Looking At Harmon's Story Cycle

The Harmon Story Cycle was developed by Dan Harmon, of "Community" and "Rick & Morty" fame. While derived from the Hero's Journey, the Story Cycle is much more suited to character development. That is, while the Hero's Journey is more interested in developing the legend overall and is thus more interested in plot development, the Story Cycle looks more at the character and how that character changes throughout the story. While both track the transformation of the character, the one tracks the narrative path and how that character interacts with his environment and society while the other tracks how the character changes from within and how his perspective changes.

Thus while it is possible to integrate the two to show the character's complete transformation, it may be better to focus on one or the other. A more epic character will tend to be best expressed through the Hero's Journey, as well as any story where the stakes involve societal changes. Conversely, if the stakes are smaller, possibly only important to the character or a small group, then the Story Cycle may be the better choice. Better yet, the Story Cycle can be incorporated into a greater story as a subplot with almost no real problem.

Also, it's interesting to note that a TV writer developed this system, as it works rather well for a short-form project, i.e., a short story. While the Hero's Journey almost necessitates a lot of ink, the Story Cycle works well when you have limited space available. It links rather well to the standard three-act structure, with the second act starting when the situation becomes interesting and the third act beginning when the character makes the sacrifice. As such, its television roots make it a great story-telling device.

Normalcy vs. Transformation

You need to look at the Story Circle as a circle cut into eight equal pieces. Before we even get into discussing the various segments of that circle, it's interesting to note that there are two axes worth exploring. The first is that right (1–4) and left (5–8) halves neatly divided into the normal life of the protagonist and the transformation process. Once the protagonist has learned how to adapt to the new situation, he then starts his transformation in earnest, and things only return to some sort of normalcy when the story is over. In a basic sort of way, this axis represents the mental change of the character.

It is a circle, after all, it's sort of neat that the circle forces us to recognize that every character should be in a constant state of cycling through periods of normalcy and transformation. This of course makes it great for those working on something episodic as the stories keep resetting to a state of normalcy, and it gives those working through something serial a chance to relax. Thus, this axis is great for those looking at writing their stories in the long term.

Balance vs. Chaos

If the vertical axis represents the mental transformation, then the horizontal axis represents the physical aspect of that change. Just like in the Hero's Journey, the character needs to leave his normal world and arrive in some sort of different world, and he must then return to the normal world. This other axis is Balance versus Chaos. The top of the circle (1, 2, 7, and 8) translates to a relatively balanced situation, where the character is in balance, a state where he is in somewhat familiar territory and therefore has an idea of what they are doing and how things will react to his actions. He starts in a world where he knows what will happen, while when he returns he has mastered his new abilities and knows what will happen.

Conversely, the bottom half (3, 4 5, and 6) represents the other world, a state of chaos where the character has no real idea how the world will react to his actions. When he first loses to the antagonist, he is transported to a world where he can't really predict what is going on, and he has no real control over his world. Eventually, he will gain control over his world and/or his new skills and abilities and be able to face the antagonist and win. Doing so allows him to return to his normal world, albeit one that is not the same as he used to be.

It should be noted that this works well with a short story, and the antagonist can be any sort of foe, even nature itself or the protagonist fighting against himself, and the chaotic world can be a training ground, a trip where the protagonist learns new abilities or even is just having a bad day that he needs to come to terms with. The goal here is to just have fun with the idea and see what you can come up with. The two axes are far less structured than the quests and challenges of the Hero's Journey, and thus give writers who don't deal well with structure room to play and explore.

Living in the Comfort Zone

Everyone has to start somewhere, and you may as well start where it's comfortable. This will establish your baseline and allow you to show your protagonist at his best. Here is in control and knows what to expect from his world. However, your protagonist should enjoy this situation for as long as it lasts, usually about the length of a Disney song or two, or not very long at all.

Desire is Found

The protagonist is going to very quickly find out that his world is not very complete and so he needs something to complete him. He may or may not know what will fill that hole in his soul, but he knows that his soul does have a hole in it. This can be revenge on the person who just killed your parents, a need for sex or romance, or even just needs to get out of the rut that he's in; he feels incomplete and now he needs to deal with that incompleteness. This sets up the conflict of the story and the protagonist will remain conflicted until he deals with that incompleteness.

The Situation Becomes…Interesting

Better known as the Instigating Incident, a lot of stuff happens here. First, the protagonist may not know what will fill his hole, but he now gets an idea of what he needs to do to accomplish that, either by defeating the Big Bad, getting the heart of the girl, or visiting the mansion on the hill. Some characters just need to figure out what is going wrong in their lives. Regardless, the character has a clear idea of what they need to fill that hole and an idea of where to at least begin.

