How to Rescue Your Heroine’s Unique Character Arc

Unsplash.com — Yifei Chen

When Joseph Campbell wrote his comparative mythology opus, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he set in motion the embracing of a mono-myth that would launch hundreds of Hollywood and novel writer’s careers.

Campbell’s dense academic writing is not for the fainthearted however and it was Christopher Vogler who brought Campbell’s work to the popular masses with his, The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, now in its third edition.

As you may have noticed, both of these works are based upon a male hero figure. For many years, most writers with female protagonists assumed that her journey or character arc would be no different. But it was Campbell who remarked,

“There are no models in our mythology for an individual woman’s quest. Nor is there any model for the male in marriage to an individuated female.” (cited in The Bridge to Wholeness: A Feminine Alternative to the Hero Myth)

Luckily, a few writers have rectified this situation, but before I get to the heroine’s journey, for those not familiar, I will recap Campbell’s hero’s journey (from Vogler’s work mentioned above):

1. Heroes are introduced in the ORDINARY WORLD, where
2. they receive the CALL TO ADVENTURE.
3. They are RELUCTANT at first or REFUSE THE CALL, but
4. are encouraged by a MENTOR to
5. CROSS THE FIRST THRESHOLD and enter the Special World, where
6. they encounter TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.
7. They APPROACH THE INMOST CAVE, crossing a second threshold
8. where they endure the SUPREME ORDEAL.
9. They take possession of their REWARD and
10. are pursued on THE ROAD BACK to the Ordinary World.
11. They cross the third threshold, experience a RESURRECTION, and are transformed by the experience.
12. They RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR, a boon or treasure to benefit the Ordinary World.

So, finally, with all that background out of the way, we can look to the heroine’s…