Ready to Discover Your Hero’s Journey?

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Ready to Discover Your Hero’s Journey?

Some call it the mythic structure. Others dub it the “Hero’s Journey.” Whatever the name, it is a familiar and highly effective structure of fiction storytelling, especially in the fantasy and science fiction genres. But did you know a memoir of your life can also have a “Hero’s Journey?”It shouldn’t be a surprise. Each of you has a story to tell that includes personal courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities. Let’s take a look at this structure and how it played out in Jacquelyn D. Murray’s memoir Cancer With Grace, published through Adam Colwell’s WriteWorks. As you read, consider how your life story could fit this structure.

Readers are introduced into the hero’s world
Frankly, all memoirs must introduce the hero’s world at the start of the story—usually with a sense of impending trouble. In Jacki’s story, her content life of family and church was suddenly invaded by persistent and unexplainable health symptoms that negatively impacted her quality of life (such as her ability to sing) and eventually led to an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat specialist and a fateful CT scan and subsequent biopsy.

A call to adventure or disturbance interrupts the hero’s world
For Jacki, the disturbance was in the form of a diagnosis: Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Nasopharynx. It is a rare form of cancer most prevalent in Asian men who are heavy smokers. Jacki is an African-American woman hasn’t lifted a cigarette to her lips since high school. It was advanced and required aggressive chemotherapy and radiation.

The hero may ignore the call or the disturbance
Anyone diagnosed with cancer then faces a decision: fight or give up. True to her nature, Jacki chose to fight. She did not choose to ignore the call. As she wrote in her book, “There was no screaming, no dramatic breakdown, not even a tear. At that moment, I simply wasn’t alarmed. My attitude was, Whatever has to be done, let’s just do it.”

The hero crosses the threshold into a dark world
It’s hard to imagine a darker world than a battle against cancer. The threshold passage was confirmed for Jacki when it was suggested that her treatments would limit babysitting time with her grandson Aren. “‘Please don’t take him from me,’ I wailed, weeping. ‘It’ll help me to have Aren. I promise if I can’t do it, I’ll let you know. Just don’t take my baby away!’” A solution was reached and she was able to continue seeing baby Aren. But the incident confirmed her life had dramatically changed. There was no going back.

A mentor may appear to teach the hero
Right after finding out she had cancer, Jacki and her husband Barney left the doctor’s office in separate vehicles (he had come directly from work). That’s when her lifelong Mentor spoke. “I sensed the voice of God. He was speaking to my spirit in His concise, unmistakable way—like His voice and no other. ‘This isn’t about you, Jacki,’ the Lord said. ‘This is about the testimony that is going to come out of it. I will get the glory.’ With His word, I had a peace that somehow, someway, everything ultimately was going to be okay—even though I didn’t know yet if ‘okay’ meant my healing would happen in this life or the next.”

Various encounters occur with forces of darkness
In Cancer With Grace, Jacki then used a mix of vulnerable insights and dramatic scenes to allow her readers to live with her through the moments of mental despair and physical weakness that bombarded her daily existence and challenged her faith. Family, friends, and her own determined sassiness and good humor brought her through both chemotherapy and radiation, until…

The hero has a dark moment within that must be overcome in order to continue
A sinister spiritual attack that must be read and experienced through Jacki’s eyes to be fully appreciated shook her faith and forced her to face her greatest fears. It lasted for weeks, and though she did not have a talisman (a common tool in the mythic structure, like the sword, Excalibur, for King Arthur) to aid her in this battle, she bravely fought, weak and alone, until a climactic moment.

The final battle is fought
During a church service, Jacki was given the opportunity to stand and testify about the sermon that had just been preached. Through her overwhelming sorrow (what she called “the ugly cry”), Jacki was compelled by her Mentor to proclaim, “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks, but I’m declaring that I am healed! I’m no longer going to be tortured by the enemy!” With that, the battle ceased and never returned.

The hero returns to his own world
A few weeks later, Jacki received the result her Mentor promised: she was cancer free! Her book concludes with her health and life returning to normal—but not without its consequences both positive and negative. As Jacki eloquently details, “I no longer have cancer, but cancer will always be with me.” The reader then hears directly from her husband Barney, as well as several family and friends, sharing in their own words how their lives were forever changed by Jacki’s heroic journey.

How about you? Do you now sense a mythic structure to the story of your life that is, well, anything but mythological? Are you ready to tell it to the world?

I want to hear from you!
What is your most heroic moment? What message does it carry that’ll benefit others?


1 Comment

Suzette Howe

April 25, 2016at 10:19 pm

Nice Adam!

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