Steve Jobs (left) told three stories in his 2005 Stanford University commencement address, each employing the Hero’s Journey story archetype. Dr. Martin Luther King told just one in his famous 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’ speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, employing the archetype The World the Way It Is/The World the Way It Could Be.

A Writer’s Guide to the 2 Most Popular Story Archetypes

Know your heroes

Although I know several great writers, I know very few great storytellers.

Because a story is a particular type of writing that emphasizes an emotional arc of challenge, personal growth, triumph or tragedy, writing a story is a different experience (for the writer) than journalism, or technical writing, or ad copy. To create an emotional arc for the characters, many writers must experience the negative emotions for themselves, and this is why great story-telling is so difficult — because it requires the storyteller to be vulnerable in ways that most writers are unwilling to experience.

Read the updated article for free at https://seagertp.substack.com/p/two-powerful-hero-story-archetypes

Nonetheless, there’s lots of great advice for story writers and most of it you’ve heard already, whether it’s “good stories always have conflict,” or “torture your protagonist.” For example, one of the most successful group of storytellers is at the computer animation movie studio Pixar, and they’ve published ’22 Rules for Storytelling,’ in case you want to know how they do it. But none of Pixar’s rules describe the essential difference between the two most popular story archetypes.