Hello!
It is officially Day 7, which means you’re a full week into this challenge and somehow also a full week into 2026, which still feels a little surreal to me. I’m having a lot of fun, and I really hope you are too. Getting to know you, your stories, your characters, and the different writing paths you’re all on has been genuinely one of the best parts of this challenge for me.
Before we get into today’s lesson, I just have two quick bits of housekeeping.
House Keeping
Now that we’re past the longer, zoomed-out lecture from a couple of days ago, the work is going to start getting a little more intense. That also means I’m going to be spending more time giving feedback, answering questions, and really engaging with what you’re posting.
Because of that: Today is the last day I’d recommend anyone joining the challenge and starting from day one.
If you’ve been watching quietly, or you know someone who’s been thinking about joining, today is the moment. After this point it’s going to be genuinely hard for me to keep going back more than a week to answer new questions properly.
(A quick note on replies: if you’ve commented or posted in the chat and I haven’t replied, that means I’ve accidentally missed it: not that I’m ignoring you. I’m replying to everyone. Please repost your comment or email me and I’ll make sure I see it.)
Our first live Q&A is happening this Friday the 9th at 8pm UK time, right here on Substack.
We’re doing two lives during the challenge, and this is the first one. I’m starting to collect questions today, and there’s a button below where you can submit yours. If you’re able to send questions in advance, that really helps; it gives me time to think them through and answer them properly.
If you can make the live, there will also be a chat so we can talk in real time. If you can’t make it, no problem at all: there will be a replay, so just be sure to submit your question beforehand.
Okay. That’s it for housekeeping. Let’s get into today’s lesson.
Today’s focus: the Ordinary World
Now that we know who your Hero is, we need to understand the Ordinary World they live in: their everyday life, before anything changes. This is how we establish contrast. Without a clear sense of what “normal” looks like for your hero, the adventure doesn’t land with the same weight.
This part of the story is also where we deliver exposition: all the background information your reader needs in order to understand what’s happening later.
Relationships, history, rules, power dynamics, expectations. The tricky part is that exposition is where writing can get sloppy very quickly.
We’ve all seen it done badly. Someone walks into a room and says something like, “Hello, husband,” just so the audience knows who’s married to whom. It’s obvious, it’s clunky, and it pulls you straight out of the story. What we want instead is exposition that feels immersive, not instructional—information that the reader absorbs without feeling spoon-fed.
So when you’re building the ordinary world, here’s the kind of information your reader needs to pick up:
what a normal day looks like for your hero
their daily habits and routines
their key relationships
objects that matter to them
the rules of their world (even if it looks like our world)
what they expect life to look like going forward
what they want at this stage of the story
how their core flaw already shows up in how they live
Even if your story is set in a world that looks exactly like ours, your hero still has a very specific version of reality that keeps them feeling safe. Those rules—personal, social, emotional—matter.
In books, this usually plays out across the first two chapters. In films, it’s roughly the first 20 minutes. We’re meeting the hero where they are, dropping into a moment in time, and letting the reader get oriented before anything is disrupted.
Tips & Tricks
There are a few clean, effective devices you can use to introduce the Ordinary World without stopping the story to explain it.
Outsider tour. This works especially well if the world is unfamiliar, or if the hero is new to a situation. A character who already knows the world gives a tour to someone who doesn’t, and the reader learns alongside them. Think of the cafeteria scene in Mean Girls, or Harry being shown around Hogwarts.
Rule enforcer. Someone in the world corrects behaviour, points out what’s being done wrong, or enforces boundaries. From that correction, we learn what the rules are.
Breaking a rule (or almost breaking one). A mistake, a warning, a close call. That moment teaches us what matters without explanation.
Rituals and routines are one of the most elegant tools you have. Starting with a normal morning, a commute, a walk through the neighbourhood. As your hero moves through their day, we learn who they are and how their world works. This is beautifully done in Finding Nemo when Marlin takes Nemo to school, and in The Hunger Games when Katniss moves through District 12 at the start.
An argument can also do a lot of work. When people argue, they correct each other, remind each other of rules, and reveal values. Information comes out sideways.
Objects that carry history. A photograph, a letter, a piece of clothing, something your hero handles with care. The story attached to that object can quietly tell us a lot about the world and the character.
A few important tips to keep in mind
First: information has to be earned. If you’re putting something into a scene, it needs to belong there emotionally and logically.
Second: let routines do the work. Daily habits are one of the cleanest ways to deliver background information.
Third: if characters already know something, they won’t explain it to each other. Use corrections, misunderstandings, and reactions instead of obvious explanations.
And finally—and this matters everywhere in your book: Trust your reader. Readers like connecting dots. You don’t need to over-explain for the story to land.
Today’s task
In the comments below, answer these three questions about your Hero’s Ordinary World:
What does a normal day look like for your hero at the start of the story?
What does your hero believe keeps them safe in this world?
How does their core flaw show up in their routines or relationships?
These might take a little space…that’s fine. This is foundational work.
Reflection prompt (chat or comments)
I’m going to start using the chat more intentionally for reflection prompts, because this is how you begin thinking like a writer, not just completing exercises.
Today’s reflection question is:
How does your hero’s ordinary world reward their core flaw, and what would they lose if they stayed there forever?
Spend some real time with that.
Write it out.
Sit with it.
This kind of thinking is what builds strong stories.
That’s it for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with the next piece of the journey. As always, if you have questions or run into any issues, email me at shelly@academyofstory.com.
See you tomorrow,
Shelly x
