Hero’s Journey Short Story
Your Task:
Now that you have an understanding of the Hero’s Journey, you will write your own short story that follows the
Hero’s Journey archetype.
Your story must:
1. Have a fully developed main character (Hero) who goes on the journey
2. Have identifiable elements of the Hero’s Journey
3. Have a central conflict that the hero is trying to resolve
4. Fully resolve the main conflict at the end of the story
5. Have strong, descriptive language that paints a picture for the audience
6. Follow the formatting guidelines
Formatting
Title and Author Name
2-3 pages
Double spaced
Size 12 font
Times New Roman or Calibri
You will have several worksheets and activities to complete before your final draft is due. These will be
completed in class and will be used to build your story.
Timeline:
December 7 - 8 Brainstorming and Story Prompts
December 9 Using the Hero’s Journey in writing
December 10-11 Creating rough draft
December 14 Type rough draft and Peer Review
December 16 Make review changes and submit
Late policy
If the story is handed in a day late it automatically loses 10%. No stories will be accepted after December 17.
Rubric
Points: 100
Excellent (20) Proficient (15) Adequate (10) Needs More Inadequate
Work (5) (0)
Hero’s Story clearly and Story has five Story has four Story has one to Insufficient
Journey creatively shows six clear elements of clear elements three elements of evidence of
(1.1.1) or more elements of the Hero’s of the Hero’s the Hero’s the Hero’s
the Hero’s Journey. Journey. Journey. Journey. Journey is
provided.
Plot The conflict is Conflict is The conflict is The conflict is not Insufficient
(2.1.1) strong and engaging, story clear. clear. Story evidence of
intriguing. identifies most Story identifies identifies one plot plot provided.
All plot elements elements of plot some plot element.
are present and in chronological elements.
presented in order.
chronological
order.
Characters There is a clear and There is a Characters Characters are Insufficient
(2.4.3) well-described main moderately have a limited not described and evidence of
character who described main description. do not contribute characters are
changes by the end character. All Characters to the plot. provided.
of the story. All characters have serve some
characters are a purpose. purpose in the
interesting and plot.
purposeful.
Details Language used to Language used Language used Language used to Insufficient
describe detail is to describe detail to describe describe detail is evidence of
vivid and is varied. detail is limited, weak, does not detail.
descriptive. The Audience has a paints a vague paint a picture for
audience has a general picture of picture for the the audience.
picture painted for story events. audience.
them.
Mechanics Very few spelling or Some spelling Many spelling Amount of Insufficient
(4.2) grammatical errors. and grammatical and spelling and evidence of
Followed all errors. grammatical grammatical adherence to
expectations and Followed most of errors. Followed errors make the mechanics.
guidelines for the formatting some of the story difficult to
formatting. guidelines. formatting read. Did not
guidelines. follow the
formatting
guidelines.