The protagonist is also going to get his butt kicked by the antagonist. It doesn't matter if this is an actual butt-kicking, life is going to use him like a soccer ball, or he's going to have to deal with a dorky cousin with some serious issues; he is going to get his butt kicked and get it kicked good. It doesn't matter if the butt-kicking or the moment of clarity happens first (he decided he needs to kick the butt of the person who killed his parents but gets his butt kicked instead OR he gets his butt kicked by the guy who killed his parents and decides to get revenge).

Yeah, there are a lot of butts getting kicked and people getting going on this step.

Adapt and/or Die

The character has begun to expand their capabilities, either through training, experience, or a bit of both. These capabilities can include new powers, skills, other abilities, or even more tricks with those he already possesses. If the character has powers he can't use reliably, he'll figure out how and if he has the potential for abilities he'll figure out how to tap into those. Note this applies even if the character has to learn some sort of knowledge; in some way, the character's abilities must be expanded.

In essence, the character is being put through a trial, and only by figuring out how to use his existing abilities in new ways, finding new abilities, or some mix of the two can he hope to overcome them.

Once the character has leveled up, he should also show that he can use those expanded abilities. Usually, this is by fighting the Big Bad, but it can be as simple as surviving the situation in question or succeeding in any manner of trial, such as a riddle, solving a problem, or some way of proving that he can do it.

[It should be noted that the character may die or otherwise be sent to some sort of underworld in this process, and it may even take going there to learn what he needs to learn. Also, note that nothing prevents the Big Bad from expanding his capabilities at the same time. However, the protagonist should win this particular arms race, and it can be sort of nicely ironic that the Big Bad learns how to negate the protagonist's former abilities even as the protagonist finds ways to ignore that negation.]

Desire Attained

Once the protagonist has leveled up and/or defeated the Big Bad, he should attain his desire, even if he had no idea what it was originally. Heck, it's possible that he just learns what the desire is and is able to act on it. The bottom line is that whatever the protagonist has been working towards sees fruition, and he can enjoy it for at least a heartbeat.

The Final Sacrifice

To actually succeed at the quest, the protagonist is going to have to make some sort of sacrifice. There are a lot of variations on this, and the character doesn't need to lose what he deems as important. There are six basic versions of this:

1. He may find that he has an even greater desire than the one he attained and that enjoying the one desire was enough FOR NOW; this is fine. Sometimes a character realizes that he is fine with being incomplete; that hole provides him with the inspiration to keep going on.
2. He has to choose between his desire and his happiness and sacrifices his desire for that happiness. This is the classic "gets the promotion but has to lose his friends and family, so chooses the friends and family" choice.
3. He screwed up and gains his desire but loses everything else, or finds that his desire has too many strings attached. This is the classic "monkey's paw" option.
4. He gains his desire and is willing to sacrifice everything he is for it. This can be a little dark but it can also be a good thing, depending on the situation.
5. The protagonist finds that he has been holding back due to some sort of limitation, and finds that he needs to let that limitation go to be truly happy.
6. The Powers That Be decide that the protagonist has been through enough and they take something minor from him, possibly even something that may improve the protagonist's life.

The bottom line is that the protagonist is going to lose something in exchange for gaining his desire, and that scale needs to be balanced somehow.

Return to Comfort

Once the protagonist has expanded his capabilities, found his desire, and made the necessary sacrifice, the last bit is that he returns to his world. This does not need to be the world he started from, but it is one that he feels comfortable in, and where he is a better fit. This is a world where he is a part of it, rather than being outside of it. If it was the world he started from, then he finds that he has become a greater part of it, and his capabilities are a better fit than he expected.

At this stage, all that matters is that the protagonist realizes that he is home and that he has found the world where he belongs.

Discover the New World

Of course, once he has found the world where he belongs, he is bound to notice that it is not the same as the one he left, even if that world is physically the same; the flowers will have more color, the sun will be brighter, and in general, he'll find that his experiences have increased his ability to enjoy his new world.

Usually. Since he knows how the sausage is made, he sees the world for the truly dark place it is, and it's even possible that his actions made it darker than it started, possibly even forcing it to go from paradise to dystopia. As long as the world has fundamentally changed from the perspective of the character you're doing it right.

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Again, for those looking for a great way to plot a character-driven story, this method has a lot to recommend it. It allows you a glance inside the mind of the character in question, a photograph of their thinking processes as it were. As such, this is great for character-driven stories, or when you need a great template for something shorter; the lack of the sheer number of tests alone as compared to the Hero's Journey makes this an awesome blueprint for something a little shorter. When it comes down to it, this is a very workable concept for anything you can throw at it.