J.J. Hartly January 8, 2017 Articles, Writing
If you’ve read my blog at all or you know me, then you know that I’m a little obsessed with The Hero’s Journey and all of its trappings.
I mostly use “The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler” as my guide to using the actual Hero’s Journey as a writing template for stories.
I’ve recently read ‘Write To Market’ by Chris Fox where he talks about using the “tropes” of your genre to be able to write stories your market will want to read.
After a lot of research and reading, I’ve compiled a list of the tropes used for Heros on the Hero’s Journey. Keep in mind that you don’t have to use ALL of these, just some of them if you want to hook your readers and keep them moving along your hero’s journey.
- Unusual Birth — the hero is born under mysterious circumstances or born into royalty, or otherwise “marked” for greatness (usually an orphan or loses one or both parents at an early age).
- Inexperienced — the hero is usually naïve and inexperienced in aspects of being a hero.
- Stranger in a Strange Land — the hero is often raised or born into a land that is not his own and one from which he longs to escape (often a rural setting and away from cities).
