The Hero’s Journey: 12 Steps That Make Up the Universal Structure of Great Stories

The Hero’s Journey: 12 Steps That Make Up the Universal Structure of Great Stories

At one point in your writer’s life, you’ve probably come across the term Hero’s Journey. Maybe you’ve even studied this guide for storytelling and applied it to your own books—and yet, something about your own application felt off. You wanted to learn more, but didn’t know where to start.

You needed a resource that would simplify the hero’s journey steps and all the other major details instead of complicate them.

You needed this post.

The Hero’s Journey is as old as humanity itself. And over the history of humanity, this single story form has emerged over and over again. People from all cultures have seemed to favor its structure, and its familiar types of characters, symbols, relationships, and steps.

If you want to build or strengthen your writing career and win a following of many happy readers, you want this particular tool in your writer’s toolbox.

Let’s dive in.

How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 5 Simple Steps to Get Back to Your Book

How to Overcome Writer’s Block: 5 Simple Steps to Get Back to Your Book

It’s practically inevitable. You’re rockin’ and rollin’ through your writing, feeling invincible, and then you reach a sudden halt: You’re blocked. The words won’t come. It seems like there’s nothing more, and yet you’ve got things to do! Deadlines to meet! Dreams to fulfill!

It can seem impossible. But never fear: it can be done.

Here’s how to write a book when you’ve got writer’s block.

How to Use Three-Act Structure to Write a Story Readers Can’t Put Down

How to Use Three-Act Structure to Write a Story Readers Can’t Put Down

Ideas always feel fully formed in our minds. But when we sit down to put them into words, the struggle begins. Ideas don’t just morph into narrative form. They resist our efforts, and soon the process of storytelling becomes torture.

Thankfully there are strategies you can use to overcome the stubborn nature of an idea and successfully rise to the challenge of writing a great story.

And one of the best strategies you can use is the Three-Act Structure.

Character Description: 6 Tips from Stephen King’s Memoir

Character Description: 6 Tips from Stephen King’s Memoir

When we read books, books with characters we love, we can learn how to write our own characters by studying what details the writers included. There are so many details about your characters you could include in a character description, but which ones do you need?

Let’s look at the advice Stephen King gives in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft about good description and see if applies to Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.