Do you think Dan Harmon's Story Circle applies to a half hour TV series? Thanks in advance for your insights.
Screenwriting : Dan Harmon's Story Circle Question by Sally Turner
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Your story, from a 30sec spot, ten min short, half hour segment to multi hour epic has a beginning, middle & end: That's storytelling. Harmon's story circle works just as well as all the others.
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Dan Harmon can work with anything, the man is a genius. But I think the biggest takeaway from any story structure is the whole ordinary world vs special world dichotomy. It doesn't really matter if you use eight steps or twelve or sixteen, that will depend on your story, your characters and your world.
Personally I write by the motto of "learn your craft, it'll never stop you from being a genius". So I know all the "rules" and "formulas" but never consciously apply them when I'm writing. Maybe when I get to a third draft I'll look at the script from a technical POV and notice that if I applied a piece of a certain formula it may improve, but I don't write thinking about the hero's journey or anything.
But again, it all comes down to you and what helps you get to where you want to get with your characters!
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He also used it when writing Community. Its a distilled version of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" and is an amazing writing tool. If you want to get into more detail there are some really good video essays out there and Campbell's book "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" is well worth a read.