"There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before."
Willa Cather
The structure of a story is as important as the story itself. A very useful approach to building a tense, pacey, plot-driven book is to learn about the stages of the hero's journey. Joseph Campbell first laid out the stages in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
The ideas Campbell presents in his book are also an excellent set of analytical tools.
'With them you can almost always determine what's wrong with a story that's floundering; and you can find a better solution to almost any story problem by examining the pattern laid out in the stages of a hero's journey.
'There's nothing new in this. The ideas are older that the Pyramids, older than Stonehenge, older that the earliest cave painting.
'Campbell's contribution was to gather the ideas together, recognize them, articulate them, and name them. He exposes the pattern for the first time, the pattern that lies behind every story ever told.'
So what is it? It is The Hero's Journey.
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'THE STAGES OF THE HERO'S JOURNEY
1. The hero is introduced in his/her ORDINARY WORLD.
Most stories ultimately take us to a special world, a world that is new and alien to its hero. If you're going to tell a story about a fish out of his customary element, you first have to create a contrast by showing him in his mundane, ordinary world. In WITNESS you see both the Amish boy and the policeman in their ordinary worlds before they are thrust into alien worlds – the farm boy into the city, and the city cop into the unfamiliar countryside. In STAR WARS you see Luke Skywalker being bored to death as a farm boy before he tackles the universe.
2. The CALL TO ADVENTURE.
The hero is presented with a problem, challenge or adventure. Maybe the land is dying, as in the King Arthur stories about the search for the Grail. In STAR WARS, it's Princess Leia's holographic message to Obi Wan Kenobi, who then asks Luke to join the quest. In detective stories, it's the hero being offered a new case. In romantic comedies it could be the first sight of that special but annoying someone the hero or heroine will be pursuing/sparring with.
3. The hero is reluctant at first. (REFUSAL OF THE CALL.)
Often at this point the hero balks at the threshold of adventure. After all, he or she is facing the greatest of all fears – fear of the unknown. At this point Luke refuses Obi Wan's call to adventure, and returns to his aunt and uncle's farmhouse, only to find they have been barbecued by the Emperor's stormtroopers. Suddenly Luke is no longer reluctant, and is eager to undertake the adventure. He is motivated.
