Lessons of the Fantastical: Beginning a Journey (The Hobbit)

There are many different formulas for writing adventures, but let’s focus on beginning a “Hero’s Journey.” Starting humble and secure so we can stir up trouble is generally what we want to do. Adventures don’t start themselves!

There are four parts to starting an epic journey. We first start with an innocent world, or location that is safe. Second, we take our protagonist and separate him from that world of safety. We make this transition with a call to adventure. This call to adventure is shown as a major conflict that compels the protagonist to leave their safe world and venture outward. When the protagonist finally leaves their innocent world, we call this “Crossing the First Threshold” and the adventure begins. In the book The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien, we see a textbook example of the Hero’s Journey. First, Bilbo is safe and calm with his pipeweed and comfy home. He is then compelled by the conflict of his guests to set out on a potentially deadly quest. When Bilbo finally leaves the Shire, he crosses the threshold and begins his adventure. This sounds simples but the start of an adventure can take the entire first chapter of a book or more. In film and animation, this can potentially last a quarter of a film or more if there are planned sequels.

If we follow these steps ourselves, we can also start an adventure. We have to remember just four steps: Innocent world, call to adventure/conflict, set out on a journey, and crossing the first threshold. Sticking to those guidelines, we can create any adventure we want.