Build
Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative
Setting with Impact
Introduction
“The tourist may look
at a place and think ‘What does it do? What is it like? How much does it please
me?’ but the fiction writer must look at a place and think ‘What does it
suggest? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to my characters?’” Jack
Hodgins
He suggests that in order to
achieve this perspective, a writer needs to construct a place—“real or
invented”—rather than describe it. By choosing specific details you both
impress the landscape on your reader and connect them to the meaning of your
world. Think habitat.
“Stare
at your world until you discover what it has to offer you,” he says.
There are many ways to develop this
focused center in any scene. You can begin from the inside out by imagining the
location of your setting visually and finding just the right pieces to fit the
emotional core. Or you begin from
a natural habitat and focus on the specifics that define your atmosphere and
story questions.
For example a setting on the moors can
portray an image of beauty, wildness, danger, freedom and loneliness. An added
element might be the choice of dwelling. Is the habitat an ancient stone castle
weather beaten with crumbling bricks, a wooden hut, or a modern architectural
masterpiece? How would each of these possible homes blend or contrast the
physical geography?
A desert, ocean, forest, meadow,
stream, canyon and island all have distinct characteristics. Even if your character
will be interacting with all kinds of terrain there will still be one that is
‘home.’ One that will quietly represent a direct heart highway, either towards
security, or away towards uncertainty.
Too early in your story yet to
decide which habitat best suits your purpose? Try this brainstorm. If your
character were to transform into her emotional habitat, what animal or bird,
flower or tree, body of water, type of wind would she become? Where would you
most likely find that setting geographically?
Read deep, marcy
Share: What in your
character’s natural habitat could become a danger to him or her?
No comments:
Post a Comment