Because it is not actually who you are, it is not what the voice inside wants, it is not what the person you keep locked up inside wants… whatever it is — it is not what your true self wants. My coworker asked that because earlier in her life she wanted to work at a nursing home but said she selfishly chose other things.
Thank you!! Hi Matus, We have given lots of examples already on the site. Go to Journey Narratives and look at the drop down menu for movies, folk tales, short stories and novels.
So stay tuned! Thank you for your summary. Identifying as a queer person, I see this binary as an inherently heterosexual one, and one which I do not relate to nor do many people I know.
Are there ways in which a journey could be made which do not divide us a category of two? Warm regards, Anna. Wholeness is often conceived of as the integration of two opposing forces or ideas, but it need not be. You raise a very good point and I will try to integrate the idea of wholeness as something other than the integration of binaries into some new posts coming this fall. Thanks for your comment and please keep coming back.
If you have another conception you would like to offer as a blog or extended comment, by all means let us know. And we are glad you stopped by. Come again! My wife just completed all her training to be a firefighter in our town. I am trying to be as supportive of her as she has been of me during my career. Unfortunately I am supporting her from my male perspective. Your site may be very helpful indeed.
Does the Monomyth need to be rewritten to be gender specific? To add to what has already been succinctly reduced seems counter productive, and introduces an exclusivity at odds with the original intent for universality. I agree the Monomyth can be tailored based on gender of protagonist when implemented into a narrative, but that would only be filling in the spaces between steps, not including those beats into the native template as some kind of be all and end all to interpreting the monomyth to fit gender, well that seems boldly presumptuous and potentially regressive to me.
But what would I know? Nor do I believe there is one myth that encompasses the entire human experience, although there are myths that appear in multiple cultures. Story — a test to evaluate the merit of an untested or challenging idea Shadow — represents the challenging idea that demands to be reconciled Herald — represents the most recent failed attempt to reconcile the idea and latest data set on the challenging idea, and calls for more Champions to attempt to reconcile.
Champion — represents the successful tester and one who finally reconciles the idea, to decide whether the idea should be abandoned or integrated, accomplished via submitting to the idea with full empathy while relying on Sidekick un-coerced support to escape if overwhelmed control for peer bonding reinforcement , and allow for a decision to be made to banish Shadow from hosts through enlightenment or else integrate Shadow with existing system of order to constitute final reconciliation if deemed worthy.
Sidekick — represents the data set for the system of order with which the challenging idea must be reconciled, and tests the idea in respects to peer bonding reinforcement and sustainability across domains mental, community, ecosystem at large Mentor — expands data set on reconciling the challenging idea, ensures test parameters are met Trickster — expands data set to control for perception bias subconscious limits in idea appraisal the jester, half blue, half red, spins purple in your head Shapeshifter — expands data set to control for perception bias projection in appraisal of idea integration across domains mental, community, ecosystem at large Threshold Guardian — control for ensuring test parameters are met to facilitate a reliable result over the course of the test narrative.
Meeting With The Goddess — defines parameters to be met for net positive outcome versus the parameters for net negative outcome. Atonement With The Father — addresses the previous inabilities on the part of the system of order to reconcile the idea, to better reconcile future challenging ideas via continued process update and redesign, and in turn, system of order update and redesign, to continually seek equilibrium across domains.
Hard to disagree with this, although I might say, rush not to conclusions, lest presumption leave you blind. Hi Sam, Good to hear from you. The categories you cite are intriguing and play a role in many stories. Many of the concepts have an analog in cognitive science that would be interesting for us to explore if you laid out the game concept a little more.
They often are launched by different catalysts, but boy, girl, many woman, trans etc. The Champion is also required to have learned to remove their perception bias to ensure a reliable determination on where to parse the negative from the positive aspects inherent to the idea in respects to how it will potentially affect all domains.
Finally, the Champion must be proven able to serve the benefit of all through their actions, so as to not be tempted by the Illusory Boon selfish use of the elixir vs Ultimate Boon elixir for the benefit of all.
