When you think of a classic “hero,” you might picture the lone wolf type. Yet what about protagonists who collaborate, connect and network their way to victory? Enter the Heroine’s Journey plot structure. Read on to learn all about the Heroine’s Journey plot template, its beats, and how you can use it effectively with Plottr.
What is the Heroine’s Journey Plot Structure?
The Heroine’s Journey narrative structure ‘has always existed’, as Gail Carriger says in her book, The Heroine’s Journey: For Writers, Readers, and Fans of Pop Culture. It isn’t an offshoot of the Hero’s Journey, though both share surface similarities (such as lead characters who seek something).
Gail Carriger summarizes key differences between The Hero’s Journey and The Heroine’s Journey:
What is The Hero’s Journey Plot Structure?
“Increasingly isolated protagonist stomps around prodding evil with pointy bits, eventually fatally prods baddie, gains glory and honor.” (Carriger, Location No. 97)
Compare this to Carriger’s description of the Heroine’s Journey;
What is the Heroine’s Journey Plot Structure?
“Increasingly networked protagonist strides around with good friends, prodding them and others on to victory, together.”
The Heroine’s Journey plot structure, as you can see, favors connection over isolated heroics, and characters often share triumphs rather than a single figure getting most of the glory.
Also key to note: Heroines in fiction, according to Carriger, may be male, female or non-binary. The term does not describe characters’ biological sex, but instead their collaborative approach to power and fulfilling their objectives, according to qualities traditionally considered ‘feminine’ such as valuing the ethics of care.
3 Ways the Heroine’s Journey Template Will Improve Your Story
How will the Heroine’s Journey template help you write a stronger story?
Create Deep, Affecting Connections between Characters
As Carriger writes in her book, for heroines, “Requesting aid is a sign of strength.”
Compared to heroes who go on the offensive, heroines seek and receive assistance, and the more companions or allies they have, the stronger they are due to the diversity of skills and perspectives at their disposal.
Because this plot structure focuses on the power of connection, it helps authors create deep friendships where shared goals evolve as allies support one another.
Build an Appealing, Well-Developed Ensemble Cast
The ensemble matters more than the lone individual in the Heroine’s Journey. This allows you to focus on building deeper, more developed side characters.
As Carriger writes, this also “humanizes” your protagonist, as they are self-aware enough to know when to rely on their own strengths, and when to call on others’ unique capabilities or talents to help them get ahead.
Create Happier Endings for Protagonists
One of the comforting aspects of the Heroine’s Journey is that these stories tend to have happier endings.
Heroines often end up reunited with friends, family, or community, returned to a state of safety (whether they are “safe for now,” or “safe but with a sacrifice/catch”).
In the Ancient Greek myth of Persephone, for example, the kidnapped Persephone reunites with her mother Demeter who hunts for her far and wide (although there is a catch to their reunion).
Example of the Heroine’s Journey Template in Plottr
Ready to write stories where friends, family, or chosen family triumph over adversity?
Here are the beats of the Heroine’s Journey plot structure, with examples from Barbie, the popular 2023 blockbuster:
Act 1: The Descent
The Illusion of the Perfect World/Heroine’s Circumstance
This section introduces the heroine and shows us she believes she exists in a perfect world.
The heroine employs coping strategies like the belief that nothing bad will happen to them, they will be protected by a group, and they can fit in and excel in a masculine role or group.
Example: In Barbie World, matriarchy is the social norm and Barbie believes that every day is a great day where Barbies positively impact and inspire young girls.
Betrayal/Disillusionment
Betrayal, disillusionment, or the realization that the world is not what it seemed disrupt the heroine’s network and familial ties.
Whatever the cause of the disruption, it sets the Heroine on her journey.
- What disrupts your Heroine?
- How does this affect her and her current worldview?
Example: Barbie wakes up one day to find everything has gone wrong. Her shower is cold, her food is off, she falls off her roof, and worst of all … she has flat feet!
Pleas for Assistance
The heroine may initially become hopeless in this beat, but a heroine is all about connection and networking. Rather than go it alone, your Heroine will naturally gravitate toward help and assistance.
What your heroine will soon discover, however, is that her immediate network and seat of power is not the solution. The disruption event forces decisions upon the heroine that she would otherwise not willingly take upon herself.
Example: Barbie consults her friends, and they send her to Weird Barbie, a doll who experienced something similar. Weird Barbie says there is a rip in the continuum: the membrane between Barbie Land and the Real World.
The Actual Descent
To move forward, your heroine must not only give up control, but she must re-evaluate and, in some cases, abandon all of the tools, defenses, and “weapons” (coping mechanisms) she used before.
