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Q&A Is it good/bad/neutral to introduce a character's day to day life if it's immediately going to be drastically changed?

In the Hero's Journey, this is called The Ordinary World, and it's important to establish. The Ordinary World is what the Hero must leave to go on the Journey. This World may be good or bad, whole...

posted 9y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/19915
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:49:15Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/19915
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T04:49:15Z (almost 5 years ago)
In the Hero's Journey, this is called _The Ordinary World_, and it's important to establish.

The Ordinary World is what the Hero must leave to go on the Journey. This World may be good or bad, whole or broken, the desired status quo or something which needs to be fixed, but it's where the Hero starts. The point of the Journey may be to get back to this World with the Elixir of Knowledge. It may be to restore a former World. It may be that the Journey itself changes the Hero so much that s/he cannot return to this World, and it comes to symbolize innocence or childhood. All these are fine.

Having at least one day of "ordinary day-to-day stuff" is common and very workable. It helps the reader appreciate that the Hero is _leaving_ all this behind to go on the Journey. If the Hero loves this World, then making the choice to leave it is literally the first step of the Journey.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-12-01T14:00:35Z (almost 9 years ago)
Original score: 7