The thing is: storytelling is part of what makes us human. We don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway to be good at it. We can use a storytelling framework to guide us in the writing process.

Storytelling frameworks make our copy and content feel familiar to readers, while providing us with an easy “formula” to follow. The good news is that your content will never feel formulaic, because you can (and should) diversify how you write individual pages or posts. However, the bare bones stay the same.

Storytelling Template: The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is a storytelling template from author Joseph Campbell, and it’s everywhere. It’s one of the most relatable storylines because it basically mirrors the journeys of our own lives.

Hero’s Journey template, step by step.

broken down into three acts

Act 1:
Ordinary World: A character (either you or your customer) is living a regular life.
Call to Adventure: The character becomes aware of a problem or a task that must be completed.
Refusal (of call): The character initially shows refusal — think of a customer who refuses to switch from their current provider despite their pain points.
Meeting with the Mentor: The character meets a person who’ll guide them in the process of completing the task — think of a sales person guiding a lead toward conversion.

Act 2:
Crossing the Threshold (into new life/experiences): The character officially starts their journey of solving the task, like a customer who’s just made a new purchase.
Tests, Allies, Enemies: The character faces different trials in the process of completing the task.
Approach to Innermost Cave: The character approaches the final battle — think of a professional who must now get their entire team to adopt a solution.
Ordeal: The character goes through a battle or showdown — like in-team disagreements or discussions with stakeholders.
Reward: The character emerges triumphant.

Act 3:
The Road Back: Typically, the challenge isn’t over, and the character must deal with “blowback” from their previous battle.
Resurrection: The character emerges with a new power, internal lesson, or external change.
Return with Elixir: The character returns home or moves forward into a new adventure.

We have an ordinary person (what is), and we have adventure that lies ahead (what could be). The transference from one to the other is the journey.

Another great story template comes from comedy writing. It starts similarly: A character is in a zone of comfort. But they want something, so they enter into an unfamiliar situation. They adapt, and eventually get what they’re looking for, but end up paying a heavy price for it. In the end, they return to their old situation, having changed.

The Hero’s Journey: Fiction Example
The greatest story ever told...

Yes, we’re talking about Star Wars. Let’s step through a crude synopsis to see how well it matches Campbell’s pattern:

Ordinary World: In the first Star Wars film, we begin with the rather ordinary Luke Skywalker. He lives on a farm on a desert planet.
Call to Adventure: One day, he meets some robots who need help. They need to find a local hermit named Obi-Wan Kenobi. Luke takes the robots to Obi-Wan, who basically says, “Luke, you need to go out and help save the universe.”
Refusal of Call, Meeting with Mentor, & Crossing the Threshold: Luke initially says, “No, I have all this stuff going on,” but Kenobi, who becomes Luke’s mentor, convinces Luke that he should go. Kenobi trains him how to use a lightsaber, and Luke goes on an epic space adventure.
Test, Allies, Enemies: On the journey, Luke meets the villain, Darth Vader. He battles evil stormtroopers. He makes friends: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia.
Approach to the Innermost Cave: Luke then has to help defeat the super-weapon, the Death Star.
Ordeal: Nearly everything goes wrong, but in the end, Luke succeeds in blowing up the Death Star.
Reward: The la

The Hero's Journey: Business Example

A case study is the story of where a customer was, where they wanted to be, and how they overcame that gap.

This framework helps you focus your creativity.

How to Bolster Your Storytelling Framework with the Benjamin Franklin Method

Benjamin Franklin devised a system for mastering writing

He collected issues of a publication that contained some of the best writing of his day, and reverse engineered the prose. He took notes at a sentence level, sat on them for a while, and tried to recreate the sentences from his own head, without looking at the originals.