The Hero's Journey

[Prince of Spires]

Does anyone have a good resource on the hero's journey? Preferably in (affordable) ebook form, but I'll take anything

I've tried reading Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, but after struggling through a chapter with page long sentences rambling on about god knows what I gave up. I might try again at a later time when I feel like punishing myself, but until then I'd prefer something more understandable...

 

[pmmg]

I did read Mr. Campbells book, but I found him very hard to follow. A lot of time with long-winded erudite messages that too often backtracked over itself, which left me wondering what it was really say as well. Given his need to use such a high esteemed voice, I would be unlikely to read anything of his again.

Here is a link to a video on it. Mileage may very.

Generally, it is seen as a cycle a person/hero will go through in the course of a story. From an ordinary beginning, to beginnings of adventure, the challenges along the way, the changes the hero over comes, ultimately to a type of death and rebirth, and then back to an ordinary life which no longer suits them.

A typical infographic wheel looks like this:

Pulled that from here:
The Hero's Journey Examples | Stages of the Monomyth Cycle

 

[Steerpike]

I like the Moyer/Campbell interviews, which are interesting generally and touch on the Hero's Journey.

There is so much Hero's Journey content available online (such as the link from pmmg) that if you don't want to read the Campbell book you'll probably do just as well searching free sources online.

 

[Gerard]

My experience with Campbell was the opposite, I found his book both accessible and prosaic, as far removed from a boring textbook as possible. I remember pleasant anecdotes, colorful descriptions and interesting anthropologic accounts, like the story of the Pueblo water jar boy or the old hermit singing, or the people who grew half as tall and twice as wicked with every generation.

But my memory may be playing tricks on me, perhaps the first chapters were boring. Or perhaps we just have different reading tastes.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

In one of the other threads on here, someone posted a link to a blog about archetypal character arcs. One of them is the Hero, with the hero's journey forming the character arc. How to Write Archetypal Character Arcs

I find it interesting how comprehensive that list of arcs is. There's much more to it than just the hero.

 

[skip.knox]

Are you looking specifically for the hero's journey as a reference in telling stories? Or are you looking for a kind of Campbell-for-everyone reworking of his thesis? There are many resources for the former available online and for free. As for a more formal treatment, I'm at a loss. He was a literature professor, and I carefully avoided those folks in college. <g>

 

[Prince of Spires]

I'm mainly looking for references to apply it to telling stories. I know there's a fair few free resources online, but I like having it stuffed into a single, digestible book, where I can just read from start to finish.

Thanks for all the pointers so far