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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36946
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36946
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In classic story theory, a story begins in the normal world, the world from which the hero will be forced to depart and to which they will attempt to return, often transformed. This does not mean a physical journey, necessarily. A coming of age tale requires the hero to leave the normal world of childhood and enter a world of confusion that they are not equipped to handle. They return to the normal world as a transformed into an adult.

The normal world is essential. Until the normal world is established, we cannot tell what the stakes are for the hero, who they are, what they are willing to do, or what they stand to lose or gain.

But this presents a difficulty, because there essential action of the story takes place outside of the normal world. It consists of the expulsions or departure from the real world, the challenges faced in the outside world, and the sacrifices required to return to or to save the normal world. Therefore you have to create and sustain interest in the normal world before any of the story action begins. This is why openings are so very difficult.

The saving grace is that the reader knows (intuitively, if not explicitly) that all stories begin in the real world. They want to know what the real world is like and who the hero is before the adventure begins, because without that the story will not be engaging. In the end, there are not very many story shapes. It is the people who animate the story shape in each individual story that make it engaging.

The key things to cover in the first chapter, therefore, are, what is the normal world for the hero, who are they, and what do they love. Some foreshadowing of trouble may certainly be there, but it must be in the context of the normal world. It must be a shadow, at most, or the normal world will not be normal at all.

But the establishment of the normal world is not about the recitation of facts. It is is about the animation, the giving of life, to the character and the world. This is normally done through incident (though not always) but it is an incident or normal life in the normal world. (Bilbo throws a party, Mrs Bennet receives news of a bachelor moving into the neighbourhood.) Normal life is full of incidents and its these incidents that constitute its character, what makes it normal. The great thing about them is not that they are high drama, but that they are vivid and recognizable as the things of ordinary life happening to ordinary people.

Yes, something is soon going to go wrong and summon the hero out of the ordinary world, but the reader knows that already, because that is what a story is. You won't hook them by moving to it too fast, because the hook has no barb, not power to catch and hold, until the normal world is established.

Paint the normal world. Make it vivid. Give it life.

Original score: 6