Plotting Your Novel Using the Fall of the Hero’s Journey: How to Plan a Spooky Character Arc

As the air cools and leaves fall, October sets the perfect stage for crafting dark and chilling narratives. In this post, we’ll explore how to plot your novel using the fall of the Hero’s Journey, guiding your protagonist through a descent into darkness. Whether you're working on a tragedy, crafting an anti-hero, or exploring the eerie realms of gothic or horror fiction, this approach can bring depth and intrigue to your character arcs. Let’s dive into how you can use this method to plot a spooky character arc that resonates with readers and keeps them turning pages.

What is the Fall of the Hero’s Journey?

The Hero’s Journey is a classic story structure where a protagonist embarks on an adventure, faces challenges, and ultimately achieves victory. But what happens when the hero's journey takes a darker turn? In many stories—especially gothic or tragic ones—the hero falls from grace, making poor choices, succumbing to inner demons, or being overtaken by external forces.

This tragic character arc is a compelling alternative to the traditional heroic arc, particularly in genres like horror and dark fantasy, where the line between good and evil becomes blurred.

Establishing the Fall: The Call to Darkness

In the traditional Hero’s Journey, the protagonist receives a call to adventure, pulling them away from their ordinary world. In a tragic arc, however, the call isn’t to adventure—it’s to temptation or corruption.

Think of stories like Dracula or Frankenstein. The call isn't necessarily external; it could be an internal weakness—greed, ambition, fear—that pulls your protagonist into their fall. As you outline your protagonist's journey, ask yourself: What dark desire or fatal flaw will be their undoing?

Key Elements: An opportunity or challenge that leads the protagonist to make choices rooted in ambition, pride, or fear.

Crossing the Threshold: Embracing the Shadows

In a spooky character arc, crossing the threshold means embracing the darker side of the self. This might be the point where the protagonist makes a critical, morally ambiguous decision, spiraling deeper into trouble.

Use this moment to showcase the protagonist’s transformation from hopeful to hopeless or from hero to anti-hero. Your character might make a pact with a villain, commit a grave sin, or simply give in to despair.

Key Elements: A clear decision that marks the protagonist’s descent. This can be symbolic—such as entering a dark, haunted forest—or literal, like betraying a friend.

Tests, Allies, and Enemies: A Descent into Madness

During this phase, your protagonist faces escalating challenges. However, unlike the classic Hero’s Journey, these trials don’t lead to growth—they lead to further corruption or deterioration. Each test chips away at the hero's morality, sanity, or humanity.

This is where you can use fall imagery to underscore the character’s arc. As the trees lose their leaves and darkness creeps in earlier, your character is also losing their innocence, stability, or will to fight. Introduce allies who might try to pull them back from the brink and enemies who push them further into darkness.

Key Elements: Internal and external trials that push the protagonist into making darker choices. Use rich, eerie descriptions to mirror their psychological unraveling.

The Abyss: The Point of No Return

At the midpoint of the falling Hero’s Journey, the protagonist reaches the abyss—a moment of no return where they confront the consequences of their choices. This is the heart of a spooky character arc, where the hero becomes the monster, or realizes they’re trapped in a nightmare of their own making.

Whether it’s an emotional breakdown, a physical transformation, or a moral compromise, this moment should feel both inevitable and terrifying.

Key Elements: A dramatic turning point that solidifies the protagonist’s fall. Highlight the isolation, fear, or guilt they feel.

The Return with Corruption: Embracing the Monster Within

In traditional hero’s journey stories, the protagonist returns from the abyss with new wisdom or power. In the tragic character arc, however, they return corrupted, broken, or completely changed. This could mean that your hero becomes an anti-hero, or worse, the villain.

Use the return to explore how others react to the protagonist’s transformation. Do they fear them? Pity them? Are they ostracized or celebrated for their fall? The more complex and morally ambiguous this part of the story is, the more haunting it will feel.

Key Elements: A transformed protagonist who can never return to who they once were. The fall is complete, and the consequences are undeniable.

The Final Confrontation: Dark Triumph or Tragic Defeat

Every character arc needs resolution. In a tragic story, the final confrontation often leads to either a dark triumph—where the protagonist achieves their goals at great cost—or a tragic defeat—where their downfall is fully realized. Either way, the outcome should feel inevitable based on the choices they’ve made throughout the story.

This is where you can draw on gothic or horror tropes: the protagonist might face their own inner demons, confront the monster they’ve become, or attempt to redeem themselves only to fail.

Key Elements: A climactic moment that encapsulates the protagonist’s tragic journey. Emphasize the eerie, macabre, and unsettling elements of the story to leave a lasting impact on your readers.

Why This Arc Resonates in Gothic and Horror Fiction

The fall of the hero’s journey taps into the human fear of losing control—whether it’s over our emotions, decisions, or destinies. Gothic and horror fiction thrive on this sense of dread and inevitability, making tragic character arcs especially powerful. In these genres, the hero's downfall can symbolize the fragility of the human condition, and October's spooky season is the perfect time to explore these chilling themes.

Key Takeaways:

Plotting a spooky character arc involves focusing on a protagonist’s fall from grace, transforming them into a darker version of themselves.

Use fall imagery to mirror the descent into madness or moral corruption.

The fall of the hero’s journey structure is ideal for crafting anti-heroes, tragic characters, or complex villains.

Gothic and horror settings allow for eerie, atmospheric storytelling that can heighten the emotional impact of your character’s tragic arc.

Embrace the darkness in your storytelling this October by plotting a tragic character arc that leaves readers haunted long after the last page.

Ready to Take Your Novel to the Next Level?

If you're eager to push past your fears and write the novel you've always dreamed of, check out The Complete Novelist’s Kit—a collection of 30 practical guides designed to help you from concept to completion. With tools to keep you motivated, organized, and focused, The Complete Novelist’s Kit will give you everything you need to overcome your fears and finish your novel.

Click here to check it out

Let’s get your story out into the world!