writerly ways

[cornerofmadness]

Another Sunday, another writer’s blog entry. This time I’m back to thinking about settings. That Children of the New Moon (which is getting worse by the moment) got me considering the setting, what are we tired of seeing, what do we never tire of seeing.


In my mind, cities like London, LA, NYC and Chicago are so iconic that people don’t tire of them. They’re practically characters in and of themselves. However, even big cities can get tiresome if the same kind of characters keep reappearing there. Take New Orleans, between Anne Rice and Poppy Brite, I’m not sure you could set a vampire story there and have a hope in hell of publishing it. Maybe if it was post-Katerina.

Why the above mentioned novel brought this thought up was it’s set in Florida. Florida is fast becoming the new destination for all the paranormals, so much so that if Riding with Strangers wasn’t set at my alma mater of the University of Central Florida I might consider some other place. Hawaii…could I write off a trip to Hawaii for research. Hmmm….

To me, the setting should be another character. I want to see the place through the characters eyes. Julie Smith (New Orleans mysteries) Laurell Hamilton (St Louis urban fantasies) are often lauded for their descriptive abilities of their chosen cities, apparently by reviewers who’ve never been to either place. I’ve read many books by both authors and gave up and the blandness of their settings was one of the reasons.

This topic came up on my author’s list via Dreamspinner Press a while back, can you take liberties with real places. To me, this depends on if you’re adding something to the setting or changing something that actually exists. I don’t like the latter (and lately I’ve been seeing that a lot accompanied by author’s notes that say ‘yes I changed this because how it really exists didn’t fit the plot.’ On the other hand, I’ve no problems with an author inventing something that fits their plot.

Not that I haven’t done the latter to a small extent. For example in Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron Killian’s house does exist on the street in Madison that I have it on in my story but it’s a bed and breakfast. In my story, it’s a private residence. A relatively small change. I didn’t move the capitol building across town to make it work. But I end up doing the former more, creating something new in an existing place. In Machiavelli Moon Maddie’s casino/hotel doesn’t really exist and I even put it on a side street so not to disrupt the flow of Deadwood’s main street. When I was considering updating MMoon based on an agent’s advice (which in retrospect was pretty bad), I went to Google Earth and saw so much of Deadwood had changed that much of my story would need revamped to fix it or I’d end up with an author’s note saying why I ‘changed’ things.

What are your thoughts on this? How much does setting matter to you as a reader, as a writer? What are you tired of seeing and what do you never tire of?


yearly word count -

9632 / 125000 words. 8% done!

I'm a little under my monthly goal but not by much.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Since I generally write in fantasy settings, mine are more of the line of, "Well, I'd better make some sort of map so I know how the layout of the city/world/what have you is" so I won't contradict myself later.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yes well that is a different conversation all together

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Though we'll see what happens with that possible Sophie story.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

nods nods, good luck

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I need a plot first.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that would help

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Will have to consider it, after all. But not too long.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that's the probaby with shorts

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yup! need an idea, need it quick.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

we should probably talk about that tonight

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Well, I do have March to work on it, too, so I'm not too worried yet. Sophie may come up with something brilliant on her own if I let her stew about it.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

cool is this one i sent you or something else

[hands4healing.livejournal.com]

It's the one you sent to me.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

which i no longer remember what it was

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

This one: http://www.hic-dragones.co.uk/#/publishing/4546989763

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ah yes

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

Ha, you knew I'd have to comment on this, as much blood, sweat and endless Internet time as I've expended trying to resurrect long-vanished Victorian cities. You're right, the setting _should_ be a character, and places like booming, brawling 1880's Chicago, which was far more unblushingly corrupt then than it is even now, can't help but be enormous, living presences in stories set there. However, like any character, I firmly believe that it's the little things, the quirks, details, regional foods and little eccentricities, that really give a setting its sense of place. I could, for example, describe Michigan Avenue quite accurately from photos, and most readers would recognize the landmarks. However, in doing that, I'm describing the facade of a city without giving it any heart. A city fire map that shows the layout of the city, alleys and all, and revealed a cracker bakery right next to a livery stable; a chance description of "bridge-jumpers" who would risk life and limb to jump off the moving end of a swing bridge before it swung too far and made them stop and wait; the silent menace of coasting locomotives on street-level tracks; and a cookbook full of recipes and reminiscences of life on ritzy Prairie Avenue are worth a dozen reference books on the general history of Chicago. That's the difference between being told you're in Chicago and really feeling like you're in Chicago, and the same would apply to Deadwood, Madison or any other city or town anywhere in the world. It's when the idiosyncratic details are missing that you get the generic cities--heck, whole countries--that haunt all too many published works these days.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

oh yes indeed. I know your amount of labor then think about some wannabes i see who want to do historical fiction with NO research. good luck with that.

However, in doing that, I'm describing the facade of a city without giving it any heart this was exactly what someone complained about on goodreads about that vampire in st. augustine story.

lackluster cityscapes make everything lackluster

[ital-gal.livejournal.com]

well, I'm a reader not a writer, but I would have to say that for me, if it's written evocatively, I enjoy having the location being an addition character in a story, and certainly where someone is from can help tell us something about a character. Or where something happens can shape how a story unfolds. However, it's not a requirement for me, and certainly depends on the story. I'm all about characterization, plot and dialogue, and if telling me about about where a story takes place slows down the telling of the story, I'm probably going to get bored. So yeah, if it enhances the storytelling, of course it's essential, but I wouldn't want it to get in the way of the rest

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

My main preference, setting-wise, is that it feels rich and real to me - whether the city/setting is a real place, made-up, or somewhere in between. I like it when you can feel the life of the city going on around the characters - the ordinary stuff as well as the exotic. There's a funny French film I really love called Monday Morning. The hero goes to Venice, and that bit of the film delights in showing the mundane side of life in this crazy-looking city - workmen heading off to work in gondolas, nuns gardening, even a factory on the mainland. It's easy to make Venice all about its exotic side, but it feels less fully realised and more like a caricature if it's all decadent masked balls and no ordinariness. The same goes for any setting, really.

This said, I think when you are dealing with a real city what feels right will vary depending on how well your reader knows that city. Wildly inaccurate versions of London make me giggle - but I wouldn't want to be so rigid as to say a writer can only write places they've lived in. "Write what you know" is all well and good, but if you apply it too rigidly you can only write your own autobiography ...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

you're echoing what silvrethorn said, getting beyond the exotic and the glitz and showing the real city.

Yes I think you can write about places you've not been (or at least I sure hope so) so long as you put a little effort into it. it's easy nowadays. hell with google earth you can pretty much spy on anyone

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

Ah, I only just read silvrethorn's post now you pointed it out to me! Yes, I agree with all that, I'm definitely thinking along those lines.

I think good research is the key to this, as it so often is. I've read far too many published books where everyone in London talks either like a posh Hollywood villain or like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. My other favourite thing is when modern London is depicted as really foggy. We haven't had that fog since the 1956 Clean Air Act. I know it's picturesque and all, but the smog did tend to sort of kill people.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

i don't even attempt to do the accents (hell most publishers hate that anyhow)

snort. you are pretty overcast though. you're right up there in the top 10. you sure you don't want the sulfurous fog back?

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

Haha, we have grey skies all right. These days we try to stick to depressing rather than actually lethal, though.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

gee i wonder why. Cleveland was a lot like London in the overcast aspect. something like 3 more overcast city in the world. i lived there 4 years