The Hero’s Journey is THE template upon which most successful stories and screenplays are built upon. There are at least 188 stages to this journey. This article overviews the major archetypes and their challenges. As a sample, let’s use the Academy Award Winner Best Film 2004 – Million Dollar Baby.
Million Dollar Baby has two heroes, a hero (Clint Eastwood as Frankie Dunn) and a heroine (Hillary Swank, Maggie Fitzgerald).
Both the hero and heroine have inner, outer and romantic challenges.
Inner Challenge: Frank has to resolve issues with his daughter, represented by his interactions with the priest and Maggie has to somehow overcome her White Trash background.
Outer Challenge: Beyond the initial refusal, both heroes reach their apotheosis through the transition of Maggie into a professional fighter and her disablement thereafter.
Romantic Challenge: Embodied in the interaction between Frankie and Maggie.
The Supernatural Aid in this story is Morgan Freeman (playing Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris). Like all good supernatural aids, he has his own challenge: what to do about Danger Barch?
Often there is also a Shape Shifter, with his or her own challenge. In this story it is Danger Barch, who appears at the end of the story and learns that, sometimes, it is OK to lose a fight. Crucially though, he switches from initially referring to Morgan Freeman as “nigger” to “Mr Scrap.” Unusually, this shape shifter has little to do with either hero or their challenges.
This article is intended to demonstrate the multiple challenges faced by the major archetypes in successful stories.
The Complete 188 stage Hero’s Journey and FREE 17 stage sample and other story structure templates can be found at http://managing-creativity.com/
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Kal Bishop, MBA
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Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at http://managing-creativity.com/
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