12. Hero's Journey and Virgin's Promise

Story Structures for Writers: The Hero’s Journey and The Virgin’s Promise

Beth Barany outlines the 12 Stages of the Hero’s Journey, briefly defining each step from the ordinary world through the call to adventure, refusal, mentor intervention, acceptance, entering the special world with tests and enemies, approaching the inmost cave, the ordeal, reward, the road back, a final showdown (resurrection), and returning to the community with a gift.

She then introduces Kim Hudson’s The Virgin’s Promise as a 13-step “Virgin Archetypal Journey,” moving from a dependent world and conformity pressures to shining, revealing a secret dream, outgrowing the old world, being noticed, giving up an old identity, causing chaos, wandering in the wilderness, choosing her light, reordering or rescuing, and a brighter kingdom.

Beth contrasts the Hero’s Journey (often leaving home) with The Virgin’s Promise (happening at home), recommends further research, and notes the three-act structure is covered elsewhere.

00:00 Heroes Journey Stages
 02:24 Virgins Promise Journey
 04:36 Comparing Two Journeys
 05:18 Wrap Up Next Steps

---

♦︎ JOIN THE MEMBERSHIP: For fiction writers! You've finished your first draft! Congrats! Now what?

Join the Edit the Future: Sci‑Fi/Fantasy Revision Lab. Get premium weekly lessons and a monthly Q&A on Zoom. Subscribe: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2012061/subscribe

♥︎ FREE: Sign up here for the Edit Your Novel Checklist

Helps writers revise faster with less overwhelm by focusing first on diagnosis, not fixing. 

Get yours at http://edityournovelchecklist.com.

♡ SHOP: Sci‑Fi & Fantasy 24 Writing Prompts: https://ko-fi.com/s/4ac9160a74

❤️ Want to be interviewed on the podcast? => Email us!

CONNECT WITH BETH

• via email
• via LinkedIn

CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT (Affiliate link)
MUSIC: Uppbeat.io
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465

Transcript

0:00

Next is the hero's journey. There are 12 stages in the hero's journey. Many of you are probably familiar with that. I'm gonna go through them and say just a few words about each one. You have ordinary world. So what is their life like before the change? Then you have num- That's number one. Number two is the call to action or the call to adventure. Something happens in their life that tells them they need to do something different. They have to go on an adventure. They have to take some kind of action. Number three is refusal of the call. They say, "No, no, no, no. I can't do this. I'm not up to it. no, thanks." Number four is the intervention of the mentor. Some, either a person in the story comes in and says, "Here's some wisdom and why you need to get up and get out the door," or sometimes it is a remembered mentor, someone who they, learned from, previously who is not in front of them. Number five, they accept the call. "All right, I'm gonna do this thing." Number six is enter the special world, which includes tests, allies, and enemies. They meet friends. They're tested. They start to face the enemy. Number seven is the approach to the inmost cave. That's where they start to go into facing their darkest, deepest fear. It's the approach, often the montage of training in films. Number eight is the confrontation or the ordeal or virtual death where they f- face their demons or face the dragon. This is where they confront the thing that they are the most scared of. They triumph, and so they Number nine is reward, receiving the reward. What might that be? It could be a wisdom. It could be a thing. Number 10, the road back. This is where you often see the hero coming back home. She is tired but, maybe anxious even, but also satisfied usually, maybe sometimes a little worried. Number 11 is usually a final showdown with the enemy. So it's called purification, transformation, or resurrection. This is where, maybe out of nowhere, the enemy comes and jumps on them again, and they have to fight the enemy. Number 12 is triumph or return to the community with the gift, where they come back home, and they're reunited with everyone, and they bring their wisdom, and they bring the thing they retrieved. so that's the hero's journey. the last one I want to talk about is The Virgin's Promise, by Kim Hudson. So there's 13 steps in, the Virgin Archetypal Journey So we have the first step is dependent world, where they are dependent on the people around them to support them, to define them. Number two is the price of conformity. They are now confronted with the cost of conforming to the way everyone else wants them to live. Number three is the opportunity to shine. They get to stand up and show their light and their brilliance. Number four is dresses the part. Maybe they're thrust into more of the way they are... People see their skills now, and now they have to dress the part even if they don't feel like it. Number five is secret world. We find out what is their big dream. What is it that they really want deep inside? Number six no longer fits her world. She has grown into this new role, this new version of herself, and is chafing at the way things have been since the beginning. Number seven, caught shining. She does something brilliant that shows off her skills, who she really is, and people notice. People outside of her in-innermost circle notice. Number eight, gives up what kept her stuck. She really has to face letting go of that old identity to become this new version of herself. And because of that, number nine, kingdom is in chaos. Everybody is upset with her for changing who she is Number 10, wanders in the wilderness. Maybe a time alone, a time to be running away, trying to run away from everything, confused, lost. Number 11, chooses her light. Here's where the protagonist chooses to be the new identity. Reordering, number 12, or rescue. Sometimes they use their own skills to rescue others, or they reorganize how things are set up in their life. And number 13, the kingdom is brighter. The whole community gets to see how, because of their new identity, they get to be a benefit to all. Now, just, I'm gonna contrast also right now Hero's Journey and The Virgin's Promise. The Virgin's Promise was written in response to the Hero's Journey because in the Hero's Journey, typically the hero goes out and leaves their community and is t- typically a solo adventurer. Although those aren't the stories I write. I bring people together with my hero. So, but The Virgin's Promise, or this, this, virgin archetypal journey is actually happening all at home, in the town, in the city, in the region, in... They don't leave home. So that's one of the biggest contrasts in this kind of story. so I'd recommend reading the book for deeper insights into that. So I've given you four different, story structures, and now I recommend that you do some more research and think about where does your story fit and where do you resonate with as a writer. Now, I didn't talk about all the story structures, obviously, and one I didn't talk about was the three-act structure that Plato laid down. I cover that in another episode. All right, that's it for this week, everyone, and happy writing.