EVERY story is an adventure. We already know these characters will come face-to-face with all kinds of excitement, challenge and danger–whether that danger involves dastardly villains or a reluctance to fall in love.
A lot of readers are thrilled when a story’s main adventure
involves bullets, pirates, dragons or floods. Sometimes all of ‘em combined,
plus more!
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But what about the readers who prefer excitement on a more internal, emotional level? How can we satisfy THEM?
Here’s where The Heroine’s Journey comes in handy.
We all know about The Hero’s Journey, which Christopher Vogler adapted from Joseph Campbell’s discovery of the twelve steps a hero goes through on his way from Accepting The Quest to Returning With The Elixir.
Those steps involve all kinds of external conflict, and occasionally there might even be a bit of internal conflict along the way.
The hero isn’t JUST coping with
bullets-pirates-dragons-floods…sometimes he’s also coping with self-doubt or
fearing cowardice or concerned about his family while he’s busy dodging
bullets, fighting pirates, lassoing dragons and swimming through floods.
Then
there are the more normal characters.
These are the ones who don’t come up against such problems. Their external challenges are quieter. Every bit as dramatic and intense, but instead of trumpets and drums they're accompanied by the music of a solo saxophone.
* Maybe their problem is the inability to say no to a loved
one.
* Or the discovery that the life they’ve been trained for isn’t
what they truly want.
* Or the choice between their love and their dream.
Theirs are the stories that follow
The Heroine’s Journey.
The journey can apply to men as well as women, but it’s
easier to distinguish Chris Vogler’s twelve steps from Kim Hudson’s thirteen
steps by assigning each journey to a different gender.