The writer's journey

THE ORDINARY WORLD.The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma. The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history. Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE. The Hero may want to go on the adventure, but they are frankly comfortable right where they are, and adventures, after all , are uncomfortable affairs. This acts as a sort of literary inertia, where a body at rest wants to stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force. Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.



Before the hero can set out on the adventure, the audience first needs to know where he or she is coming from. We are told seemingly insignificant details about the Shire and what it is like to live there. All this serves to paint a significant image of the Ordinary World. This is the normalcy that the hero will break from. Most of us have enough "normal" in our own lives. The potential hero is sitting fat, dumb, and happy in the ordinary world when something comes along and smacks him into the adventure. During romantic stories, this is usually the first glimpse at the object of affection. If the journey is to be inward, perhaps it is the first time the hero recognizes a fault within herself that she wishes to correct.



We begin in the ordinary world, where everything is status quo. Everything seems ok, and that’s just the problem, isn’t it? Everything is just ok. But sometimes, a soft little voice inside our head tells us that there should be something more. We can’t quite articulate it yet, but we just get this nagging feeling, maybe it’s everyone else, but life can’t be just about this Where am I right now in my your life? Is it where I want to be? or do I get the sense that something’s just not quite right, that something needs to be changed? Maybe it’s not about the external environment, I feel that it’s me who needs changing.



Questions



1. How to descrive your ordinary world, and what do you think about them in your ordinary world?



2.If you are a storyteller, what backgrounds will you set in the ordinary world, and the do maincharacter have an inner and an outer problem?



3. Have you ever experienced 'call'? What kinds of call did you recieve?