The Weekly TotTot

Hey guys! Sorry this is late, but technically still within the week so I didn't miss the deadline hehe. This week we're going to explore the heroes journey, which is something my literature teacher taught me at some point in late January. Then we are going to come up with a random idea and maybe it'll be a weekly tot later on, who knows, who cares.

1. THE HEROES JOURNEY PLOT FORMAT

Maybe some of you are familiar with the more common sloped plot structure.

In this common format, it's a hilly terrain, with ups and downs for your character. But in the end it mostly goes; exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution. In the heroes journey however, it follows a different format.

It is a circle, where they go from world to world. Many movies and books follow this format, such as Frozen, The Lion King, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Lord Of The Rings, and most mythology, leading to it also being called- the monomyth.

2. Character Archetypes

• The Hero: The main character or protagonist will be forced to heed the call of adventure and go on a daring mission, risking his/her life in the special world.

• The Mentor: The wise old guy whose wisdom serves the hero well. Think Dumbledore or Gandalf.

• The Threshold Guardian: The guardian who guards the gate into the special world, the first challenge/test/obstacle that leads to the character development.

• The Shadow: Our antagonist. Reflects the hero in his/her own distorted mirror. They work against the hero, yet reveal a part of the heroes mind. Ever vigilant, only the hero can defeat them

• The Trickster: Comedic relief, always challenges the state of events. When things are down, the Trickster will amuse readers

• The Herald: The one who brings the news that will cause the hero to go on his/her journey.

• The Allies: Friends of our valiant protagonist, they will be by his/her side for all the trials that will come.

• The Shapeshifter: The one who keeps switching sides. Like come on. Every hates those guys.

3. MAKING A STORY FROM THESE ELEMENTS

Lets start with characters, and see where the plot goes from there.

• The Hero: I'm going to name her Alis, which means wings in latin.

• The Mentor: A wise old woman named Stalo, who tells her that she must go on her journey, and who trains her.

• The Threshold Guardian: Hmm... what about a giant, fierce dragon who breathes frost and flame. Not too fierce, because we'll tame them later. I'll name the dragon Rill, for no particular reason. Perhaps they are under the control of the antagonist, and once freed, they join the hero's side, significantly weakened, of course.

• The Shadow: Queen Truze of Alinda, the evil monarch who controls all of her citizens. Alis can be the only one immune to her control, and so Alis sets out to free everyone else.Stalo can be the first one she frees. There has to be a reason, so maybe they kidnapped someone important to Alis. As for reflecting Alis, Queen Truze knows of a wrongdoing Alis did- maybe she indirectly caused a death and Queen Truze revealed it to everyone. That can work!

• The Trickster: Lolo, after LOL, because they are going to be funny. A short, easily angered person, they are often ridiculous with their tantrums and complaints. They are brave and stand by Alis's side as well.

• The Herald: Carmela, a rude village girl, who draws attention to the fact that Alis disagrees with some ideas that the queen planted into everyone's heads.

• The Allies: Astra and Lily Coccinea, the main character's best friends who they meet along the journey, before the battle with the Threshold Guardian, but after the Call To Adventure.

• The Shapeshifter: Virtus, Latin for valor, but this character certainly doesn't possess any. They are a scoundrel who informs Queen Truze of Alis's whereabouts and plans, until the queen proclaims him dispensable and Alis has to rescue him.

Now let's go through each event in the heroes journey with this template.

1. The Ordinary World: Alis's little old village. Not quite ordinary, but it seems so

2. Call To Adventure: She discovers she is the only one without the ideas planted into her brain, and she is the only one who can defeat Queen Truze and rescue her sister...Skyla.

3. Refusal of the Call: At first, in typical hero fashion, Alis doubts her ability to become a hero. She considers staying quiet.

4. Meet The Mentor: After accidentally freeing Stalo, the old woman trains Alis in combat and wisdom and urges her on her journey, leaving words that will stay in Alis's mind for the duration of the story.

5. Crossing the Threshold: Sometime before this, she finds and frees Astra and Lily, perhaps because the queen forced them to attack her. Then all three fight Rill, and Alis frees him, and the dragon now does Alis's bidding.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies: They free a village, where they meet Virtus, who is initially on their side until the queen offers some gold to betray them. They are unaware of this for a while.

7. Approach: They approach the queen, ready for battle. At this point, Virtus betrays them and the queen sends a small battalion of soldiers out to kill them. However, when Alis trys to free the soldiers, the queen has given them special helmets. Lily and Astra help remove the helmets and they cure the battalion.

8. Ordeal, Death, Rebirth: The climax of the story, they battle the Queen and the Queen threatens to kill Skyla if they continue. Alis gives in, but Lily and Astra hit the queen over the head and free Skyla. The Queen reveals that Alis and Skyla are free from the control because they were part of the real royal family.

9. Reward, Seizing The Sword: They take her mind control crown and shatter it, freeing the kingdom.

10. They journey back to Alis's village. Lily and Astra leave along the way, so Alis and Skyla have a talk on the way back. They could fly back on Rill probably. Who walks anymore?

11. Ressurection: This doesn't really happen, but I guess you could say Alis and Skyla's village have their minds back now.

12. Return With The Elixir: They tell everyone the news, and Stalos is crowned the regent until they find a suitable queen. Time skip, and it's Skyla's coronation, Alis cheering for her from afar.

Well that's it for today. I hope you learned something and are excited to try out this structure. I also want to note that unfortunately, AG will not be posting an Idiosyncratic next week. You're stuck with me! Mwahahaha! Come back next week! Noodly Out