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Is the Hero’s Journey Overplayed?

Jameson · May 23, 2022 ·

Is the hero’s journey overplayed?

When it comes to reading or writing any sort of story with a main character, “the hero’s journey” inevitably comes up as a way to outline and guide the story. A theme popularized by Joseph Campbell, it’s a standard outline of a journey that seems to transcend any individual story, playing out in literary works from all ages, from The Odyssey to Star Wars.

The 3-act sequence follows the same arc: a person comfortable at home is called on an adventure by more powerful forces that stretches them to their limits, finally to accomplish an objective and return home a changed person.

With that broad story structure followed so many times before, why do it again? If you are looking to write an original story, why follow the same formula people are used to?

Familiarity with Options

When Joseph Campbell laid out the formula for the Hero’s Journey, it had 17 parts divided into 3 acts. Not all stories have all 17 parts, but most other models of the journey include the same 3 acts broken out into a similar structure.

Though the underlying structure may be the same as other stories, the fact that there are so many parts to it, spread out across hundreds of pages, means there is still tons of room for variety within the structure. Each of your 17 parts could have a twist, leading to millions of combinations of outcomes within your story. That’s why, even with so many stories following the Journey, every one of them can still feel unique.

People like surprises, but if your story is nothing but constant surprise upon surprise twist, the reader won’t be able to follow along for very long. Things do need to be predictable up to a certain point.

Readers need to be on the journey too, invested in the outcome, and empowered to solve the objectives along with the hero. A “satisfying conclusion” for a reader is one that solves the story’s main problems and ties up the loose ends, which the Hero’s Journey structure almost always does.

What happens in the middle of the journey is where you can be unique.

It Works for a Reason

A good question to ask is, why are so many people in the world, regardless of location or time, drawn into a Hero’s Journey outline?

The best answer is: Everyone wants to be on the journey.

Most people see their lives now as the beginning of the Hero’s Journey story, living a normal life in a plain environment. But, deep down, what if there was something more out there you could have…

What if you didn’t have any fear of traveling to the unfamiliar? What if you didn’t have a choice but to leave behind the things that aren’t really satisfying to pursue a different kind of life? What if a mentor or a god gave you a new purpose in life and the tools to accomplish it?

The opening of a Hero’s Journey is a desirable way to hook your readers in the opening scenes before exposing them to the chaos of the later story. I never personally could relate to a story about throwing a ring in a volcano across the continent, or defeating a galactic emperor.

But the thought of an old wizard or a master Jedi showing up and giving me a mission, that would be interesting to think about…

It’s that kind of opening that gets the reader invested in the rest of the journey.

You build the online community you want

Jameson · April 14, 2022 ·

When it comes to building a community online, you are in control of the results.

You’ve been able to get some traction online and are beginning to build a community. Whether it’s as an online personality through YouTube or podcasts, or through your own brand of online forums, once people regularly start coming to you for content, you have the power to decide who gets to stay part of the community.

If you find yourself in a position where your community isn’t engaging with you in a way you expect, maybe it’s time to rethink how you put yourself out there. You can run a tight ship on the way your community behaves, without driving everyone away.

Set the Topics

A community centered around discussing certain topics is going to piggyback off the topics you discuss first. If you’re running a podcast centered around politics, or gardening, or technical how-tos – you get to set the focus, direction, and tone of the community with each piece of content.

Do you want a community that thinks about new ideas? Research and inform them about topics most people maybe aren’t aware of. Do you want to stir some controversy and bring a discussion? Set yourself apart by taking sides on a topic people can get passionate about.

Be careful if you’re going to start controversial discussions. If people are arguing at you or amongst themselves in an unhealthy way, it’s because you didn’t set the tone correctly. Or you didn’t explain your position very well. Covering controversial subjects is all about setting your points clearly, making people aware of your assumptions, and humbly admitting when you don’t understand something fully. Expect to be challenged, and be prepared to answer those challenges.

If randomness or off-topic hilarious discussions are part of the community, that’s not a problem, but things still have to be moderated. Memes are everywhere, and people will never stop creating more.

Sometimes a topic will be exhausted where it’s not fun for you anymore, or is too far away from the original discussion you wanted to have. If that’s the care, feel free to reign in the discussion towards the direction you want to go, gently at first and more forcefully later for the stragglers that don’t hear you the first time.

