The Power of Normal

Happy Saturday, writers! Today's social media theme is "Simple Saturday," where we’re focusing on core writing tips. The tip I shared this morning is one I believe in passionately: "Before you show the chaos, you must establish the 'normal'".

It’s tempting, especially in fantasy and thriller writing, to want to jump straight to the action—the inciting incident, the discovery, the explosion. But the impact of that chaos is directly proportional to how deeply the reader believed in the peace that came before it. The "Ordinary World" isn't just a box to check in a story structure diagram; it's the emotional foundation for everything that follows.

In

Claimed by Night, the inciting incident isn't the moment Margaret Mitchel disappears; it's the moment her daughter Liz realizes she's gone. To make that realization truly land, the reader needs to understand what was lost. That’s why the first chapter lingers on the memory of what normal felt like:

• The familiar sound of newspaper pages rustling downstairs.

• The scent of coffee that usually drifted upstairs.

• The hope for Saturday pancake batter on the counter.

These aren't just quaint details. They are the building blocks of safety and routine. When that routine is broken—when the kitchen is "unnervingly" spotless and the house is filled with a "hollow" silence—the reader feels that wrongness along with Liz. The peace of the "Before" is what makes the terror of the "After" so profound.

Think of it this way: a loud noise in a library is more shocking than a loud noise at a rock concert. The contrast is everything. By letting your readers get comfortable in your character's normal, everyday life, you make them vulnerable. You make them trust that the world is stable. Then, when you pull the rug out from under them, the fall is much, much harder.

So, don't rush your beginning. Show us the mundane. Show us the quiet moments, the family jokes, the weekend rules. Build the "normal" so that when it breaks, it truly shatters.

Thank you for joining me on Simple Saturday,

June Skye