#254. How to Outline Your Novel With the Hero’s Journey
episode
Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice
26 min
1 speaker
6 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the overall purpose of using the Hero’s Journey to outline a novel?
Writing a novel can feel frustrating when you keep getting stuck in the same patterns, whether that's struggling to find time, rewriting the same chapters, or getting overwhelmed by too much advice. To help you out, I created a free guide called 5 Writing Roadblocks Keeping You Stuck and How to Break Through. This guide will help you identify what's really slowing you down and find a clearer path forward. You can grab that for free at savannagilbo.com forward slash roadblocks. One more time, that's savannagilbo.com forward slash roadblocks. We will also put that link for you in the show notes. Now let's get into the episode. You've got a story idea you love, and somewhere along the way, you heard that the hero's journey is the way to structure it.
There's 12 stages, you have a hero who leaves home, faces trials, and comes back changed. It sounds very clean, it sounds very doable, and it seems like it'll make writing a whole novel feel less like an impossible dream and more like a series of steps you can actually follow. But here's the thing nobody tells you. Knowing the 12 stages and actually using them to outline your novel are two very different things. So today I'm going to walk you through exactly how to do it, how to divide your word count into acts, where each of the 12 stages lands, right down to the percentage marks and rough scene numbers for your big turning points, as well as the part that most guides on the hero's journey skip entirely.
And that is what this framework can't do on its own, so you know what your story still needs underneath the hero's journey to hold it all together. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. Okay, so let me paint a picture and tell me if this is you.
You've got the hero's journey diagram saved somewhere. You know the one I'm talking about. It's the circle with the 12 stages arranged around it like numbers on a clock. Maybe you have it pinned on Pinterest or screenshot it on your phone or print it out and taped above your desk. And you've studied it. You could probably recite the stages right now if I put you on the spot or at least name a handful of them. You've got the ordinary world, the call to adventure, the refusal of the call, and so on and so on. And yet, if you're anything like a lot of the writers I talk to, when you sit down to outline your book, you freeze. Because that diagram tells you what the stages are. But it doesn't tell you where they go in an 80,000-word manuscript.
It doesn't tell you how much of your book each one should take up, or how that circle is supposed to become the linear, act-by-act shape of a real novel. So you end up in this strange in-between place.
How does the episode introduce the Hero’s Journey framework and its three acts?
You understand the hero's journey in theory, but you can't quite use it. And that gap between knowing and using it, that's what we're going to solve for today. By the end of this episode, you'll know how to take that circle-shaped diagram and turn it into a novel-shaped outline you can actually work inside. And just as importantly, you'll know where that framework stops being helpful and what your story still needs underneath it. So let's go ahead and dive right in. And I want to start off with a really quick orientation just so we're all on the same page. The hero's journey is a story structure that maps two things at once. It maps your character's external adventure and your character's internal transformation.
And it unfolds across 12 stages that are grouped into three acts. So act one is the departure. Act two is the descent and initiation. And act three is the return.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the overall purpose of using the Hero’s Journey to outline a novel?
0:00–2:54
2
How does the episode introduce the Hero’s Journey framework and its three acts?
2:54–5:35
3
How should you divide your target word count across the three acts of the Hero’s Journey?
5:35–6:38
4
What are the three practical steps for turning the circular diagram into a linear outline?
6:38–10:20
5
Which scenes belong to Act 1 (the Departure) and what do the first five stages look like?
10:20–17:05
6
How are the middle‑book stages (Tests, Approach, Ordeal, etc.) mapped onto Act 2?
17:05–26:34
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice
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