The Hero’s Journey: Retooling Mythic Structure in Fantasy and Science Fiction with Eliot Schrefer

 

ELIOT SCHREFER is a New York Times-bestselling author, has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, received the Stonewall Honor for best LGBTQIA+ teen book, and received the Printz Honor for best young adult book from the ALA. In naming him an Editor’s Choice, the New York Times has called his work “dazzling… big-hearted.” His science writing has appeared in Discover, Sierra, USAToday, Nautilus, and The Washington Post Magazine. 

"We don't have the hero's journey. It has us."

In western culture, the hero's journey is the structure we can all turn to. But if we replicate it without thinking about it we might create stale stories. 

So what can we do? 

Incorporate others who have classically not been granted the hero's journey. Examples:

We can look the other direction. Consider a different narrative form. An example:

You can also do a little bit of both.

Challenge what the hero's journey should look like. Feedback partners are helpful in this, trying to find the balance of pushing far enough, but not too far. Two titles to consider:

Archetypes of the journey:

Hero

Mentor

Threshold Guardian

Herald

Shapeshifter 

Shadow

Trickster

We can't get away from archetypes, but we can think about how our characters might break away from them slightly. 

A reflection on archetypes:

Identify which archetypes you turn to most often in your own writing. Which do you turn to least often? (Are your narrative riddled with tricksters but no mentors in sight? Never tried a herald character, but there are shapeshifters aplenty?)

The stages of the journey:

The Ordinary World

The Call to Adventure

The Refusal of the Call 

Meeting with a Mentor (one that Eliot feels we can skip)

Crossing the First Threshold

Tests, Allies, Enemies

Approach the Inmost Cave

The Ordeal

The Reward

The Road Back

Resurrection 

Return with the Elixir 

A refection on the Hero's Journey:

Does your work-in-progress contain a moment when the "protagonist" refuses the call to adventure? What would it look like if your protagonist did?

To read about the Hero's Journey: