Crossing the threshold: when to reveal your Diagon Alley?

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TrixieLox

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That title sounds quite filthy actually, like Diagon Alley is some euphemism for something.

Anyways. I'm plotting out my new novel (I'm using EXCEL!). I've never done this before. I'm usually a complete and utter pantser. But I need to up my game.

It's a YA fantasy and ya know that whole 'MC crosses the threshold from her ordinary world to the extraordinary world' bit - like when Hazza Potter steps into Diagon Alley in Ch5? Well, I'm worried my Diagon Alley happens too early. Currently, it happens in the middle of Ch2 and I wonder whether it would be better to save it until Ch4? Or mebbe JK's threshold isn't Diagon Alley, maybe it's when Hagrid turns up?

So what I'm asking is, when does your MC's Diagon Alley happen? When does the Diagon Alley usually happen in All Good Books?
 
KateSmash

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I think it would be beneficial to read/watch a variety of "portal fantasy" outside of of Harry Potter. (Which there is a list of here.(Though whoever put it together skews heavily toward manga.))

For instance, Alice falls down the rabbit hole and Dorothy gets swept up in the tornado fairly early on in their narratives. I believe it happens pretty early, maybe even first chapter in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (thought the last time I read it I was 7, so I might be wrong). Whereas in a series like Fushigi Yuugi (hey, it's manga but it's relevant damn it) a little time is taken to develop the character.
 
Mharvey

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In my WIP, you know within the first scene that the main character has been to other dimensions. By the second scene, you know she comes from a magical culture. By the 4th scene (10-12 pages in), she interacts with someone from her home dimension and Diagon Alley is spoken of.

By the time she eventually goes back, the reader will probably be ready.
 

n3onkn1ght

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The Diagon Alley happens whenever you write all the stuff that needs to go before it. That's it.

I'd say Hagrid would be Supernatural Aid, not Crossing the Threshold.
 
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Well, the answer is, not too long and not too soon. You could drop them into the new world in the first sentence, but then the reader doesn't get a chance to see the MC in their old world and see how the two differ. (Harry's "normal world" for example is not what we would usually consider normal). You could wait 100 pages, but if we've been promised another world, the reader has gotten impatient for it and if we haven't, the reader might be a little thrown when the shift occurs. But the answer is really that it depends on the story.

That said, one thing to consider is that in HP, JK has already established the fantasy world to the readers before Harry "crosses the threshold" or even gets "supernatural aid" (where are we getting these terms from?). We see the wizards in the first chapter. We know there's two worlds because they talk about leaving him with another. In a book where you introduce the "other" before "crossing the threshold," you can wait a little longer to get there and let the reader feel the anticipation for it. If you don't introduce the "other" before, you have to cross it earlier.
 
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