Stop Using The Hero's Journey In Your Novels

While the hero's journey seems to be the go-to outlining technique when writing a novel -  it's far from perfect. 

While there's truly no perfect system when it comes to writing your outline, today we are focusing on just the flaws in this well-known and overused one.

*Disclaimer* 

If the Hero's Journey is your preferred method of outlining your novels then I mean no hate or ill will towards you. This article is just about my opinion on this outlining method and you are more than welcome to disagree with me. Maybe you can even change my mind. Drop your opinions in the comments! 

I once had a creative writing teacher who insisted we all call him John.

 John loved to give us prompts each day as soon as we walked into class. He would have a piece of paper already placed on top of our desk, face side down, with a prompt written on it for us to work on for the first thirty minutes of our 1hr 15-minute class. 

This prompt would be something like this

"A man with pale skin and hollow eyes dressed in a dark coat and hat sits in a cabin in the middle of a thunderstorm, In his hand is a pipe, and at his feet is a Great Dane named Jack. After a crash of thunder, there is a knock at the door. When he answers the door a man from his past wearing a three-piece suit is standing there. The man drops his pipe and says to the man outside, "… before the man is shoved back into the rain, the door slamming in his face. 

John and I didn't get along, mostly for the fact he called horror fiction speculative trash that was not allowed in his classroom - but somehow erotic fiction was ok. 

My point to this ranting is that there was no room for creativity with this prompt, we have the setting, and the characters, and we couldn't even name the dog if we wanted to. Sure there were thousands of things that we could have done, but if you had the opportunity to read through each one of our papers at the end of class - they were almost identical. Sure sometimes the man was a hitman, a past lover, or a mob boss, but right from the start, we were forced into this box that was almost impossible to write ourselves out of in so little amount of time, and only what we could fit on one sheet of lined paper. 

So why am I so against the Hero's Journey? 

• Stifles Creativity and Originality 
• Reinforces Stereotypes 
• Limits Possibilities 
• Leads to Predictability 

Sure following the Hero's Journey formula in a way can be beneficial, but if it's followed too closely or taken too literally then what the writer is going to end up with is going to be the same thing as the writer next to him and the writer before him, and all the other writers that did the same thing. 

The problem with writing by a formula is that these novels start to read like a formula. 

On the first page, we see the hero in his before world, and within the next few pages, we are going to meet some old mentor who is going to tell him he needs to go on an adventure. He may even refuse to go on this adventure but we know he's going to go. And right in the middle of the novel he's going to suffer a false defeat, but he'll win in the end becuase he has to. He's a hero. 

If you don't know how to write an effective novel the only thing following this outline is going to do is give you a novel that isn't going to be worth reading in the end becuase you haven't learned why each step is important. There's no focus on the inner growth of the character only the tests they go through to solve their outer goal, not so much their inner one. 

Or simply, a hero is a hero - why? Becuase I called him a hero and he does heroic things. 

Try something new 

With love, 

B.K. xo xo 

Want to write with me live? I'm now on Twitch! Come join me in some writing sprints most days at 10:00 pm EST

____________________________________________________

*If you've liked what you read you can show your support by subscribing, pledging your support, or leaving me a tip that directly supports and aids me as a writer.

By joining Vocal+ you can earn more per read on every story you publish on Vocal.

_____________________________________________

This story was originally posted on Medium. Join Medium as a member for just $5/month to access premium content and help me continue creating articles like these. You can also earn money by posting your own stories using Mediums' Partner Program.

Help power my writing with a virtual coffee! Starting at just $1. Your support keeps my creativity brewing. Treat me to a cup! ☕

Thanks for your support and happy writing!