image: header
Home | About | Contact | Editing Services | Resources | Workshops | Mythic Impact Blog | Sowing Light Seeds

“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” ~Frederick Buechner

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Strategy # 4 Hungry Territory: Danger


Build Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative Setting with Impact

Continue to ask these questions of each key territory spot you choose.

2.  Is it man-made?

What welcome animals live within—how much care do they need—is the person elderly and in danger of tripping over a skittish cat? Unwelcome: mice—roof rats—snakes under the foundation—spiders. Looking for a way to drive your comfortable heroine in her lovely home into high stress? Have her return from vacation and find her home literally jumping with fleas.  (True story)

 3. What is the history behind it?

Don’t just examine the historical data but the animal as well. Perhaps a species has been driven out of their natural habitat. And then there is a severe drought. Do they then become a danger or are the people even more of a danger to them. Is the town on a migration pathway? Do the people co-exist with the bi-yearly invasion or it is a mini war zone?

Or they know how to take advantage when the opportunity shows itself. Here’s a photo that showed up on facebook one day. Talk about territory and landmark together!

“After all the terrible rain in England recently, a group of swans swim down flooded walkways in Worcester yesterday..”


 4. Is it considered to be holy ground? Why?
 5.  If so, is it open to everyone to visit or considered forbidden?

Holy ground will need to be clearly defined for your world. In medieval times a person could seek sanctuary in a church or monastery. However their life was forfeit if they left the grounds, so, in a way, they chose a form of prison.

Holy ground may or may not include cemeteries. A wildlife reservation may be considered a type of holy ground sanctuary to preserve nature. And what happens if valuable minerals or oil or gold is found underneath. The movie Avatar explores this entire theme across space, species and culture.

Share: What did you uncover or realize could become a potential conflict in one of these categories?

Read deep, marcy

No comments:

Post a Comment

 
"The Seeker" Rachel Marks | Content Copyright Marcy Weydemuller | Site by Eagle Designs
image: footer