Dr. Wayne Pernell argues that stories should follow Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey instead of centering on ego. The framework moves a hero from ignorance through trials and a mentor's guidance to confronting their nemesis and returning transformed, emphasizing growth over self-promotion.
Chapters
So instead of telling your story and making it about you, which is very egocentric, one of the things that you need to know in telling an effective story, if you look at the the hero's journey model that Joseph Campbell put together, the first couple of steps is it you have a hero who is in a state of unaware. Their life is static. There's no change. And then there is an event, a trigger event that puts them in a state of distress or turmoil that begins their journey and sets them on a path. Yeah, the reluctant hero. Till they find the reluctant hero. Until they find the mentor or sage, who then guides them through a series of trials and tribulations that allow them to gain the knowledge that they need to over to, in the final chapter, overcome their nemesis, and then begin their journey home.