I've written about The Hero's Journey before, but I like it so much I'm going to write about it again, and it deserves to be revisited often, so it stays fresh in your mind.

For those of you that are going: "The Hero's What?" You are about to find out possibly the most important backbone of writing a decent novel. Or possible you're about to discover the monomyth has an alternative name.

It's a series of steps that are there to a greater or lesser extent in the majority of successful novels, and the steps go roughly like this:

1. Introduction to the hero's world
2. Call to action
3. Crossing the Threshold
4. Meet the Mentor
5. First challenge
6. Temptation
7. Dark inner moment
8. Final battle
9. The return home

(The hero's journey is an intrinsic part of our novel writing guide and novel writing software)


Each of these stages can be represented by a whole range of things from the epic to the trivial. And don't make the mistake of thinking that it only applies to fantasy adventure stories, just because of the word 'hero'. All stories have a hero at their centre, though they may be called a protagonist.
 
Of course, not all stories will follow the hero's journey, there are no absolutes in anything as creative as novel writing, but there is a reason the sections have been used in popular stories since ancient times, and continue to be recognisable in the latest blockbusters.

A really great exercise is to find some of your favourite books or movies and see if you can spot the elements of the hero's journey in them. See how the experts have interpreted the mentor, or the temptation.

Here's a sample from Harry Potter:

1. Introduction to the hero's world - Harry's life with his nasty relatives
2. Call to action - the invitation to Hogwarts
3. Crossing the Threshold - the train journey
4. Meet the Mentor - Dumbledore - who else?
5. First challenge - The Troll in the toilet
6. Temptation - Harry becomes addicted to the mirror's vision and longs for his parents
7. Dark inner moment - Harry discovers that the stone is in danger and Dumbledore isn't there to help them.
8. Final battle - the three trials and confrontation with Voldemort
9. The return home - Return to the Dursleys house, but this time with better conditions and prospects.

Please do tell me about examples of the hero's journey you've found in your books and movies!

Also, if you're writing a novel and would like to have information and tips like this at just the right point as you develop your craft and write your novel, then visit our novel writing software website, and download a free trial of our novel writing software.

The opening of a novel is probably the hardest part - I know it certainly is for me.

Why? Well, read on...

Too much pressure!

The opening lines and chapters of your book have the most pressure heaped on them to be outstanding. This is because if they're not, nobody is ever going to see the rest. Literary agents rarely want more than the first few chapters, and anecdotal evidence says they often won't read past the first few sentences if they're not immediately gripped. So the beginning of the novel absolutely has to be mind-blowing, or you've wasted the last six months, year, decade.

Not warmed up yet

A lot of people take a bit of time to warm up, to get into the flow of things so their prose comes naturally, and skips along at a good pace. Often, the first few pages of writing are clunky, or even rambling. Once the writer finds their mojo though, the words fly from their fingers and onto the page, snappy dialogue, gripping action, all the good stuff.

Wanting to set the scene with too much backstory

A lot of new writers feel that they need to firmly set the scene at the beginning of a book, to let their readers know what's going on and make sure they're aware of the important plot points, where the story is going and why the lead character is acting how they are. Unfortunately, this usually has the effect of making the introduction feel like tedious exposition, where readers would rather get straight into the action.

So what can you do about it?

Start before the start

By this, I mean once you've decided where your story is going to begin, actually start writing from a scene or two earlier than that. These scenes will be cut in the end, but you will write them with full commitment as if they were staying.

By doing this, you can help avoid two of the problems described above.

Firstly, it will give you a chance to warm up and get into the flow of things.

Secondly, you will do all the exposition and backstory that your readers don't need (because they will pick everything up from context anyway, as long as your story telling is good enough).

What about reducing pressure?

Ah, yes. We haven't come up with a solution to that one yet - if anybody has any ideas - please let us know!

Your draft should be in pretty good shape now, and you really are nearing the finish line.

However, eager though you may be to show your masterpiece toagents in order for them to snap it up, you don’t want to rush things and shoot yourself in the foot.

Take another break – at least a week if possible, and then come back for a final fine tuning.

