ordinary world
Normal daily existence
The ordinary world is the familiar, everyday reality a character inhabits before their adventure begins—a term from storytelling and screenwriting, particularly Joseph Campbell's hero's journey framework.
It establishes normalcy so that the departure into adventure feels meaningful: The first act shows Luke Skywalker's ordinary world on Tatooine.
Outside narrative theory, the phrase describes mundane daily existence in contrast to something extraordinary.
- mundaneCommonplace, lacking excitement
- everydayOccurring each day
- daily grindWearisome regular routine
- routineRegular sequence of actions
- same oldBoringly unchanged situation
day to day · familiar · normal · commonplace · humdrum · plain · usual · domestic · suburban · white picket fence · nine-to-five · comfort zone · threshold · departure · hero · journey · comfort · safe
- story patternshero's journey, monomyth, death and rebirth, rise and fall, redemption arc
- story openersopening line, opening lines, first line, first chapter, chapter one
ordinary worldhero's journey
Universal story pattern
adventure · call to adventure · magical realm · transformation · liminal space
ordinary worldwonderland
Magical place of marvels
dreamworld · adventure · enchanted realm · fantasy world · peak experience
ordinary worldotherworld
Supernatural plane of existence
spirit world · the beyond · divine realm · heaven · underworld
ordinary, world, ordinarily, ordinariness, extraordinarily, extraordinary, ordain, ordained, ordaining