I offer none of this in rebuttal, but to implore the universal underlying structure of the Monomyth be recognized and not compromised upon extrapolating for the depiction of gender specific Champions, but rather reinforced. There are 18 stages to the Monomyth the game board , with the story rules of the game consisting of 8 key archetypes each with a unique function, which reinforces the rules of the game and the relevancy of those rules to the game board. It seems this is often overlooked in understanding the work of Campbell..
Read, for example the two-part blog on Canadian Residential schools for a non-gender specific analysis. I leave you with one final thought— remember, myths are myths— not actual life experiences, and archetypes are simplified versions of aspects of people— and no single myth or archetype can explain either life or a person, but they are often helpful in shifting our perspective to look at our lives and selves in new ways.
And this final overture I offer, that what I have written and is awaiting moderation may yet see the light of day —. I simply ask here that it be recognized, albeit as valuable as the work on display here may be, that it not be at the expense of any misunderstanding or derision to the true value underlying the Monomyth.
Hi again Sam, interesting comments. But certainly there are problems to be solved which lead one to see new problems, or the solution creates a new problem, etc. This arc meshes beautifully with Grace by Paul Lynch which I am teaching this term.
Grace must dress and act like a boy to survive the great hunger during the potato famine. This is a fascinating thread. She passes through many of the evolutions mentioned here. Her successes and failures drive her evolution.
She is 14 at the start of the saga in CE. She is challenged almost immediately and finds the strength and intuition to take on a series of roles: messenger of danger; warleader; lover; wife Not in the sense of modern culture ; administrator, which she hated; explorer and diplomat; Spymistress a title with implications in the Song Empire , and occasional rescuer of young people in bad situations.
In all cases, they prepare the Hero for the next step. Now the Hero is ready — and committed — to the journey. This marks the end of the Departure stage and is when the adventure really kicks into the next gear.
Like our Hero, you should think of this stage as a checkpoint for your story. Pause and re-assess your bearings before you continue into unfamiliar territory.
Have you:. When we step into the Special World, we notice a definite shift. The Hero might be discombobulated by this unfamiliar reality and its new rules. This is generally one of the longest stages in the story , as our protagonist gets to grips with this new world. This makes a prime hunting ground for the series of tests to pass! Luckily, there are many ways for the Hero to get into trouble:. This stage often expands the cast of characters. Once the protagonist is in the Special World, he will meet allies and enemies — or foes that turn out to be friends and vice versa.
He will learn a new set of rules from them. Saloons and seedy bars are popular places for these transactions, as Vogler points out so long as the Hero survives them. Almost always, it is where the ultimate goal of the quest is located. This stage is all about the approach to it. It covers all the prepwork that's needed in order to defeat the villain. Of all the tests the Hero has faced, none have made them hit rock bottom — until now.
The protagonist must now confront their greatest fear. If they survive it, they will emerge transformed. The Ordeal is sometimes not the climax of the story. He pushes through it until he glimpses hope ahead while running up the museum steps. However, the fruits of their labor are now at hand — if they can just reach out and grab them!
Once the protagonist has it in their possession, it generally has greater ramifications for the story. Vogler offers a few examples of it in action:. He regains the self-esteem to realize that he has the stuff to take on Apollo Creed — win or lose.
In which the light at the end of the tunnel might be a little further than the Hero thought. The story's not over just yet, as this phase marks the beginning of Act Three.
Now that he's seized the reward, the Hero tries to return to the Ordinary World, but more dangers inconveniently arise on the road back from the Inmost Cave. Or perhaps the opposing army gathers to pursue the Hero across a crowded battlefield. All further obstacles for the Hero, who must face them down before they can return home. Rocky realizes the challenge that lies before him in the first few rounds, in which both men are more or less equally matched. Here is the true climax of the story.
Everything that happened prior to this stage culminates in a crowning test for the Hero, as the Dark Side gets one last chance to triumph over the Hero. If the Hero survives, they can start looking forward to a sweet ending. The entire fight winds up lasting 15 rounds and takes both men to the brink of exhaustion.