You need to be really ruthless now, seek out clichés, telling instead of showing, lazy description, meandering prose. Cut it out. Cut it down. Look for inconsistencies and iron them out.

Here are a few more areas you can fine tune:

 

Dialogue Mechanics

Dialogue is important. It brings the reader into the moment, it feels alive and happening. When is the first dialogue on your story? If it’s not in the first few pages, you could consider moving it forward.

Many new writers overuse replacements to the word said, resulting in something like this:

“You look depressed.” observed Jennifer.

“I am,” answered Barry.

 “You should just cheer up,” concluded Jennifer.

“Whatever,” grumbled Barry.

These colourful replacements border on the cardinal sin of telling not showing, and are obtrusive, dulling the pace.

Instead of relying on words like this, use description of the action to keep things moving and keep the reader right in the action. Also, don’t forget that ‘said’ tends to be invisible to readers when they’re in the flow (unless there are really a lot in a row), and often you don’t need anything to describe who’s speaking, as it ought to be obvious from context.

“You look depressed,” said Jennifer.

Barry picked at his nails and sighed.  “I am.”

“You should just cheer up,” Jennifer put a bright look on her face.

“Whatever.”

 

Paragraphing

You may think that paragraphing is not really a central part of writing. Words and sentences, that’s real writing – paragraphing is what happens inbetween.

Well, how dense or open your prose is will make a big difference to how pacy it feels and whether your reader feels like they’re wading through or skipping along.

When you scan over your work, is most of the page filled with words? If so, it may benefit from more whitespace, giving your story space to breathe. Shortening paragraphs is an extremely effective way to tweak the pace and atmosphere of your novel.

 

Don’t labour the point

This means don’t repeat yourself, and don’t keep trying to get the same point across in too many different ways. One well thought out way will be stronger on its own than several obvious or weak ways.

For example.

Celine eyed the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon on the shelf and her mouth watered. She loved red wine. It was the colour, like liquid rubies, and the sharp delicious taste. Her desire for it ached. The way it warmed the back of her throat. She loved it so much. Her fingers twitched towards it.

In this example we are told three times that she loves wine, and by the last time you just want to scream ‘Yes, I know!’

It’s much stronger with the second two removed:

Celine eyed the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon on the shelf and her mouth watered. She loved red wine. It was the colour, like liquid rubies, and the sharp delicious taste. The way it warmed the back of her throat. Her fingers twitched towards it.

However, if you want the prose to be really tight, we shouldn’t be telling at all and in fact we can do without any of them, and get the same impression from the description alone:

Celine eyed the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon on the shelf and her mouth watered. It was the colour, like liquid rubies, and the sharp delicious taste. The way it warmed the back of her throat. Her fingers twitched towards it.

You've done it! You've written your novel! Congratulations, you are now a member of a relatively elite club. So now your adoring audiences will be beating down your door to buy your novel and make you rich.

Or... you can go to Step 15. Submitting your novel to an agent.

Even if you’re telling the whole story from one character’s viewpoint, it’s a great idea to walk through the story from each character’s viewpoint.

This can highlight continuity errors, and also add dimensions to your characters.

For each character, make a note of the scenes they appear in, then walk through that list - ignoring the scenes they’re not in. Make sure their appearances make sense from their point of view, and then imagine what the character is doing while they’re not present in a scene.

This helps you avoid ‘teacher syndrome’ where pupils assume teachers only exist during school hours with the idea of them having lives of their own being quite unimaginable. By filling in the gaps in your character’s existence, you give them their own life and realistic motivations.

This can add flavour to your story, for example, outside of a story a character may have just had a fight with their partner, so when your lead turns up they’re in no mood to chat. This adds more realism and interest than every character your lead encounters being in a neutral mood.

Note - If you’re nifty with excel, and have followed the previous step you can create a new column for each character, mark the corresponding box that lines up with each scene, create a table, then filter by character to do this in a power-user type of way. But if you didn’t follow any of that, don’t worry about it – you can generate the same results by hand.

Read more about this character viewpoint technique here.

Ready for Step 11? Blocking is the last step before you are ready to write your first draft. 

