Hero's journey - multiple main characters

[Montinger]

Hi!
I'm a fan of the hero's journey, but since I am working with multiple main characters (5!) I am struggling a bit with how to approach this.

I've been trying to weave together 5 separate hero's journeys, which kind of makes sense, and kind of don't. I've also been playing with the thought to have 5 separate journeys for my charachters, and sort of treating the group of them as a separate character with its own journey. Which would make sense for the overall plot in one way. It would also make some sense to just use the "form" of the hero's journey for the overall plot in one book, but in a more chaotic way with different characters playing their part in different steps of the journey. I am looking for a inspiration or a more functional way to structure the main arc for all of the MCs, that is a bit sharper.

I am also thinking about letting the whole journey model go and do it some way else...

Anyone else having thoughts on this topic?

 

[Penpilot]

The Hero's Journey is just a plot like any other plot. It's just a specific type of plot. Long form stories usually have many plots. Some are main plots. Some are subplots. Just treat the Hero's Journey like any other plot. You don't need to know anything special to weave them together.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Actually, I think about this a lot. We (I'm one of three) lean into the Hero's Journey as a plot device, with actual Heroes who serve to balance the Universe through their Journeys and Destinies.

We regularly run with multiple plotlines that converge into one. It really is like braiding. What we do is write each storyline independently, and then as we approach the point where they begin merging, we assess the tone and pace we want to set and braid accordingly. Our last book used this very technique.

One thing I'm enjoying playing with is the callback to Cambell's Hero as told through the Heroine's Journey. It would be very interesting to see these story structures used side-by-side. https://www.amazon.com/Heroines-Journey-Writers-Readers-Culture-ebook/dp/B08D5ZSNRB/

 

[pmmg]

Five characters, all on the Hero's journey, is gonna lead to one super whopped villain at the end.

The journey for a story is usually singular, and the other characters are supporting.

But...the journey has a known pattern so all you have to do is follow it for every character you want to be on it.


Looking at it, to have all five characters 'refusing the call', 'Meeting the mentor', and so forth, and all being separate....it feels to me like I might start to see through the template a little. What are the chances all five would have the same pattern? Not one them 'answered the call' instead?

Unless you want the challenge of this, I would advise letting the individuality of the character's shine, and have a few that don't exactly follow this path.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Hero's Journey is one of those where if you know it's a thing you can usually spot it while reading it. It's not a bad thing, I can still enjoy a well executed version of it. It's just that it can stand out a bit.

With that in mind I agree with pmmg that having all 5 follow the same journey and have them meet 5 mentors (at roughly the same spot in the story), and refusing calls, and having all mentors die/disappear, and all that, might make it seem a bit obvious at some point. I would personally consider giving a few of the 5 a different type of tale. Something like a heist or an underdog sports story or a boy finds dragon egg or another different type of tale. It spices things up a bit for your reader, instead of having 5 sequential chapters where in each of them the mentor dies.

A different option you could look at is to give the group as a whole a hero's journey instead of the 5 different characters. So in effect, the group as a whole would be the hero. A bit like the fellowship in The Lord of the Rings, where the 4 hobbits each go on a separate but similar journey.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

Some things to consider: Are they a team or random individuals who happen to be together? in either case, when are the characters together? How many of them at a time and for how long? Are their goals the same? Are the consequences of failure equal?