: Re: Do I need to start off my book by describing the character's "normal world"? I know a lot of books do it (Harry Potter, LOTR, Wheel of Time). It's even part of the "Hero's Journey". However,

@Connie138

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I would strongly advise against adding chapters into the beginning. Of course, it has to be said, I am not you and you are the artist. However, let me explain why I would not do that.

It is often said that a story should start in medias res (in the middle of the action). By starting in the action, you begin where the story is most interesting. This can be an amazing way to hook a reader and keep them interested. If backstory is later important, you can drip it in as and when. Take Hamlet, for example, we start the play with his father already murdered and his mother having remarried (to the murderer).

As you ask about the advantages and disadvantages of starting before the inciting incident I will try to list them:

Advantages

You can dump in a lot of backstories
You can show the reader what the protagonist has to lose
There is an opportunity to give the inciting incident more emotional weight
You get to fill the reader in on stuff they "need to know"
You can show a lot more of the "before".

The reason Harry Potter starts in the mundane is that this is where we live. We then get to follow Harry from the normal into the fantastical. He takes us with him for that adventure. We need to find out about the Wizarding world and can do that with Harry. We understand how motivated Harry is to leave behind his crummy life - something that is key to his journey in the first book.

Disadvantages

Very easy to bore the socks off your readers
You have to find a reason to make all the "before" interesting
There is a risk of unexciting early chapters full of info-dumps
The reader has to wade through all that to get to the "exciting bit".
Your story can become more about "normality" than the adventure.
If you screw it up, there is a chance no one will read long enough to find out why the middle is so good.

In Hamlet, we already know what murder and politics are like. This is a story of someone contemplating revenge, so we start with them there. We pick up the details of the murder as Hamlet sets about proving to himself that he should take revenge. Had we started a year earlier, there would have been a lot of stuff happening none of it relevant to Hamlet's revelation at the start of the play.

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