In this beat, the heroine descends into the new world, and it’s a world that is often driven by patriarchy and masculine ideals.
The descent is thrust upon the Heroine involuntarily, and it moves her away from her seat of power into a world of risk and isolation. This can also be seen as a loss of identity.
- Show that the Heroine’s connections with the “perfect world” have been severed, and reveal their feelings of abandonment
- Show how your Heroine has experienced a loss of identity
- Show your Heroine experiencing a fear of what is new.
Example: Barbie initially rejects leaving, wanting to stay in her “perfect” bubble. Yet she heads for the Real World, which she’ll soon find out is not as empowering as she thinks it will be.
Act 2A: The Search
Isolation and Risk
The heroine faces isolation and risk as she begins her newfound journey, but most of this is very reactive.
A loss of her world means a loss of control and adjusting to new circumstances while trying to achieve her quest. The same rules no longer apply.
Social norms, beliefs, and even cultural ideas and values are challenged. Her original sense of self, whether right or wrong, is also challenged. She must evolve and grow.
Example: In the Real World, Barbie dresses to fit in, but her disguise is a few decades too late. She finds herself the center of unwanted male attention in a way that makes her feel vulnerable and anxious for the first time in her life. Ken, meanwhile, abandons Barbie.
The Need to Connect
Your heroine will begin to form connections throughout her journey. We see a pattern as to when she is most vulnerable and weak (isolation) and when she is most strong and powerful (forming new connections and networking).
- How do your heroine’s attempts at solving problems fail?
- Showcase that when alone, they are not nearly as powerful as when forming connections
Example: Barbie takes a moment to sit down and collect herself. It’s when she connects with humanity — an older woman, the people in the park — that she sees beauty in the journey and finds her center.
Barbie is finally able to connect with her child, Sasha, in the Real World. But this human holds nothing but disdain and loathing for her, claiming Barbie represents an unachievable goal for all women.
Withdrawal: A Visit to the Underworld
A main theme for the Heroine’s journey is that of withdrawal and consequences that follow.
Your heroine’s descent into a different world is similar to a metaphorical descent into the underworld. It can be one of the ways our Heroine may withdraw after a particularly nasty fail at achieving her goal.
Remember that isolation and separation from familial connections and networks only weaken your Heroine.
Example: Barbie is found by Mattel just after her devastating encounter with her child. She willingly follows them, abandoning her human in favor of leaving.
Mattel brings Barbie into an organization dominated by patriarchal values. She wishes to reconnect with her family and go home, hoping to repair the rift between her world and the Real World.
Support: The Goddess
In this beat, the heroine shows a desire to return to the world as it was before, but she doesn’t see a clear path for doing so. Then she meets someone (who may also be a spirit/goddess/muse within rather than an actual “person”) who offers support.
- Show your heroine getting back in touch with, and embracing, their “feminine” aspect
- Reveal acceptance of the following: The heroine is not completely self-sufficient. They actually need help
- Show the heroine reclaiming their initial values, skills, or attributes but seeing these traits differently, not as weaknesses but as positives
- Give the heroine a moment of reflection, peace, and an opportunity to reset
Example: Barbie has a moment of reconnection when she meets Ruth, the founder of Barbie. Ruth reassures her that this new version of Barbie, with all of her flaws, is exactly how she needs to be. Ruth offers her assistance in navigating the building and getting away from Mattel.
Act 2B: The Search
The Actual Ascent
The heroine begins her ascent toward reconnection and achieving her goals by pursuing a second family and a constant network of people to assist her.
- Show your Heroine getting back in touch with, and embracing, connection
- How does your Heroine negotiate for reunification and compromise to achieve the results necessary?
Example: Barbie runs into Sasha, (who she thought was her child) and Sasha’s mother, Gloria, the human Barbie was truly meant to find. She jumps into their car and escapes.
We see a montage of Gloria’s memories. Together, they manage to avoid Mattel, the force that seeks to disrupt and isolate them. Barbie suggests that the best way to solve this problem is to return to Barbie Land so she can show them how powerful women were always meant to be.
Dark Night/All Is Lost
There is a moment in your heroine’s journey where it seems forces and events will be too much to overcome. The odds are stacked against the heroine and the family they have created.
In this beat, despite their best efforts, the heroine fails and must accept defeat. While the heroine has conquered one crisis, this leads to the realization that they cannot maintain the status quo as is.
Perhaps things were not actually right or good as they had been before. Perhaps more is required to achieve the ultimate goal.
Example: They arrive in Barbie Land where everything is perfect and wonderful and women rule … except they don’t. Ken has introduced patriarchy and finally found his own acceptance and power in Barbie Land.
