can pull double duty, maximizing their impact for your readers.
How to Use Your New Outline
With your new outline in hand, all that’s left now is to start writing!
My final tip is to treat your outline as a living document. No matter how much careful planning you do, your first draft will still throw you some curveballs. That doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong—it’s just the nature of writing a novel.
So, don’t be afraid to tweak and adjust your outline as you write.
If you decide to change up part of your story or you learn something new, return to this plan and adjust as needed. That way, you still get the benefit of a solid outline, while staying flexible as a writer.
Still looking for more support? Check out some of these excellent articles on the art and mindset of writing a novel:
- Steps to Success Part 3: Creating an Outline
- Time Management for Writers
- 10 Strategies For When We Can’t Write
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Lewis Jorstad is an editor and book coach who helps scrappy genre fiction authors (and soon-to-be authors) master their craft and find their readers at The Novel Smithy. When he isn’t busy coaching students or writing books of his own, you can find him playing old Gameboy games and baking far too many homemade bagels.
