Beyond three and four act story structure, lies the Hero’s Journey.
The Hero’s Journey is the most usable story structure consisting of at least 106 stages and the template for successful contemporary stories, from Star Wars to Al Pacino Scarface to The Incredibles to War of the Worlds to The Dirty Dozen to Midnight Cowboy.
The Hero’s Journey is a valuable template because:
a) It attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.
b) It gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.
c) Interpreted metaphorically and symbolically, it allows an infinite number of varied stories to be created.
One (usually critical) stage of the journey is the Woman as Temptress.
There are two simultaneous manifestations the physical and the spiritual. Using the word “spiritual” can be dangerous as it is interpreted in many ways, but it must be remembered that the Hero’s Journey is primarily about the Hero’s path to another (not necessarily higher) level of consciousness.
Further, though the Goddess is usually manifested as a physical female, this is not necessarily so. The Goddess and the physical female form is symbolic in many ways: of the entity that is the opposite of the Hero; the entity that completes the Hero; the Yan to the Hero’s Yin; the entity or higher cause that causes the Hero to think outside himself; the entity that causes the Hero to not think of himself; the entity for which the Hero is prepared to sacrifice himself; the entity that triggers the Hero’s change of attitude; the reward at the end of the journey; the recognition of sexuality in the equation; the entity the Hero is most afraid of; the entity the Hero is most in awe of; the state that the Hero could never have hoped to attain and so on.
The physical manifestation of the Goddess leads the Hero astray. This is often represented buy the Hero following the Goddess down a path he is unsure of. The path leads downward and into the dark and results in the Hero losing his way, battling a Serpent, undergoing a near death experience and being reborn through some form of baptism.
The spiritual manifestation is this: as this is close to the end of the journey, there is a moment when Hero is suddenly unsure whether he wishes to complete the transition. Thus he is easily led astray and to danger.
One reason for this reluctance is that this is again a Threshold from which there is no going back. Up to now there has been minor change and many a trial but no transition. Beyond this point there is atonement with the father and apotheosis. Beyond this point the Hero becomes another person the father he is leaving his childhood behind and a previous state of being. There is loss in that.
Another reason for reluctance is temptation to explore the “dark side,” in all its forms. It is not unusual for the antagonist to tempt the Hero to his side and the Hero to think about it or, at least temporarily, be led astray.
Spiritually, having been led astray, the Hero realises, through trials, that it is the wrong road that he must revert to his True Calling. Just as in an earlier stage there was punishment for the Refusal, here there is punishment for “not fulfilling his destiny.”
There is much more…
The 106 stage Hero’s Journey and other story structure templates can be found at
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Kal Bishop, MBA
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Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on
