The Call to Adventure
Dear writer,
My favourite thing about The Hero’s Journey story structure is that it can be applied to our everyday lives. And the most common of the steps we’ve been known to make a connection with is the Call to Adventure.
The Call can almost be synonymous with 'The Opportunity’. If you reflect back to a time in your own life when a new opportunity presented itself to you—good or bad—it was the means for a change and the starting point towards a new direction. That’s exactly what the Call is about. It’s the taste of something new before you get the chance to experience it in its entirety.
In the Hero’s Journey, as you understand, is split into three acts: The Departure, The Initiation, The Return. The Departure takes place entirely in the Ordinary World, the place and state of mind where the protagonist begins their journey. The Initiation takes place in the ‘Special World’ as Joseph Campbell liked to refer to it. This ‘Special World’ refers to uncharted territories for your protagonist. Whether it be a frame of mind, a person or a physical place, it is definitely a new world.
So, the premise of the Call to Adventure is that it’s an opportunity luring the protagonist to enter this ‘Special World’. In other words, the inciting incident, the love interest entering the story, a flash of magic that was once unknown. And they don’t all need to be positive opportunities, but they do need to appeal to the protagonist personally.
A way in which it can be applied is if you’ve made a wonderful set-up of the protagonist’s internal conflict (their wants, needs and goals and the reason that’s holding them back from pursuing them), then the Call to Adventure should tug at that. The protagonist needs to feel something about the call, whether it be fear of what it could be or excitement for what it could bring them. But remember, the Call is only a glimpse, and the unknown beyond that glimpse is what terrifies the protagonist.
The promise of the Call is that, if answered, it is a means for change. When a character is visited by it, or even us writers in our everyday lives, the universe has decided that we are ready to face our fears and begin a new transformation. But it is up to the characters, and to us, to answer. And I love perceiving life that way.
When an opportunity arises for me to face my fears, I imagine it as my Call to Adventure. Do I answer, or do I stay the same? It is the same for your characters. They too wonder whether to answer, because on one hand, it could lead to everything they’ve ever wanted. But on the other hand, it insurmountably triggers their fears, creating this internal battle of deciding whether to remain comfortable in their current life, or enter the unknown, the ‘Special World’.
Because you are writing a story, the protagonist must answer the Call, otherwise there would be no story. But it is worth mentioning that, as you’ll read in later emails, due to the character’s psychological or physical circumstances, they often refuse the Call. It doesn’t have to occur in every story, but it is a general step in the structure.
So, what is your protagonist’s Call to Adventure, and what is yours? Maybe writing a book is your Call, and if you choose to answer it, what an exciting adventure that will be.
Much love,
Elena
