When I was growing up, movies like Star Wars, The Last Starfighter, and Clash of the Titans were the very definition of Epic Fantasy. So when I was in high school and began the process of crafting my own epic fantasy, it’s not surprising that it was largely inspired by of this type of story.

The Circle Weave was to be an expansive, multi-part sci-fi fantasy epic that could best be described as ‘Campbellian’. Which was a term I didn’t even know about at the time.

Over the years, I tried my hand at revamping and rewriting The Circle Weave a number of times (I think I’m up to the fifth iteration now. Yeek), and every time I’ve found myself grinding on the same problems. The story just falls so easily into the Hero with 1000 Faces trap of following that same stereotypical hero’s quest. And that’s not a good thing. The last thing I want my work to be remembered as is ‘derivative’ or ‘formulaic’. Now that I’m revisiting the story again, I’m making pains to avoid the same traps, and here are the strategies I’m employing:

1. It’s not just about one guy.
One of the tell-tale signs of a Campbellian hero’s quest storyline is that, really, the story only follows one character. Some supporting roles may get some development, but it’s rare for them to be the focus of any major arcs, or even to have much of a lasting influence over the overall story. By developing a large cast of independent characters, each working toward their own goals and with their own challenges, it becomes less of a Hero’s Quest and more of a process.

2. Look for inspiration in world historical events.
Nothing in history happened spontaneously, or was even caused by a single person’s actions. According to Star Wars, Luke Skywalker pretty much single-handedly brought down the evil Empire. But could that believably happen? Not really. George R. R. Martin famously based the intricately woven political tensions of A Game of Thrones
on the historical War of the Roses, where multiple members of the Plantagenet family made claims to the throne of England. Drawing inspiration from history can add complexity, depth, and motivation to what might otherwise be a too-familiar plot-driven storyline.

3. Avoiding Prophecy, or at least calling it out.
Every Campbellian story I’ve read or seen makes at least passing mention of some prophecy or other, suggesting the Hero’s actions were foretold and therefore she must be ‘The Chosen One’. Again, this is too easy a shortcut to character development, and takes away the hero’s agency and free will. When a hero does something because fate dictates that they must, are they truly acting heroically? Wouldn’t it be more interesting if the hero railed against prophecy, instead choosing to take their own future back into their hands and turning the future into something truly unknown?

These are things I’m going to be thinking about a lot in developing this story. Of course, this means that aside from a few of the character relationships and names, I’m going to be changing just about everything from a plot standpoint from what I was going to be doing before. Means a bigger rewrite, mostly from scratch. Kind of excited about that, to be honest. Looking forward to not just breaking this story, but fixing it as well.