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Hero's Journey template

The Hero's Journey follows someone out of the world they know, through a strange one that tests them, and home again with something the old world needed. The twelve-stage version runs from the Ordinary World to the Return, grouped into departure, initiation, and return.

A trail leaves home, crosses an unfamiliar landscape, and returns with a gift for the community.

When to use it

  • Your story is a literal journey: a quest, a voyage, a war, a school in another world.
  • You need a mentor and a threshold to cross, and want to know where they belong.
  • Your ending feels thin. The return asks what the hero brings home.

Joseph Campbell described the pattern in 1949. The twelve stages most writers use are Christopher Vogler's later version for screenwriters.

The 3 acts

  • Act One: Departure. Leaving what they know, and everything that makes leaving hard.
  • Act Two: Initiation. The unknown world, and what surviving it costs.
  • Act Three: Return. Coming back, carrying something the old world needed.

The 12 beats at 90,000 words

The marks assume 90,000 words, because quest and fantasy novels often run past 90,000 words. Each beat keeps its percentage at any length, so scale the marks to your own. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. Ordinary World 2% · word 2,000 Their life as it stands, so the reader knows what is about to be lost.
  2. Call to Adventure 10% · word 9,000 The invitation, the summons, or the catastrophe that asks them to leave.
  3. Refusal of the Call 15% · word 13,500 They say no. Fear, duty, or comfort — the reason is the character.
  4. Meeting the Mentor 20% · word 18,000 Someone who has been further than they have gives them what they need to start.
  5. Crossing the Threshold 25% · word 22,500 They go, and the rules change. This is the end of the ordinary world.
  6. Tests, Allies, Enemies 35% · word 31,500 Learning the new world by being tested in it, and finding out who is who.
  7. Approach to the Inmost Cave 50% · word 45,000 The approach to the thing they came for, and the dread that comes with it.
  8. The Ordeal 60% · word 54,000 The worst of it. They face death — their own, or something they love.
  9. The Reward 68% · word 61,000 They take what they came for. It is rarely what they thought it was.
  10. The Road Back 75% · word 67,500 Turning for home, pursued by the consequences of having taken it.
  11. The Resurrection 88% · word 79,000 One last test, at the highest stakes, that proves the change took.
  12. Return with the Elixir 97% · word 87,500 Home, carrying something that makes the ordinary world different.

In a 110-page screenplay

The same beats, timed for a feature script, because a feature script runs 90 to 120 pages. A script page runs about a minute on screen.

  1. Ordinary World page 2
  2. Call to Adventure page 9
  3. Refusal of the Call page 14
  4. Meeting the Mentor page 20
  5. Crossing the Threshold page 28
  6. Tests, Allies, Enemies page 40
  7. Approach to the Inmost Cave page 55
  8. The Ordeal page 66
  9. The Reward page 75
  10. The Road Back page 84
  11. The Resurrection page 97
  12. Return with the Elixir page 107

A worked example

Teodor, a baker's apprentice in a mountain town, is sent across the passes to bring back the salt the town can no longer buy.

  1. Ordinary World. Four in the morning, the ovens lit, and the bread going flat for want of salt.
  2. Call to Adventure. The salt caravan does not come, and the elders choose him because nobody will miss him.
  3. Refusal of the Call. He says his mother cannot run the ovens alone, which is true, and not the reason.
  4. Meeting the Mentor. A retired smuggler sells him a map and three rules for the passes.
  5. Crossing the Threshold. He goes over the first ridge, where the town's coins are worthless.
  6. Tests, Allies, Enemies. A goat herder befriends him and a toll keeper robs him in the same week.
  7. Approach to the Inmost Cave. The salt flats are held by the lord who stopped the caravans.
  8. The Ordeal. He is caught at the pans and nearly drowned in the brine pits.
  9. The Reward. He escapes with salt and learns how the lord's pans work.
  10. The Road Back. The lord's riders follow him home to the passes.
  11. The Resurrection. Trapped at the last ridge, he trades his salt for the herder's life and keeps the knowledge.
  12. Return with the Elixir. He comes home with no salt at all and shows the town how to boil its own from the spring.

Open this template in Tabularia

Tabularia opens a new Book on the Hero's Journey shape: its acts and a chapter for each beat, named for it, with each note pinned beside the chapter it belongs to. The book's word goal is set to 90,000 words. You name the Book before anything is created.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every beat with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word