Story Structure #15: Act I, Stage 2: The Call to Adventure

Time for a change… 

The Call is just that, something that calls our Hero to inevitable change, growth, or both. Stage 2 has one mission, and one mission alone: to change the playing field for the Hero. It is a great place to use all kinds of artistic tools to show the need for change, the crossing of a threshold.

Our short list:

The Call to Adventure

• New energy comes in to germinate the seeds of growth and change that have been planted in Stage 1
  • This is our Catalyst, our Trigger, our Inciting Incident
• Herald often issues the Call
  • Other options:
    • Loss can indicate Call
    • Being shanghaied into adventure when running out of options can be the Call
  • Call can be disorienting and uncomfortable
  • More than one Call is acceptable
• Tools to employ at this stage:
  • Synchronicity – coincidental occurrence of words, ideas, or events can draw attention to need for change
  • Symbols all over the place represent major threshold of change

That’s it. Not much there, but a whole lot there. This is the true start of our adventure, and as such should be treated with great care and contemplation.

A printable version, for your reference, can be found here: Stage 2: The Call to Adventure

To view a chronological listing of the posts in this series, click here.continue below:

• Structure Series #1: First Things First, or Donald Maass Strikes Again (6/8/2015)
• Structure Series #2: Plotting for the Pantser (6/11/2015)
• Structure Series #3: To Begin… a Story Engineering overview (6/18/2015)
• Structure Series #4: Part One (6/24/2015)
• Structure Series #5: First Plot Point (7/1/2015)
• Structure Series #6: Part Two (and Pinch Point One) (7/5/2015)
• Structure Series #7: Midpoint (7/10/2015)
• Story Structure #8: Part Three (and Pinch Point Two) (7/15/2015)
• Story Structure #9: Second Plot Point (7/21/2015)
• Story Structure #10: Part Four (7/27/2015)
• Story Structure #11: Story Engineering Wrap-Up (8/16/2015)
• Story Structure #12: Introducing The Writer’s Journey (8/19/2015)
• Story Structure #13: The Writer’s Journey: The Archetypes and the Map (8/20/2015)
• Story Structure #14: Act I, Stage 1: The Ordinary World (8/21/2015)
• Story Structure #15: Act I, Stage 2: The Call to Adventure (8/22/2015)
• Story Structure #16: Act I, Stage 3: Refusal of the Call (8/23/2015)
• Story Structure #17: Act I, Stage 4: Meeting with the Mentor (8/24/2015)
• Story Structure #18: Act I, Stage 5: Crossing the First Threshold (8/25/2015)
• Story Structure #19: Act II, Stage 6: Tests, Allies, and Enemies (8/26/2015)
• Story Structure #20: Act II, Stage 7: Approach to the Inmost Cave (8/27/2015)
• Story Structure #21: Act II, Stage 8: The Ordeal (8/28/2015)
• Story Structure #22: Act II, Stage 9: Seizing the Reward (8/29/2015)
• Story Structure #23: Act III, Stage 10: The Road Back (8/30/2015)
• Story Structure #24: Act III, Stage 11: The Resurrection (8/31/2015)
• Story Structure #25: Act III, Stage 12: Return with the Elixer (9/1/2015)
• Story Structure #26: Wrap-Up (9/2/2015)