: Successful stories that don't follow the standard story template? I'm mulling over a story that doesn't follow the standard story template of: Hero (or anti-hero) Hero has problem (or is problem)

Tragedy

Hero
Hero has problem
Hero fights problem
Problem fights back
Hero fails

Self-discovery

Hero
Hero thinks he has problem
Hero fights problem
Hero succeeds
Problem escalates
Hero is transformed and recognized he was the problem in the first place.

Story of the road

Hero
Hero has a string of problems
Hero is transformed with each of them
The sum of transformations leads to victory, for better or worse (downfall/corruption?)

Conflict of many greys

Multiple Heroes
Heroes are each other's problems
They fight and form alliances
Some win, some lose.
It transforms them.

Horror.

Hero
Hero has problem
Hero blunders blindly to discover the source of the problem.
Upon discovering the final clue the source of the problem is breathing on the hero's back.

Unwilling hero

Someone has a problem. Not the hero.
They force the hero to deal with the problem
Hero has two problems
the hero has now the alternative, submit and deal with original problem or fight back.

Fool's travel

Hero has problem
Hero fights problem.
Hero loses, but problem becomes moot through external means.
Hero is none the wiser believing to be victorious.

Story with a twist

Hero
Hero has problem
Hero fights problem
Hero succeeds.
Hero discovers there were seven other problems along the way and they all got resolved through his course of action and behind-the-scenes influences. They were hinted all along the way but only now are revealed fully.

Also, have a look at my old question:
Resources for generic hooks
The answers detail pretty much what you seek, in many more variants.

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That particular structure is called the "Hero's Journey," and yes, there are many stories which aren't.

1984, Animal Farm, Death of a Salesman, Brokeback Mountain — look for stories with sad endings, because that often means the hero
didn't succeed in overcoming the problem, and wasn't transformed.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch is literally a day in the life of a prisoner in a gulag, so there isn't any kind of journey
there.
I realize it's an episode of a TV show and not a novel, but Star
Trek: Voyager had a two-parter called "Year of Hell." Alternate
timelines were heavily featured. At the end of part two, the Reset
Button is hit, and all the alternate timelines are wiped out. The
antagonist decides not to start the temporal mucking about, which
might sort of qualify as "transformed," but no one remembers the
events of the episodes, so no problem is overcome.

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