Storytelling secrets: the Mysterious Door and the Hero’s Journey
THE MYSTERIOUS DOOR
Since I was a boy I love drawing, I used to spend the afternoons sketching and creating characters while I had the chocolate that my grandmother prepared and in the background a television accompanied me with the “Mysteries of Scooby Doo” cartoons.
I lived in a middle-class neighbourhood and my life was ordinary and smooth. A classic family with two younger brothers, parents who loved each other, and grandparents who spoiled us.
But one day something happened that would change my life forever.
I was 18 years old, I had just started University and when I arrived home I felt that something was wrong.
My father, whom I considered my teacher and best friend too, was having a heart attack.
As much as I ran, screamed and asked for help, everything was useless. Medical assistance came when it was too late, nothing could be done.
That day, I felt like someone had suddenly taken the floor from me.
I said goodbye not only to my father, but also to my childhood, my adolescence, my dreams.
I locked myself in my room and cried every day, afternoon and night.
One of those days, I woke up wanting to honor him and immortalise him in some way.
My father had his workshop, where he spent most of his free time, above my apartment. There he used to make his inventions, plotted plans on his board that he later materialize with tools.
No one had entered the workshop since his departure, so that day I decided to enter, to feel him closer.
I went upstairs and looked for the key that was hidden in a place that only we knew, near the door.
When I opened the door I felt a great emptiness invading me but I also felt that it was exactly there that I should pay tribute to him, because if my father had remained alive it was precisely in that place where I would find him so that I could talk with him for a while.
Upon entering I saw all his objects, including his coffee cup, his glasses, and sketches.
I also saw his blackboard, part of it still had the blueprints of something he had been working on before leaving.
But the other half of the board was empty, blank.
So I took some markers and I started doing what was best for me, drawing.
I ended up doing a very faithful portrait of his face.
Later my family also saw the drawing and each one in silence wrote different messages on the blackboard about how much they missed him and the sadness that invaded us all as a result of his departure.
That same night, I had a very strange dream.
I dreamed that someone was knocking my door and when I open, I saw my father with some suitcases and he said to me:
- “I do not understand why are all so sad, I did not go anywhere, I’m still here don’t you see? I just took a vacation” -
I lived that dream differently than usual, because I felt it very real but the strangest thing is that what woke me up that morning was a caress on my face, but when I opened my eyes, there was no one there.
The dream left me very thoughtful although the day passed with total normality, until the night arrived.
At nightfall, I was alone at home in my room.
I was reading a book when the lights in my room started to fail, blinking and turning on and off by themselves. I assumed it was a power failure, but then I started hearing strange sounds, noises coming from my father’s shed just above my room, listening of footsteps and tool movements, as if someone were there.
I started to feel scared, but I don’t know where I took courage from and I stealthily went upstairs to see what was going on.
To my surprise, the door was closed and the keys were on the outside, so it was impossible for anyone to be in there.
I took the keys, put them in the lock, turned the knob gently and fearfully without knowing what would be waiting for me on the other side and suddenly …
NEUROTRANSMITTERS AND HORMONES
Well, for this moment of the story, your levels of attention and anxiety have increased, because what I have done with my narration is activate certain neurotransmitters in your brains that increase your Dopamine levels , this hormone increases your ability to focus, increases your memory and concentration too while promoting your creativity to the point of wanting to find a logical answer to satiate that curiosity:
What was behind the door ?!
It is a resource that we call Cliffhanger and that is used in every episode of the Netflix or Amazon series that we watch every day.
I want to know what happens to the protagonist: is he saved or is he killed? He will finally discover the truth or will have to continue investigating?
But:
Why are we interested in knowing what happens to the protagonist?
Why do we care about someone that we do not know and that most likely does not even exist?
I introduced the Cliffhanger at the end, but before that I prepared you to get to it.
I did it by increasing your levels of Oxytocin, another hormone that is related to EMPATHY, and induces generosity and confidence.
I open up and start to tell you about my life and how from one day to the other, a normal life, which could be the life of any of us, turns around as a result of an unexpected traumatic episode in front of which I, as the protagonist, I have felt totally helpless and vulnerable just like all of you at some point in your life.
That is precisely what makes you, despite not knowing me, being equally interested in history.
Oxytocin is the hormone that makes us thrill, and makes us feel that we are human.
And why am I telling you all this?
Because the world has realised that people DO NOT buy PRODUCTS, people buy STORIES.
MEMORY
I invite you to think the following:
Why can’t we remember what we had for lunch yesterday, but we do remember, as if it were yesterday, that day when we were 10 years old and we went fishing with our grandfather for the first time, or that song that our mother sang to make us sleep ?
It is clear that we have short and long-term memory , we can remember something we listen to, for example a phone number, for a while, but then it gets out of our minds. (The average person usually retains 7 + — 2 digits)
The point is that there are circumstances that make us remember more about certain things and not others.
Different studies have verified that:
WHAT IS MOST RECORDED IN OUR MIND IS WHAT MAKES US EXCITED
There are brands that if they did not know all this and did not use it to their advantage, today they would directly not exist.
The big brands sell moments and emotions, that’s why what I’m telling you is so important.
And why does it work like this?
