Previously on my Story Circles series, I introduced Maureen Murdock and her theory that character fulfillment isn't just about bringing home the prize, but wholeness.
Gail Carriger has a similar arc to her interpretation of the heroine's journey, and while I haven't taken one of her courses or read her book (yet!) I know writers who have, and they both come highly recommended. So if you're looking for a deeper dive into this kind of storytelling, the resources are available.
So, like many journeys, Carriger's circle begins with The Descent.
In Act I, we have a main character with a broken familial network. Her pleas are ignored, she gives up power, and withdraws from her community. Her family tries to help but to no avail. She doesn't have a choice in this. She is broken in some way and is desperate to reconnect (with something).
At this point, she steps into Isolation and Danger within The Search.
In Act II, the heroine is now at risk. She is operating in disguise or pretending to be someone or something she isn't. She gathers a surrogate family around her and takes a visit to the "underworld," which looks more like a deep low point or depression.
One of the key differences between the hero's journey and the heroine's journey is that the heroine is building her network (rather than losing it) and is more likely to compromise to get where she needs to be, while the hero is isolating himself in order to succeed on his own.
When the heroine asks for help, she's going to get it, and she's going to get it from a group of sidekicks who will remain faithful to her.
The compromise begins The Ascent, and in Act III she's built a new network, found a new family, and/or reconnected with her old family. She has reached her goal and is whole/complete. As an aside, her success in reaching her goal is typically beneficial to others in some way (i.e. she is not the only one who walks away a winner in this journey).
So again we have this wholeness or completeness at play. This certainly pushes past the hero's journey, which ends after the successful completion of the quest.
Interestingly enough, many YA novels are heroine's journeys, and, if you write romance (which is ultimately about connection), your characters are definitely on a heroine's journey arc.
Like I mentioned previously, don't think you're limited in your gender construction with these arcs. A heroine in a story can go on a hero's journey and vice versa.
So if something is going wrong in your YA or romance novel (or whatever story you're writing that's not on a hero's journey spectrum), try breaking the plot down to its skeleton and plugging in the key points onto this circle to see if you missed a step or pulled a character in a direction they aren't logically meant to go.
(Because these arcs are so psychologically ingrained that readers *will* pick up on deviations, whether they're aware of it or not.)
Be Brilliant!
~Katie~
