Step 3: Note the Hero’s Motivational Journey - Framing Stories with God's Story (cont'd)

Framing Stories logo

© 2026 Dane M. Bundy. All rights reserved.

Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment in a series on Framing Stories with God's Story. Click here to read all published installments.

---

Last installment, we discussed the second step in the process: Identifying the Plot and Structure. Now, we'll explore the third step in the Framing Stories approach - Note the Hero's Motivational Journey. 

After examining the structure of the story, the next step is to dive into the inner workings of the characters, especially the hero, which we will place on the illustration of God’s Story.

Storytellers generally build their stories around a hero, or heroin, who wants something. Often, authors present this desire as something tangible (e.g., Frodo wants to destroy the ring) that represents something internal and less tangible (i.e., Frodo wants peace for Middle Earth). In theatre, we say what a character pursues (or what he wants) is his objective. 

Frodo Destroying the Ring

When we discover the hero’s objective (both outward and inward) we can jot them down in the garden of New Creation, showing they drive the hero and the story forward. In many whole stories, heroes achieve their objective. In many broken stories, they fall short of it. An important question to ask yourself and your student is, Does the hero want a good thing or not? The answer often reveals insights about the worldview of the story.

But if the hero woke up one day and achieved his objective with little effort, we would not have much of a story. An obstacle fixes that! An obstacle is something or someone that stands in the hero's path of achieving his objective. It may be a villain like Claudius in Hamlet or an inward-vice like grief, fear, or arrogance.

When the hero makes progress toward his objective, he follows the green line toward New Creation, and when an obstacle blocks him, he retreats toward the red straight line.

More can be said about analyzing a hero’s journey, but the point is that the illustration is a great place to capture observations about the hero, villain, and other characters.

The next step brings together all that we have discussed, as we will trace a story over God’s Story.

 This is the fourth installment in a series on Framing Stories with God's Story. Click here to read all the installments.

---

Dane Bundy

Dane Bundy is President of Stage & Story and Director of Fine Arts at Regents School of Austin.