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Eight

Head Scenes and Tail Scenes

Now we're really going to get into the nitty-gritty technics of writing a plot that is compelling, while feeling natural and balanced to the reader.

And we're going to do it with the cunning use of Head and Tail scenes. This method is based on Dwight Swain's 'scenes' and 'sequels'.

Roughly speaking, Head scenes are where your character is being active, doing stuff, hopefully getting into trouble, getting into people's faces, that sort of thing. But a character can't do that relentlessly throughout the whole book or both they and the reader will be exhausted, not to mention they're unlikely to develop much as characters.

So, inbetween Head scenes you have Tail scenes, which are where your character pauses to take stock, reflect, regroup and plan their next move.

Now, it doesn't have to be 50/50. The balance decides what sort of story you have. If it's 80% Head scenes, you've got a fast-paced, action type story. If it's 80% Tail scenes, it's a more reflective, thoughtful story.

As a general rule, Head scenes should be immediate, happening right here and now, with the action described in detail. Whereas, in tail scenes it's possible to compress time more, even skipping over weeks, months or even years in a few sentences or pages.

Head Scenes

Head scenes can be broken down into three parts:

• Goal
• Conflict
• Disaster

At the beginning of a Head scene, your character should have some kind of goal, something they want to achieve. Otherwise it's possible for them to spend the whole scene mooching about, and very few people want to read about that.

So your character should go for their goal and get it, right? Wrong. Boring. You're character should go for their goal and -bam!  Conflict. Something stops them achieving their goal. Now your reader is interested. They want to know if the character is going to overcome this obstacle to achieve their goal. If you're good, you'll come up with a series of mounting obstacles. Then...

Disaster! Not only does your character not achieve their goal, but they're in a much worse situation than before. After all that excitement, they're spent. In fact, the disaster was so great, they may even be locked up. It's time for a Tail scene.

Tail Scenes

Tail scenes can also be broken down into three parts:

• Reaction
• Dilemma
• Decision

The first bit is their reaction to the disaster. It should be an emotional reaction rather than an active one (we'll get to the active one later). Are they furious? Despairing? They've been through a lot, they ought to be feeling something.

Once the emotions have had a chance to settle, they're going to start assessing the situation. What are they going to do next? They should have at least two options, though they may have more. At a most basic level, the two options are sit there and do nothing, or take action. Ideally, there will be no good options. Having good options makes things too easy, and readers don't want to read about someone waltzing through the story easily - they want to see them struggle and strive, so they can root for them, and genuinely worry that they'll the thwarted.

Having weighed up all the options, the character settles on one of the options. The least bad one. Though it's risky, it's worth it, in order to stick to their principles. Now they've got a goal, and the cycle is ready to turn once more.

And repeat

By applying this pattern skilfully to all of your scenes, your story will keep gaining momentum and will feel balanced and real to the reader. You'll avoid having a character that seems to just leap to conclusions out of nowhere, or meandering scenes with no direction.

Of course, you may really need a scene where your character sets out to do something, and achieves it, or something similar which doesn't fit into the structure above. That's fine - you can insert Supporting scenes in where you need them. Just try to avoid having too many of them, or you may find that your story has lost the plot.

Next step: 9a. Settings Part One: mood, atmosphere, character development and foreshadowing

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Six

Extended Synopsis

It's time to expand on your short synopsis. This is a really fun time, because you can let your imagination loose and start adding the detail that will make your story delicious and compelling.

Take your short synopsis and expand it into about four or five pages - but don't worry about being too dogmatic, give yourself a free rein. If it turns out to be ten pages, so be it.

The combination of your short synopsis and character synopses mean you'll probably be bursting with ideas, and getting new ones faster than you can get them down - but these ideas can be fitted into a robust structure, rather than just being an incoherent spaghetti mess.

You'll probably find that you need to keep going back and making small adjustments as you realise this or that needs to have happened, been foreshadowed or mentioned, in order for something later to work.

Having this high level overview but beginning to work the character and story threads together, and seeing the scenes unfold allows you to spot plot holes and inconsistencies early, and iron them our before you've written ten chapters that will all need binning because of the flaw.

