Hero's Journey (Monomyth): Know How to Get Going; Inciting Incident versus the Call to Adventure

The Hero's Journey is the template upon which the vast majority of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters are based upon. In fact, ALL of the hundreds of Hollywood movies we have deconstructed (see URL below) are based on this 188 stage template.

Understanding this template is a priority for story or screenwriters.

There is only one story.

The Hero's Journey:

a) Attempts to tap into unconscious expectations the audience has regarding what a story is and how it should be told.

b) Gives the writer more structural elements than simply three or four acts, plot points, mid point and so on.

c) Gives you a tangible process for building and releasing dissonance (establishing and achieving catharsis).

d) Gives you a universal structural template upon which you can superimpose your situational story.

and more...

Inciting Incident versus the Call to Adventure

It is worth making explicit the difference between the Inciting Incident and the Call to Adventure.

Often, as in many Romcoms, they can be one and the same. For example, In Annie Hall (1977), that Alvie and Annie meet is both their Inciting Incident and Call to Adventure.

But often, they are separate and distinct. It is not unusual for the Inciting Incident to be related to the antagonism and the Call to Adventure to be related to the Hero's Call to react to it.

For example, in Gladiator (2000), Commodus would kill for the throne (Inciting Incident) and Marcus Aurelius asks Maximus to give Rome back to the people because of the danger of it falling to Commodus (Call to Adventure).

Learn more…

WRITE THAT SCREENPLAY!

The Complete 188 stage Hero's Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.clickok.co.uk/

Managing Creativity and Innovation and related techniques and tools can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/

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Kal Bishop, MBA

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