Hero's Journey Template: All 12 Stages for Screenplay

Hero’s Journey Template

The oldest story structure, in a workspace built for it

From the Odyssey to Star Wars, the Hero’s Journey has shaped the stories people remember. Joseph Campbell called it the monomyth; Christopher Vogler turned it into the 12-stage roadmap screenwriters and novelists use today.

Skrib turns those 12 stages into an interactive canvas. Map the Ordinary World, follow your protagonist through the Ordeal, and bring them home changed - all on one Board you can see at a glance.

What are the 12 stages of the Hero’s Journey?

1. The Ordinary World - Who your hero is before anything changes.

2. The Call to Adventure - The problem that won’t leave them alone.

3. Refusal of the Call - The fear that makes the stakes real.

4. Meeting the Mentor - The guidance that makes going possible.

5. Crossing the Threshold - The point of no return.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies - The new world teaches its rules.

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave - Preparation, doubt, and the calm before.

8. The Ordeal - The moment your hero could lose everything.

9. Reward (Seizing the Sword) - What they take from surviving it.

10. The Road Back - Consequences follow them home.

11. The Resurrection - The final test that proves the change is real.

12. Return with the Elixir - Home again, carrying something worth the journey.

Why map the monomyth in Skrib?

A journey is a shape. It deserves better than a bulleted document.

• See the arc, not the list. All 12 stages sit on one infinite canvas, so you can spot a thin second act before you write 30,000 words into it.

• Track transformation, not just plot. Run your character’s inner arc alongside the outer journey and colour-code where they actually change.

• Build the world beside the story. Drop maps, references, images, and research files onto the Board next to the stage they belong to.

• Adapt the shape to your story. Merge stages, split the Ordeal, reorder freely. The framework guides you; it doesn’t trap you.

• Draft in the same studio. Move from Board to manuscript in one click, with every version kept in your Library.

Who is the Hero’s Journey template for?

• Fantasy and sci-fi novelists building long, transformation-driven arcs across a series.

• Screenwriters working in adventure, action, and coming-of-age.

• Game writers mapping a player’s arc through quests and branching paths.

• Students and teachers learning or teaching narrative structure with a visual reference.

• Any writer who has a hero and a world, but not yet a road between them.

Start the journey

Twelve stages. One canvas. Your story.