What is Your Hero’s Journey? by Konn Lavery
Your story’s main character is crucial to your readers’ enjoyment. They will experience your plot through the protagonist, which is why the hero’s journey must be flushed out. This will give your story far more depth and keep readers hooked on each page.
What is the Hero’s Journey? It is similar to the plot; however, most of it is internal, which is the character’s inner portion. It encompasses how the character starts in the first chapter and how and where they end up at the end of the book. Their path should be a transformative one.
Some ideas to have your character grow:
- Physical Alteration: Does your character go through an outward change from the beginning, such as a permanent wound or a new location. How does this affect their personality?
- Internal Change: What happens to your character that marks a permanent change in them as a person? It could be the loss of a loved one or a change in their desires due to an external event.
- The full circle: A fun twist is that a character grows halfway through the story only to find it isn’t what they want, and they return to where they were at the beginning.
Multidimensional Characters:
You may have heard people say, “That character was flat.” Or “the hero was two-dimensional.” These reference the depth of the characters and, in our case, the hero. If the character acts as a plot function, they move the story forward and do not provide anything else. That is what makes a character flat. A two-dimensional character is similar, except they may have some backstory.
People are a complicated, muddled mess of good and bad characteristics in the real world. Utilize this in your writing and define your hero by thinking of them as someone you know. This will include their dreams, their fears, wants, and desires. What does your hero want? What are their goals? What makes them tick? Perhaps they don’t even know yet.
A character sheet is a great way to understand who your hero is. Another method is interviewing your character as if you know them. You can ask them direct questions to peel back the layers of their personality.
Knowing Your Hero Creates Their Journey
Once you know your character’s deepest, most secretive traits, you can flush out how they develop in the story, which defines their personal journey. Make them experience events that change them to the core. You’ll have yourself a realistic and engaging hero for your readers. They’ll witness the hero evolving and will be hooked.