Finally, the Hero gets to return home. For more longstanding theories on the topic, you can go this way to read about the ever-popular Three-Act Structure or here to discover Dan Harmon's Story Circle and three more prevalent structures.
Remember, rules are made to be broken. The swarm weakens and retreats. The town is completely undamaged. The town leaders mandate the construction of large braziers immediately afterwards. The Sali and Barock design and build them together. Instead, find a world-appropriate story element that symbolizes truth, and use that.
Use them to find meaning and inspiration for your story, and bring them out. If breaking the rules of the journey makes your story feel stronger to you, do it.
Our bills are paid by our wonderful patrons. Could you chip in? Mythcreants is an ad-free publication. If our work has helped you, please keep us going by chipping in. Your patronage keeps this site running. Become a patron. I even applied it to some short stories… and found the formula came automatically sometimes — not surprising as it is ingrained in us.
Thank you. Seriously, though, wonderful addition. This is extremely helpful. If the goddess is the Eternal Female or Eternal Mother for a hero experiencing a divisive binary of abandoned feminine versus overvalued masculine, and the goddess for Mara is the archetypal or eternal Sali as embodied by the Sali village she discovered, then if your aforementioned half-elf were two brothers, one of whom despised his inner elvishness after living among humans and the other of whom despised his human half after living among elves, would the goddess for the former be the Eternal Aelfre perhaps a guest starring appearance by Galadriel?
A goddess that technically has nothing to do with the feminine, but nonetheless acts as a catalyst that makes the heroine think about herself and her relationship to the feminine would work too. This is incredibly fascinating. Thanks for sharing. I found this to be amazingly helpful. I especially agree with having to reconcile the feminine with the masculine to find a balance instead of abandoning one for the other. Thanks for this amazing introduction!
Inspired my writing too. Like they would have ten steps more than your eight steps. Could you explain more about this?
Thanks a lot! I personally know of two independently derived structures, one by Maureen Murdock the one I am using , and one by Valerie Frankel. So when you search for information, you could get a variety of frameworks. My goal was to provide a structure that would be useful to storytellers. Even though the Murdock framework was meant to guide women in real life, and not as a story structure, I found it very useful.
For instance, a story structure always presents events that happen in sequence, one after the other. Thank you for this. The hero male or female has been to me a sacrificial figure,a tool that a community employs in defenses against existential threats. This will be helpful to me in decrypting something that has been on my mind for some time,the Female Power. Hi Chis! Thanks for writing this! Like Whitney, I have female characters who have been, blindly, following these steps.
Both though have reached a point where I have been stuck trying to transition them from destructive behaviors. Reading through your article illustrates where I am stuck with each. One at the Illusion of Success, and the other Meeting with the Goddess. I found out about Maureen Murdock by way of Christopher Vogler.
Yeah, go ahead and post a link. I also think that despite the gender specific naming either of them could work with a male hero or female heroine depending on the story and character, and it gets even better if we use elements from both for the development of a single specific character, and you are right.. The man who came up with our modern interpretation of this was a genius who worked decades to understand it.
Slapping together some derivative goddess stuff is not the same. Perhaps because he looked out a lot for classic myths which usually have a male hero and only incorporate women as the backdrop.
But he leaves it, abandons its values — including being a fighter he just wants to run or standing for something beyond himself he just wants to survive. His escape is a road of trials, and pretence to be a resistance fighter and passage on that freighter an illusion of success. Rey and Maz together could be the goddess in this schema, as they start to show him reasons to fight or stand again. This was really helpful!
I just have a question to help me use this to help me finish an outline. How do you create duality in the heroine? I usually just make them blank slates at the beginning to be pushed into the adventure, For example, an MC named Tsuki has the ability to obtain a different power each day, replacing the old one as it becomes stronger. In her world it makes the 1 ability user. If your main character has a personal problem at the beginning, you can solve it during your story.
Give her room to grow into a better person. She could be divided about her profession, cultural identity, lifestyle, or what type of person she wants to be. Making one of her parents represent one of the these options and the other parent embody the other is an easy way to bring the duality to life.
