The First 10%: The Hero’s Normal Life
Before the story gets going, before the adventure begins, the first ten percent must be used to show the hero’s everyday existence, what their daily routine is like prior to the inciting incident. As I discussed in the post on introducing your hero, one of the best ways to do this is to show your hero actively doing something when the story opens. While they are technically active, they are probably engaged in an activity they have done a million times. Most movies do not open with the hero skydiving for the first time, or reaching the peak of a mountain they’ve never climbed before, or winning a prize or a race. By definition, the Ordinary World-the hero’s normal life before the story starts-is normal, boring, and mundane.
At this early point in the story it is okay for them to be engaged in an average everyday existence. The audience and reader’s mind is open and in a learning mode. They are looking for clues and trying to figure the story out, so at this early point they are open to seeing the hero doing a few normal things. That’s not to say that you should spend five pages describing the hero brushing their teeth or getting ready for work, although some films, to set up contrast, do spend a lot of time examining routines like this-Paranormal Activity and Stranger Than Fiction are a few that spend a lot of time setting up a dull everyday existence, but they do this as a technique to offer contrast between what life was like before the story got started, and how significantly it changed after the inciting incident changed the character’s lives forever.
In cases like Shrek, Elf, Daybreakers, Star Wars or Harry Potter, the Ordinary World is something extraordinary and wonderful to us, so it makes sense to dwell in the swamp examining Shrek’s odd takes on grooming rituals, or in the North Pole to take a closer look at what elf life is like. These worlds are ordinary to the characters, but interesting and different to us. In fantasy, future, or sci-fi genres, time needs to be taken examining and exploring the Ordinary World so the audience will feel as comfortable there as the characters are. Examining the rules and the way this strange world works will help orient the audience so that they can fully understand the story, the characters, and the hero.
A big part of the hero’s normal life is the introduction of their friends and mentors. Establishing their relationships helps us understand who the hero is, and often the way they relate to people in the first ten percent will show us how dysfunctional they are, and give us a reference to see how much they have changed and grown by the end of the film. The hero will often grow and learn something while their friend doesn’t change at all, as in Legally Blonde, 13 Going on 30 or Sideways. This offers a contrast and emphasizes the hero’s growth as compared to the friend who represents who the hero was at the start of the story.
Often the hero will evolve out of the romantic relationship they were in at the beginning of the film because they have grown as a result of the adventures they will undertake-as in The Wedding Singer, When Harry Met Sally, About a Boy and most romantic comedies.
Jobs and careers usually change throughout a hero’s journey, and establishing where the hero works and why it isn’t right is an important part of the first ten percent if their career will be a part of the story. In movies about career, like Office Space or The Devil Wears Prada, obviously this is true, but you’ll also see it in non-career based movies like 27 Dresses, Julie and Julia, Fight Club, and 500 Days of Summer. By rejecting the job they had at the start of the story, before they were transformed by the events of the story, the hero is symbolically proclaiming that they have changed and grown and throwing off the mantle of their former life.
The hero’s entire life can and should change as a result of the journey they will undergo, their relationships, their attitude, their perspective, their career, their friendships and their personality will all change. In order to appreciate and understand how significantly the change is, it is important for the screenwriter to spend adequate time establishing what they are like in the first ten percent and showing us why they need to change to really be happy and fulfilled.
For more information on hooking your reader, check out Michael Hauge’s lecture Grabbing the Reader in the First 10 Pages-available on DVD by clicking here.
I recall I gave a script to a reader 6 years ago.
And he gave me a bunch of questions as part of his feedback.
I told him, I’m not touching a thing.
Asking questions is good, thus the suspense.
And my first 10 pages rocked.
Till this day, because they are engaging and not spoon fed.
Thank you for a very clear and helpful post. I am definitely a violator of many of these rules. I often find myself conflicted when writing a blog post because I see myself writing more than people want to read, but I feel that I have to do the subject matter justice by thoroughly covering it. I feel that by following some of these rules I end up cutting out important aspects to the discussion. I guess you have to find a balance.