This synopsis will not only give you a great grounding for writing a great story with the minimum rambling and wasted effort, but is also what publishers will be asking you for when you want to submit your novel. It's likely to be the deal maker or breaker, before they even read the first line of your manuscript - so you want to make sure it doesn't let you down!

Click here for the next step - full character questionnaires.

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Five

Character Viewpoints

This is a really fun step, in which you get inside the skin of your characters, discover if there are any impossibilities in your plot and give the story a level of depth that you just couldn't get by coming at it from your omnipotent author viewpoint.

What you're going to do, is write a synopsis of the story from the point of view of each of the major characters - taking about a page for each. You should let you imagination loose at this point, so don't worry too much if you run over, just don't burn out before you've done them all!

If your story is primarily told from the point of view of the lead character, you will have to be really strict about their synopsis - if you're getting to the point where you have five pages and you're still in the early stages - it's getting out of hand.

Do your best to try to really get into each individual character; speaking as they would speak, noticing what they would notice and even using metaphors that they would. Does your character use a lot of long words or a lot of slang? Do they immediately scope out the decor of a room, the people in it, or the escape routes? Do they use a lot of sporting metaphors or sea ones, or sensory ones?

Personally, I like to imagine the character sitting on a stool in the middle of a room, being asked to explain what happened - but you don't have to do it that way.

Before you write each character story synopsis, make sure you check over the notes you already have to remind yourself of what you've already learned about your character. This will help you keep it consistent and also inspire the synopsis.

The character story synopsis should not tell the entire history of the character, starting when they were a child (unless that's relevant), but should start at the first relevant point to the story. This may, however, be before the story begins for the lead.

Think about what the character is doing in-between encounters with other characters and appearances in the story. You don't have to know every single detail, but they should never vanish from existence.

By doing this sort of synopsis, not only will you get to know your characters better, but you will make them seem much more real, as it forces you to think about what they're doing when they're not in your main narrative. This starts to give them their own lives, and can affect how they behave when they are in the main narrative.

For example, if you haven't thought about what a character has been doing immediately before your lead encounters them, they may tend to be in a neutral mood, and just hanging around doing nothing, or doing something vague. Once you've walked through the story in their shoes though, you might know that they've just had an argument with their sister, or just received a long awaited letter, or simply just stubbed their toe. How will this affect how they receive your lead?

In this way you can add more interesting complications and conflict, adding depth and realism.

So go ahead and get started on your character story synopses.

Click here for the next step in the Novel Formula - extending your synopsis.

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Four

The Short Synopsis

By now you should have a basic premise, a strong story arc and some information about your characters. If you haven't, check out the previous steps.

• The Novel Formula Overview
• The Novel Formula Step One
• The Novel Formula Step Two
• The Novel Formula Step Three

Next we're going to write a short synopsis of the story. Re-read your premise to make sure it's solid in your mind, then take your skeleton and expand it into a full page with each sentence turning into a paragraph.

Keep in mind your characters and make sure what you're plotting for them to do sounds like something they would actually do.

Evolving your story in this way offers two major benefits:

• You avoid writing a rambling first draft with countless pointless scenes that end up needing to be cut
• When you get to writing your first draft you won't spend half the time tapping your lip with your pen, wondering what should happen next

The story should really start to take shape at this point, and writing the short synopsis should be a great deal of fun - let your imagination loose.

Click here for the next step in the Novel Formula!

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Two

The Skeleton - aka. The Universal Storyline

Now we've got a basic premise, which means we've got the beginnings of a story. It's time to give it a few more bones, and see how it starts to take shape.

Luckily, we don't have to grope around in the dark, guessing at what elements we should include and in what order, to create a gripping and satisfactory story with a good beginning, middle and end. That's because there's already an established series of stages that the vast majority of all decent stories go through - The Universal Storyline

It's based on the Hero's Journey and the Monomyth, but adjusted to be more universal to all genres, rather than focused more on 'adventure'.