Barbie’s close friends have been indoctrinated by Ken’s skewed version of patriarchy (everything exists to expand and elevate the presence of men) and lost identity and connection in the process.
Barbie finds her original network of family and connection completely destroyed by this imbalance of power. Yet we have hints of a deeper issue at play: perhaps it was always imbalanced in favor of matriarchy.
Reconnection and Renewal of Community and Family
Your heroine still has a network to rely on and mentors from the past to assist as well. As we near the end of this section, it is time for our heroine to rally with the support of friends, family, and newfound community.
Example: Sasha tells her mom that they can’t give up. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be better.
The Power of Connection in Action
Show how a network assists the heroine to achieve the story goal. How do they begin to work together to battle the last, greatest obstacle facing them?
Have the heroine’s family or network begin to function as a team to change the status quo and achieve the true goal.
Example: Barbie and her group begin the process of breaking through the brainwashing and adding the unbrainwashed Barbies back into their network before the Kens can change the constitution.
They plan to turn the Kens against one another, proving that solidarity is more powerful than going it alone. Barbie tricks Ken into thinking she is brainwashed as well.
Act 4: The Ascent
The Final Battle
The heroine and her team are now unified and will thwart their enemy. This is a time of strategy and togetherness as well as eventual resolution and compromise.
The heroine has to give a little to get a little to achieve the main goal. How is the main conflict resolved?
- Show how the Heroine and her team stand together in this final battle and eventually achieve their goal
- Show how certain compromises must be made to solve the main conflict and achieve the main goal
Example: The Barbies, now completely un-brainwashed, band together, stronger than ever, and work to turn the Kens against each other so as to distract them from voting and changing their constitution.
The Kens, thoroughly distracted by their jealousies, fight each other in an epic dance-off battle. Things are tense!
The Barbies succeed in saving their constitution, saving Barbie Land. They also agree to compromise with the Kens, a very important component of the Heroine’s Journey.
Moment of Truth
This is a moment of reconciliation after the major crisis and the protagonist finally overcomes the main conflict.
This is often a return to reconnection and the heroine is able to assist others in coming to terms with themselves and the world around them as she has.
Example: Empowerment comes in knowing you who are. This is something that happens for both the masculine and feminine regardless of gender.
Barbie and Ken are able to realize this as they have their heart-to-heart after the Barbies restore order to Barbie Land.
Ascent to Power or Something More?
This is a defining moment for the heroine as to how she will move forward.
Does she ascend to her previous position wiser and more prepared? Does she change her own role or seat of power for a different seat of power? Where does this resolution leave our heroine?
Example: Barbie meets with Ruth to clarify her role and her own humanity. Ruth tells her that mothers stand still so their daughters can look back and see how far they have come. Another nod to family connection and the need to support another.
The Heroine’s Journey is not a solo one, and Barbie has had a lot of help and support along the way.
Seeing the World Through New Eyes
In this beat, the heroine returns to the original world, but changed.
- Show the heroine returning to the original world, understanding it is not perfect but that she can make it better by sharing her journey with others
- Reveal the heroine’s spiritual and internal reward
- Show how the heroine now sees the world for what it is, and the new strategies for living that have come from that understanding
Example: Barbie returns to the Real World, but she has left Barbie Land a better place with the goal of moving forward and finding more balance. Now, she sees beauty in the flaws.
She knows the Real World is not perfect. It changes. Is unpredictable. It is terrifying. She has chosen to experience humanity with all its flaws in the Real World and has embraced those flaws in herself, no longer Stereotypical Barbie.
In this, she finds her seat of power returned. We come full circle with familial connections. She has also kept her network close, with Sasha and Gloria supporting her as she navigates the Real World.
That’s all the beats of the Heroine’s Journey plot template! Ready to plot your own take on this form?
How To Use the Heroine’s Journey Template in Plottr
Now that we’ve explored Barbie’s story arc, let’s see how to use the Heroine’s Journey plot template in Plottr.
First, make sure you have Plottr installed or get started with a free sixty-day trial.
- Step 1: From the Plottr Dashboard, select Create From Template
- Step 2: Select the Heroine’s Journey template from the sidebar. Then click on Create New Project
- Step 3: Give your project a name. The name will be included on your list of projects so you can return to it at any time
- Step 4: The template will open in Timeline view
- Step 5: Open any scene card to start adding your ideas! You can save the guideline text to refer to, or delete and replace it
-OR-
In an existing timeline, hover over the plus button to add another plot line. On the left side of the box, choose Use Template. Select Heroine’s Journey, and the template will be inserted into your timeline.
You could combine this plot template with others that have a similar number of beats:
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