The expression “hero’s journey” designates a narrative structure derived from Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory. The theme of the hero myth occurs in all cultures, at all times. According to Mr. Campbell, the many steps of the hero’s journey can be summed up in twelve stages. This is the path of life. It is a story template that involves a hero going on an adventure. If writing is your goal, you should explore a simple structure on your first attempts. You can write a story with characters experiencing all of the stages or just one of them.

Of course, beyond that, you can look at the hero’s journey model in light of your current life as an exercise in personal growth. It can be a physical, emotional and spiritual experience; they all involve getting out of the old ways, your comfort zone. This is because the challenges we face in our own life journey can offer potential for personal growth.

The hero’s journey can be summarized in ten steps: (1) The hero faces a challenge. (2) he Initially he rejects the challenge (fear), and then (3) accepts the challenge, or is forced to accept it. (4) he Embarks on the path of trials, in which (5) he finds allies and gains powers (abilities). (6) he has an initial confrontation with evil (failure) leading to (7) the Dark Night of the Soul (depression, fear, anger, and hopelessness). (8) he takes the leap of faith. (9) he Faces evil again, and this time he is victorious. (10) The student becomes the teacher. He must have the ability to share with others what you find.

We are talking here about the value of structure with specific regard to creative writing. Templates and frameworks reduce complex problems to their intellectual components. The hero’s journey is a ready-to-use analysis for your story: through it you can expand an idea into a story. The essence of history is transformation. The hero’s journey clearly reveals the process of transformation of the characters in the story. The cycle of transformation in many stories is as follows: initiation, test, transformation and demonstration. This basic path is related to all the stages listed above. The underlying idea is simple: creativity is supposed to be the result of a process. This formula or plot can be reduced to the transformation cycle of the hero’s journey. In short, a template can help you increase the quantity and quality of his creative output.