It goes something like this:

Overview of The Universal Storyline

Act 1

• Introduction to the protagonist's world
• Call to action
• Crossing the threshold

Act 2

• Mentor teaches the lead
• First challenge
• Temptation
• Dark moment

Act 3

• Final conflict
• Return home

This set of stages can be interpreted in a million different ways to create every story from The Lord of the Rings to The Da Vinci Code to Harry Potter.

Next time you're watching a movie or reading a book, look out for the stages and try to identify the ways in which the author has portrayed them.



Detail of the Universal Storyline

In order to create your own stages, you'll need to know a little bit more about each one, so here are brief summaries of each:

Act 1

• Introduction to the hero's world

You set the scene, introduce your character and their normal life, just in time for them to...

• Call to action

... be torn from it! Actually it's better if they're not torn, but have to commit to the decision themselves. In any case, the challenge is put forward. You can start building sympathy for your character by ensuring their decision is something the reader can identify with and / or respect.

• Crossing the threshold

In order to ensure your protagonist has the pressure on and therefore your readers are hooked into wondering how they'll ever get out of this mess, they should cross some kind of threshold that makes it difficult to get back to normal life. It could be a physical journey across land, the removal of allies, self inflicted isolation or becoming wanted but on the run.

Act 2

• Mentor teaches the hero

Readers want to see a character develop into someone who can overcome the odds. Everybody needs help sometimes.

• First challenge

Time to put your protagonist under pressure. It may be that they have a first encounter with the villain, or for a slower build, it could be the villain's cronies.

• Temptation

I can resist everything except temptation, said someone pithy. Add depth to your lead by giving them a challenge they have to find the strength of character to overcome.

• Dark moment

As you near the climax of your book, circumstances start piling up. Push your lead to the limits to the point they are questioning everything they know, and very nearly slip to the dark side. The closer they get to failing, the more nailbiting it will be. But in the end they pull through, which brings them to...

Act 3

• Final battle

The final battle! This is the climax of your story and you must pull out all the stops to make it great. We'll work on this in great detail later, looking at what makes a satisfying ending, so for now you should just have a loose idea of whether your hero succeeds or fails.

• Return home

Once your climax is completed all there is to do is tie up loose ends, will your lead live happily ever after? Do they return home or stay in their new place? Who is with them at the end?


Now, if you're excited about being given the secret formula to writing an engaging and satisfying story, go ahead and write a single sentence for each of the steps.

If you need a bit more help with this stage, click here for examples of the hero's journey in popular fiction.

Once you're ready - click here to go to the third step in the first novel writing guide.

...

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step One

The Backbone Sentence - aka. The Premise

Note: You may wish to read the Novel Formula Introduction if you haven't already.

This sentence is a bit like the question on an essay exam paper - you should keep referring back to it to make sure you're not wandering off the point. It will help keep you anchored and moving forward at the same time, helping to avoid meandering, wasteful scenes and chapters (and time!).

It will also help you work out if you actually have a story idea to begin with - or only a kernel. And if it turns out you do only have a kernel, it will help you turn it into something you can work with.

So, let's get started...

Every story should contain all five of the major story elements, which are:

• Character
• Situation
• Objective
• Opponent
• Disaster

Let's take a quick look at each of these story elements:

(If you're totally sure you already know what all of these things are, you can skip forward to Creating Your Premise - but you'd better be sure...)

The Major Story Elements

Character

Many people believe that every story is an attempt to understand the human condition. That counts for stories with animals as their leads too. Whether that's strictly true or not, your story isn't going to get anywhere without characters. If you're George RR Martin you can have 30 leads, each with fully fleshed out histories, characteristics and idiosyncrasies, but for now let's just stick with a single lead character. That doesn't mean there won't be more later, but it's early days. Pick one, and note the following about them:

• Name
• Age
• Nationality (this can be fictional)
• Profession

Character examples: John the Plumber (36, American), King Edvard Bearheart (52, English), Candy Collins (19, French, wannabe actress), Patches the Guinea Pig (2, Brazilian, pet)

Situation

This includes setting and external forces. Is your story set in a futuristic factory or a giant-bee infested rainforest? Or perhaps everything happens in a restrictive manor-house in the British countryside. What kind of world does your lead live in? Note the following (don't get too hung up on what each thing means - interpret it however you wish):