Because we are human, we are empathetic beings that to a greater or lesser extent we can achieve to put ourselves in the other’s place, it is what unites us, what connects us, being able to feel what the other feels.
STORYTELLING
Storytelling is just that, the art and technique to tell immersive stories that transcend and help us generate certain emotions.
It is like a chain. A good story creates a positive emotion. That emotion inspires people to take action and, in the case of a client, to invest in our ideas.
When we tell a story, we put our humanity on the surface and that contributes to building trust.
THE JOURNEY OF THE HERO
Joseph Campell was an American mythologist, writer, and professor who managed to identify certain patterns in stories that made them captivating and enduring over time.
He called this narrative structure that he identified after analysing hundreds of stories, myths and legends: The Hero’s Journey.
We can say that there are not many structural differences between parents in Egypt putting their precious son in a bassinet and placing him on the banks of the Nile to save him from his fateful fate, being rescued and raised later by adoptive parents and chosen by God to save the Jewish people Of Egypt.
And, on the other hand, some parents in Krypton, putting their son in a ship to save him from a planet that is about to explode and arriving on Earth with powers to be their greatest saviour against any threat.
Fun fact, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman, were both Jews and not for nothing the name of Superman in Krypton is Kal El, which in Hebrew means: “As is God, is He”
I grew up in the 80’s so for the following I will use examples of classic movies that marked my childhood.
The moments that we can identify in the heroic stories according to Campbell are the following:
1- The Comfort Zone
An initial moment where the main character is in his routine, in his habitat, in his comfort zone (Ex: Frodo in the shire with friends, doing habitual and daily tasks. Peter Parker, an ordinary boy in love with Mary Jane who does not share his same interest and going to a school where he is not popular) .
It is the moment when we introduce our character, but we have not yet identified him as a hero, we simply recognise him as one of us, he suffers and has the same problems as us, it is the moment when we empathise, and it is essential for us to hook and connect with the story that will follow next.
2- The Call to Adventure
In a second moment, something unexpected happens. Our character is bitten by a spider and wakes up with powers, or Gandalf comes looking for him and talks about a special ring that has to be destroyed, or R2D2 appears and offers the adventure of rescuing Princess Leia to save the Galaxy from the Empire, or Morpheo offers Neo the pill and must choose between blue or red.
3- The Journey begins
Here begins the journey properly, our new friend leaves the comfort zone, enters an unknown zone, an extraordinary world beyond his control, where he has to overcome terrible obstacles, loss of loved ones, choices in which he must resign something in order to achieve something else , find allies, mentors (Ben Kenobi, Yoda, Miyagi, or Micky in the case of Rocky) .
The enemies make their entrance and our protagonist prepares to face them.
He begins to grow, he begins to train.
“First learn to walk, then to fly. It is a rule of nature, not mine ” Miyagi would say.
4- The Darkness
But darkness comes , he plunges into a very deep cavern that poses ethical dilemmas for him.
It is the moment when the character feel furthest from achieving the purpose, because has tried to face the monsters but feels that won’t have success, it is the fight against the fearsome Dragon, the emotional breakdown, the moment he feel lost, the worst moment of the journey.
It is the knight, with his broken armor, his torn garments and the sword that has fallen far from his reach.
It is the death of Uncle Ben that makes Peter want to never wear the Spiderman suit ever again, it is Daniel San with the Broken leg thinking of retiring from the tournament, it is Rocky on the floor of the Ring seriously doubting whether he should have risen to the challenge of fighting or not.
5- Inflection point
Here is the turning point in the story, because our hero realizes that he will not achieve his purpose unless he overcomes something, discovers or realizes something in particular. And in order to overcome this have to appeal to “something” that has learned or obtained during the trip or training. Could be knowledge of himself or remembers that words that some Master once said to him.
The key here is to take responsibility and face fear:
“Great power carries great responsibility”, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time we have been given”, “The fight does not end until the bell rings”, “It is okay to lose against the opponent but not against fear ”, “ Fear is the way to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. “
‘’ Why do we fall Bruce? To learn to get up ‘’ would say Thomas Wayne
6- The hero rises
Now our main character stands up , comes out of the darkness and puts everything he has learned into play to overcome that obstacle and be victorious.
And we all celebrate that victory with him, not because we feel identified with victory but because we identify ourselves with his struggle to excel, we saw him suffer, we saw him lose, but now we see him get up, stand up and walk again.
7- Homecoming
But the history does not finish there.
Now the character returns to his world , returns to his ordinary life, but is no longer the same, returns transformed, is no longer the same person who started the journey.
What generates attraction is not perfection but our struggle, our journey, the weakness that we admit and how we overcome and resolved it
He may or may not have achieved the purpose, but now he is a new person, not because he has succeeded but because he learned something along the way and it was that he learned and exceeded that made him precisely a HERO.
«… and once the storm ends, you will not remember how you did it, how you survived. You won’t even be sure that the storm is really over. But one thing is certain, when you get out of that storm, you will not be the same person who entered it. That’s what this storm is about.
(Haruki Murakami)
NOTE: I know, and you will tell me: “Ey Nico, was the story you told us at the beginning real? You didn’t tell us in the end what was behind the door!!!”
Yes, it was real, but I’d better leave it for the next chapter.