At the beginning she should desire the glory that comes with the masculine side of this duality assign the masculine to whichever life path is glorified more and increasingly fear or resent the feminine path she followed when she was young assign the feminine to whichever life path people might look down on. Several of both groups criss cross. The blank hero? From the sound of it, your preconceptions are getting in the way, so write a male character and change the gender and see how the character feels.
Sometimes, an old trope for one gender may not be for the other because it is so rare to see. Masculine: One attack power Feminine: One Utility power.
But you can have her alternate between two powers every day or every 12 hours when the sun rises or sets and go between being weak and strong. The weak power should have a larger use than combat and that can be her duality? Brilliantly written, definitely will come back to it. The feminine and masculine can really be any priorities that conflict.
It does work a little better if the masculine is the more glorified trait, and it sounds like in your story, being the village protector is an honored position. For instance, maybe being the protector of her village is a lot of hard work, and then she abandons her village to join the army so she can get revenge for the loss of a loved one. You can definitely make it work. Again, shorter story.
Suffice to say this was a grand analyse to read, I really loved how you worked in an actual story outline for Mara to help demonstrate your points. I seriously love how you broke down the differences as being the external and the internal and how that influences the story. Similarly the idea of duality and how its about finding balance or casting off the idea of duality entirely is great as it allows for great freedom while still providing a solid guide.
Great post, but l cant help but thinking of something. I still dont understand why a female MUST unite her feminine and masculine side. Why cant she stay a warrior as it is and proud of it? A male would go through this journey, too? Question 1 is why a heroine with feminine talents needs to discover her masculine side and push the feminine one aside. Why does she, in essence, have to be warrior and mother, instead of just a warrior?
Using the structure only requires that the heroine finds balance between two extremes of some kind. This is not intended to fit every story. The real life context that shapes why feminine and masculine are the symbols used has to do with the real imbalance of power between them. Our society takes masculinity to the point of being toxic and looks down on anything feminine because it is feminine, and that puts pressure on real life women to adopt masculine traits in order to succeed.
The structure was taken from the experiences of those women, and how they have dealt with that pressure. While not every woman will have the same experience, there is a real life disparity that this is responding to.
I think it bears to say that it also rings true of the stories of people who abandon one ideology in favor of the other — when they go too much with the other one, trying to compensate for a perceived shortcoming, until they settle and find a balance between what they chose and the person they used to be, and let the new ideology — say, atheism, or even feminism, stop defining them.
Personal example: when I was younger I discovered intersectional feminism, identity politics, the social justice warrior movement, the whole shebang arguably feminine in nature , and it presented itself as a perfect striving for equality which matched my own personal views, and I took to that ideology and was too much on that side.
When I grew older and learned more about the world and how it works, the movement itself, its utter performativity, inapplicability to my entire part of the WORLD, and all of its shortcomings and the ways it did NOT live up to anything, especially what it itself was preaching, it was a newfound friend who at the time was full fascist who gave me insight into another EXTREMELY masculine way of thinking, which had much better arguments and actually applied to the world at large.
You can guess where that took me until I found actual balance and settled somewhere apolitical again — the way I was before everything started. Why should a warrior not be allowed human softness underneath, male or female? Why should a woman always shrink in perfect display of what the society calls feminine? Very interesting read! It generally follows the stages of the Heroines Journey very closely, and no I am not trying to advertise, but the game is highly recommended as an example of the heroines journey.
But it is not for the faint-hearted : Very graphic and disturbing images of extreme violence and nightmarish scenes and content! Often very unpleasant, but also often beautiful images as well as a highly emotional story, as the heroine descends deeper into hel, the realm of the dead from Nordic mythology, and deeper into her own madness, and unlocks clues to her background story and the reasons for her mental troubles.
Has good examples of most of the stages in Heroines Journey! It was a rare case in which a male character was the one to go through this sort of arc. I also found that the conflict being between siblings fighting over Legos was actually a vastly more interesting one than the previous movie because it was far more accurate.
I got to musing on this and had to dig up this article to verify I recalled the discussion correctly. Those are the expressions which have been coined for them … it will take time to shift those expressions into something other. That is a LOT of spam.
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