Charlie Stross#writersCoffeeClub 9/8: The Hero's Journey is garbage. Discuss.
I avoid writing Hero's Journey narratives because they're deterministic. If the reader recognizes it, it drains the novelity out of a story and turns it into a Plot Coupon Quest—in which the protagonist has to ramble all over fantasyland, collecting magic Plot Coupons, until they have enough to send off to the Author for an Ending.
NB: it's OK to run something that initially looks like a Hero's Journey then takes a surprise twist.
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