• Date
• Place

Situation examples: New York in 2050, Medieval England, Hollywood (current day), A terrible pet shop (current day)

Objective

Your lead must have an objective. People in real life don't always have clear objectives, but many people in real life would make boring stories. Good fictional leads always have desires and goals. What's yours'? Is it to become rich and famous? To save a family member? Perhaps they need to win that critical contract or want to wed Johnny Depp? Figure out what your character's story objective is - here are a few prompts to help:

• Selfish
• Benevolent
• Money
• Love
• Principle

Objective examples: save earth and the people from alien attack, bring peace to warring lands, become a star, find a good home

Opponent

Conflict. Imprint the word conflict on your brain. If you want to write a page-turner that's going to fly off the shelves, then your story must be jam-packed with conflict. Conflict builds tension, excitement interest. A lack of conflict is a big fat bore. There may be multiple opponents; note down at least one. Here are some examples of types of opponents:

• Person / people
• Organisation
• Force of nature

Opponent examples: aliens, ambitious, greedy Lords, disapproving family, the pet store owner

Disaster

You want your readers to care, right? You want them to be gripped, eyes racing across the sentences to find out if the lead makes it? What you need is a potential disaster hanging over their heads. This must be something unspeakably awful (relatively speaking is fine) that will happen if they don't avert disaster. What is the worst possible thing that could happen to your lead?

• Loss of something
• Threat to family
• Threat to the human race

Disaster examples: being made a scapegoat by the government and thrown in jail, declared incompetent by younger brother and deposed, has a disfiguring accident, gets lost in the city street.

Creating your premise

Hopefully now you will have some idea of each of the major elements of your story. Now we're going to bind them together into a single sentence which summarises the premise of your story.

(Remember that word and use it when telling people about your story in order to feel clever)

You're bright, so you'll have noticed that our examples knit together nicely to create four story backbones. Observe:

When aliens attack New York in the year 2050, can John the plumber save the human race before the traitorous government manage to turn him into a scapegoat for the whole disaster?

Deep in medieval England, can King Edvard Bearheart bring peace to warring, greedy Lords, while his jealous younger brother is plotting to have him declared incompetent and overthrown?

The bright lights of Hollywood find Candy Collins seeking her way to stardom, but will she be defeated by her meddling disapproving family and a disastrous accident that threatens to leave her disfigured?

Trapped in a horrible petshop, Patches the Guinea Pig plots his escape, but the pet store owner isn't going to let him go easily - and how will he find a good home when he ends up lost on the city streets?

Note that each of these is a question, and that each roughly follows this pattern:

Situation > Character > Goal > Opponent > Disaster

Now write your backbone sentence using your major story elements and this format.

Ready for Step Two? Click here!

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Overview:

The Novel Formula is a creative writing method designed to bring together established fiction-writing theory, useful practical advice and all the major story elements, in order to help new writers learn their craft at the same time as completing their first novel.

The Formula works on the principle that good fiction novels which sell want are gripping, satisfying, and contain believable, interesting characters.

The Novel Formula uses a carefully structured step-by-step approach to build all the critical elements in a practical, relational way - allowing the characters, plot, situation, opponents and disaster to influence each other and evolve together as the novel is planned, drafted and edited.

The Formula assumes minimum prior knowledge, so if you're already familiar with many of the principles of creative writing, you may wish to skip some of the theory.

Each step contains an achievable task which builds on the last, and includes introductions and explanations of the common features of fiction writing which sells, and examples for clarification.
These are the fifteen steps:

1. The backbone - aka. The Premise
2. The skeleton - aka. The Universal Storyline
3. Character Introductions
4. Short Synopsis
5. Character Viewpoints
6. Extended Synopsis
7. Full Character Profiles
8. Head Scenes and Tail Scenes
9. Settings
10. Advanced Plotting
11. Scene Blocking
12. Draft One
13. Weather, Time, Senses
14. Draft Two
15. Final Draft

If you've followed all the steps and adhered to most of the theory, at the end of the steps, you should have a manuscript in excellent shape - ready to submit to literary agents!


Click here to go to Step One

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