This April, our Round Robin blog will switch things up for fictional settings: how do you create your fictional towns or settings, whether in the past, present, or future?
Shakespeare wrote, ‘Let me count the ways.’ Okay, so he was
writing Sonnet #43, but that phrase could just as easily refer to our topic
this month as to declaring love. In ‘As You Like It,’ Shakespeare also wrote, ‘All the
world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.’
Most of my settings have been straightforward, as they are places I know well or have visited. Many of them have changed little from the original town plans. The Regency social round involved travelling from someone’s home to London, followed by excursions to visit or stay in the spa towns of Brighton, Bath, Cheltenham, Buxton, and Harrogate. While there were others, these are the most easily recognised, particularly Bath, for those who enjoy Regency romance. Being such popular cities, street plans are readily available online. Looking into each city’s archives usually begins at the town hall or planning office, but more often with a public library.
I have been torn between using real-life locations for
my contemporary stories and inventing a town because I’m writing fiction. This
is where I combine fact and fiction. I take a location I know and fictionalise
it. That way, I can still write with a measure of conviction that might
otherwise be lacking. Readers invariably sense a weakness, and I do my best to
make my fictional settings as real as possible. I mix up English village names
if my setting is in England, and I’m sure there are many more fictional ranches
set in Southern Alberta than in reality.
The importance of the setting lies in its ability to
anchor the reader in time and space, providing a sense of reality to the entire
story. As authors, we are responsible for further solidifying that setting by
engaging the senses. If it is an indoor setting, such as a house or a building,
where is your character located? What can they see, hear, and feel? I often
close my eyes and visualise it for myself, typically typing as I move from
hallway to stairs, from scullery to dining room. The devil is in the details,
so all the details I ‘see’ are typed. What time of day is it, and what part of
the year? Where does the light fall, and what shadows does it create? How does
that affect the colour palette of the décor? Being specific usually holds a
reader’s attention, especially if it appeals to the senses.
For me, another aspect of setting is designing the
houses in which my characters live. I need to understand how they move through
these spaces and what keeps the upstairs household members separate from those
below stairs. Even with my ranch houses, I approach the same considerations.
After designing one ranch house, I knew almost every log and stone in its
construction, but I could not picture the roofline. I called a local
architect’s office, explained my dilemma to the receptionist, and asked if any architects there would assist me. The following day, I
received a call from a gentleman intrigued by building a house
in a novel. We scheduled an appointment, and when he examined my floor plan, it
didn't take him long to add a roof to it. Job done, but our conversation about
the intricacies of writing a book continued well beyond the one-hour
slot he had allocated me.
I’m happy writing in the past and present, and my
imagination doesn’t stretch to the future as I know it does with many of our Round
Robin bloggers. I’m off now to see what
they have to say.
Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3rJ
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Belinda Edwards https://booksbybelinda.com/blog/
Anne Stenhouse https://goo.gl/h4DtKv
Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog
Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com
A.J. Dyer http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
