Writing craft

Stage II: The Call to Adventure

What is the Call to Adventure about? As much as we’d all like to have the perfect Ordinary World for our heroes, that world is static but unstable. Soon, a wind of change blows and that wind is called The Call to Adventure. This stage is also often known as The Hook since this is usually what sparks your audience’s interest as it gets the story rolling. Fans of Save the Cat! will also recognise…

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Writing craft

Stage I: Ordinary World

What is the Ordinary World? The Ordinary World is the first stage of your hero’s journey and thus the story’s opening. Its function is to set the tone of the story, suggest where it’s going, and get across all necessary information without slowing the pace. The Ordinary World gives your audience the context, home base, and the hero’s background. It establishes what the hero’s life looks like before embarking on the journey (before entering the…

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Writing craft

The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is not about rules. It is a collection of common structural elements found universally in the world of storytelling. It is an observation of patterns and principles found in myths, fairy tales, novels, movies, dreams, etc. The intention of being aware of them is not about “following rules”, but rather being able to use them, play around with them, and recreate them in new ways and combinations. Most importantly, they are here…

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