Build Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative Setting with Impact
“You don’t need a
one-eyed, foul-breathed monster with a rusty knife, or an indescribable
something (covered in slime), to conjure up terrors in the human heart.” Sarah LeFanu
Introduction
Secrets
Folktales, fairytales and legends hold a repository of
universal shadows. Just as settings can be a link between internal and external
‘soul’ language, so does this literature connect our personal fears and shadows
to find our way through darkness. They offer a childhood’s nightlight to all
ages. We may not all be afraid of the same things but we connect with the heart
pounding, dry mouth sensations when we see them.
It’s most often in the ordinary world that psychological
fears can wreak havoc. Just the slightest noise or silence that is out of sync
causes us to pause and listen. As pain is a warning that something is wrong
physically, so fear warns us of danger. Our intuitive radar activates. The ordinary world holds all our
secrets that we like to keep in the dark until a situation reveals them.
Memory holds our emotional reservoir, both personal and
public. Some memories are buried so deep that we don’t recognize them when they
echo in the present. We have a fleeting pang or touch of comfort, and wonder
why. What can happen to our secrets when our memories are erased or distorted?
Put yourself or your character in a situation where time has
stood still and the world moved on. What has been lost? What has been gained?
Choose one memory that you would want to be able to guarantee
remembering? Do you choose a comfort, or a warning? Why? How will it impact
your story?
Share: Why did you
make that choice?
Read deep, marcy
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