The initiatory journey, or
The Hero’s Journey
The 12 steps of the scenario Part 2
The hero’s journey more…You’ll understand with the first article the hero’s journey is in fact a journey of initiation. You are going to discover soon enough, that this initiatory journey is valid for your heroes, but also for you : writer. I hope that the wait was not too long. Here are the result of the 12 parts of the hero’s journey.
6 – Tests, encounters allies and enemies
Your character is alone in his adventure/ quest. He can’t go it alone. Especially that at this time he meets the enemy he will have to beat. It must therefore find allies who know the world in which he is. When I speak of world, it is not necessarily another ” planet “, this may be a job that he doesn’t know. Take the truth if I lie, Richard Anconina needs to master the rules of the trail. To do this, he allied with Garcia, Solo etc.. For Marty in Back to the Future, it is a matter of convincing Doc of 1955 that it comes from the future, and then to persuade his father to invite Lorène the ball. Of course the enemy supreme is Biff.
7 – Approach / access to the cave
This is the time in your scenario, your hero goes into a highly dangerous place where the object of his quest is hidden. Often, this place is underground, hence the term cave or cavern. Furthermore, Campbell explains that in many myths the hero has to descend to the underworld to retrieve a loved one, or fighting a dragon. In Back to the Future, there is a small nuance. Marty slips into his father’s room with its combination yellow. It pretends to be a monster from another planet. In this way, it frightens his father, who accepts the help of Marty.
But if you look good, it is a dark place, closed, there is a monster, and Marty wins his fight against his father….
8 – Final showdown / death
We are almost at the end of the quest. Your hero must contemplate the end of it. He must be flirting with death. Your readers must be thinking at this point that your hero has failed. The forces of evil have triumphed and nothing seems to tell them that there is hope. This should be a moment very black. But your character will be re-born, re-appear. It is the strength of all the heroes : the rebirth. Because at this time for your readers/ viewers, there are more ambiguous, your character is the hero. The viewer must identify with the hero. It must vibrate for him, to be afraid, and then in its rebirth, the viewer must explode with joy.
At this time of Back to the Future, Biff has been K. O by George. Marty is on stage and plays the guitar. Everything seems to be going well, but George gives up Lorène on the track, battered hand another student. Marty disappears little by little, it dies. Georges has fallen to the arms again, nothing says that he can come back. It is then finished for Marty, he has simply failed. But George comes back and embraces Lorène. Marty reappears immediately and is playing again.
9 – Award / decision of the sword
It has been successful. Your hero now has this why he started the adventure. This may be a magical object that will restore order to his world. But sometimes, it can be something else, an object, a ship, or other. The reward can be the experience, the knowledge that will allow the hero to live a better life. This can also be a reconciliation. Your character can resolve the conflict that he has with his brother, his father, his best friend. The reward can also be to be loved by the woman after which it ran the whole length of the film.
For Marty, it is that his parents take off to a better start. Biff will no longer be a threat because George himself has held head. Marty knows more about his parents, he will be able to better understand his return.
The continuation and end as early as next week ;o) If you have not read the book of Campbell and Christopher Vogler , I encourage you to do so. Also make a research on the initiatory journey on the internet, through the ages and civilizations. I said at the top of this article that the journey of initiation was also lived in by the writer because each novel or screenplay as the author writes, it is as much travel as he does on himself.
You can also return to the plan of the site to read other articles.
Good Luck,
Tom
Image courtesy of Simon Howden at FreeDigitalPhotos.net