Dani asked David Wong:

Do you follow "hero's journey" when planning your writing? If so how strict do you think is necessary, if not is there another formula you follow?

David Wong No one should be putting that out there as a requirement, it's just a really reliable formula for certain types of popular stories. I do think it is tremendously helpful as a guide for new writers if they think their story doesn't feel right or meanders or otherwise has bad pacing - here is a structure that we know works and there are infinite ways to play with it, so it's something you can consult and say, "Ah, the second half lacks tension because there's never that moment where the hero loses all hope and doubts herself."

As for how much I use it, the key there is that even if a new writer had never heard of Joseph Campbell at all, they would still be instinctively conforming to a lot of these beats just because they've seen tens of thousands of movies/shows/books/etc that conform to that pattern, so you'll naturally wind up using it just because that's the shape stories have always taken in your life ("Here's where I bet it would be a real gut-punch to have the hero's mentor die, making him feel alone!")

So nobody had to give me a diagram and say, "Okay you need to have your hero in a place where his life is in a holding pattern that isn't giving him what he needs, and he has a chance to leave his comfort zone and go on an adventure, but initially resists..." That's just kind of how most stories start. Then from there it's like, "Okay, what's the weirdest possible way the adventure can show up in his life. What's the most ridiculous possible way he can resist the call to adventure."

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