We are all familiar with The Hero's Journey. If you're not, essentially - We meet the Hero in the ordinary world, there is some sort of Call to adventure -- the Hero is like -- eh, I don't know about that, but then Meets the Mentor and because of that makes a decision -- Hell yes! We must go on this journey and the hero crosses the threshold. Then in the second act, The hero is tested, there is a series of complications and then at the midpoint, there is some sort of Turning point. Then The hero has to find the road back, has some sort of Resurrection moment, and returns with the Elixir -- meaning -- achieves or doesn't -- the goal. The end. That's the gist. Something happens, the hero leaves home, has some obstacles, and in the middle has to do something they maybe weren't expecting, but even if they were the stakes are raised, the story turns and then at some point, the hero must go it alone to learn the lesson, and return triumphant. yada. yada. yada.
In theory, the Hero leaves home and only returns until they've defeated the monster and return triumphant. But more recently, we've had writers challenge this notion, noting that in male storytelling, the man typically has to go up against their nemesis and the hero must go it alone. The best example of this is obviously in Star Wars. Luke is abandoned by Hans Solo, has to face his fears alone, he remembers to "use the force Luke" as his mentor had been trying to teach him. He learns the lesson and shoots at the Death Star. Then Hans Solo comes back and Luke is not alone -- he has a place he belongs, but in order to learn that lesson, the hero has to go it alone.
If you've seen any Hallmark movie the setup is always different. The female characters don't leave home, they tend to COME home -- deal with monsters and challenges at home -- then they have to rally the troops -- and RELY on the community in order to win. My favorite example of this is not a Hallmark movie actually, but instead, Black Panther II. In the second film, Shuri goes through a version of this. She is angry and has to deal with finding her own inner strength but unlike Killmonger who she meets in her dream state, she realizes she can change and if she doesn't change, she will end up just like him. So really what we see her do is rather than "the hero must go it alone", in this version, "the hero must rally her community". She does still face Namor alone in that showdown, but the way she gets there she gets there is with the help of her community. And even when she faces him, it's ultimately not about winning and killing him, but about how to stop the cycle of violence and to transform the relationship with the villain into something more.
I'm hardly the first person to notice this alternate aid to structure your story. Maureen Murdock wrote The Heroine's Journey as a sort of counterpoint to the traditional Joseph Campbell structure. Her main emphasis is that we don't need to go on a journey - the woman is already where she needs to be, she just has to realize it and once she accepts the force is within her all along, she'll achieve that. She mostly uses examples of the film Brave and The Last Airbender to make this point.
Then there is also Kim Hudson's 'The Virgin's Promise'. She takes a different approach in that she discards Campbell's journey completely and organizes her storytelling based on acceptance of feminity and sort of going from being dependent on others for what she wants, she has to realize the price of conformity and seek to remedy that. So she sort of 'tries on' the persona she wants to be, but at some point will realize that what she thought she wanted is not what she wants at all and when that happens, she'll be betrayed or found out at some point. Then she'll give up her stuck ways and ultimately choose her light, making it slightly irrelevant if she gets the 'guy' or the 'shiny object' at the end or not.
The truth is this. No one knows anything. We know that our brains typically crave, in a screenplay at least, clarity on what's going on in terms of the plot and then some sort of emotional realization asa result of this unique plot to them. Basically, this movie could only happen to this one person in this very specific way. If you had a sequel you'd have to explore some other theme entirely. The Hero's journey typically works. These other two-story structures, The Heroine's Journey and The Virgin's Promise -- they also work. You need to figure out what your character needs, and what your story needs and then figure it out accordingly.
What we do know, is that you want to go along for the ride -- emotional or otherwise. Use the tools to help you, and only if they help you. If they start hindering your process, you might want to take some time to ask yourself why and explore other non-western structures that can perhaps provide insight.
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