The Hero's Journey

4. The hero returns home, bearing the treasure. The treasure has the power to transform the world, as the hero has been transformed. The hero is hailed as a leader by their kinsmen or community and so begins a new (and better) life and world.
7. The hero commits to leaving the World where they started and enters a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.
8. The hero must complete the adventure and leave the Special World to bring their treasure back home. Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission.
9. The hero may be tested once more on their way home. They also have their "wrapping it up" moments of the adventure before returning to the ordinary world.
12. The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Unfamiliar or Special World.
13. The hero is introduced. The reader is given a bit of personal history, setting, and cultural context. Something in the hero’s life makes them feel they are being pulled in different directions and causing stress.

1. The hero fears the unknown and considers turning away from the adventure. Or another character tries to dissuade the hero from proceeding.
2. The hero and their new-found allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special World.
3. A common narrative archetype, or story template, that involves a hero who goes on an adventure, learns a lesson, wins a victory with that newfound knowledge, and then returns home transformed
5. The hero comes across someone (often a stranger, elder, or spirit) who gives them training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.
6. The hero takes possession of the treasure they have won in the ordeal. There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again.
10. Something shakes up the situation, and the hero feels called to make a change, which usually involves leaving home.
11. The hero arrives in a central space in the Unfamiliar World and faces death or their greatest fear. The hero emerges from this moment of reckoning changed in some way.