If that one guy doesn’t like you changing the subject, don’t worry about it, there are a hundred other people who are happy to see you be yourself and doing what you enjoy.

Predict the Reactions

Before you put yourself out there, recognize the kinds of reactions you could get, or the types of new people you are attracting. If you find yourself bombarded with trolls or negative comments, think about what sort of responses you are attracting.

It’s tempting to be vulnerable online with people you don’t know. If you have a blog or vlog that covers your life or lifestyle, perhaps you open up more about day-to-day life or personal struggles you are going through.You can expect some people to be sympathetic, but expect all kinds of other reactions too.

Being vulnerable means other people will want to give you their advice. It means you may attract trolls who will make jokes for their own humor without thinking of you. Know how people might react to your content. Cut off the negative reactions before they happen by addressing them. Encourage the positive reactions by shutting out negative talk and highlighting the positive comments.

Empower New Leaders

This is an important part of building community – empower others to own the community as part of themselves. To those that have been around the longest that you trust, let them step up, whether as moderators or as contributing to the discussion with their own content.

People may come into the community for you at first, but they will stay for each other and the friendships they make.

This means reaching out to people you may only know virtually and asking for their help. Ask them to help moderate, or to make graphics and designs for you if you need them.

Once those in your community get to recognize these other names almost as much as they know your own, they are more likely to stick around. It’s not just entertainment value they get out of the community anymore, they develop a sense of ownership as they get to know everyone else.

Friction in buying a product

Jameson · March 30, 2022 ·

You’ve written the best sales page in the world. You hit all the customer’s concerns and solve all the problems they haven’t been able to solve. You offered them a great deal at a price they can afford. They said in their head, “I’ve decided to buy this product,” and yet no money makes it into your account, and no product leaves your shelf.

Why?

The customer gave up trying to figure out how to buy the stupid thing you were selling.

If a customer can’t actually figure out how to buy your product, they walk away. And attention spans are short.

I’ve seen it in my own life. I drove up to a drive-thru restaurant the other day and drove away after nobody spoke to me for at least a minute.

Am I impatient? Not usually (maybe that day). I just decided that if it was going to be difficult to place my order here, I’d rather drive next door to the other restaurant that would make the experience easier.

And I wasn’t really that invested in visiting that particular restaurant anyway. Still, they could’ve had my money. But maybe they didn’t really want it. No hard feelings either way I suppose.

What is Sales Friction

When selling in person, it’s easier to see what “friction” exists in the experience for the customer. Perhaps the checkout process is slow, or the product can’t be found on the shelf.

Online, the process is a little more abstract. Every little button click on a website is “friction.” Every text box for someone to enter information is friction. The layout of the website could be friction.

Think of all the parts of a website that cause the customer to pause, take an action, or read something:

Page load times
Finding the price
Payment processing wait times
Button clicks
Links to other pages
Entering information in a text box

Try to Buy Your Own Product

An eye-opening way to see if there’s friction on your website, is to try it out yourself. Try and buy your own product. Go through every step but the last one. (Don’t accidentally charge yourself!) Compare desktop and mobile for this.

Look for the buttons you can press to buy the product. Try and enter your credit card information. And I mean, do it wrong and see what happens.Is there some corrective help the website offers? Are any links broken or misleading? Don’t always trust that just because there’s a label and steps telling you what to do that your customer sees it.

Are there any steps you found difficult or slow? One link not working could cause someone to believe your whole website is sketchy. Every button click and text box during the sales process is an opportunity for the customer to get distracted by a phone notification and forget to come back.

Website Standards

People have been online for so long at this point, they make assumptions on how a trustworthy website should work. Compare your site to your friends’ and your competitors’. Are the text and photos in similar places? Are your eyes drawn to specific buttons or colors? How many clicks does it take for you to buy their product? See if you can reduce any friction you find on those sites.

I don’t think most people are trying to be impatient. It’s most likely people are trying to protect themselves from unfamiliar websites that might try and steal from them.

Most people don’t feel comfortable giving up personal information like their home address if there’s no reason to. Any sort of slow loading screens or broken links and people could be worried that there’s a virus on the other end.

You can’t be there in person to show them that you’re not trying to scam them, so you have to prepare the website in such a way so they don’t have to question the validity of their purchase. It’s like building a comforting entryway into your home. Make them feel welcome at purchase, and they will stick around and come back for more.