Urban Writing

 

Ever since I moved a few years ago to downtown Albuquerque I've done my best to fit in as much walking as I possibly can.  At first I tried walking once a week, choosing different routes and scenery for each separate outing. Then came the pandemic restrictions and I began walking much more frequently, solitary journeys spent exploring the exteriors of closed businesses, locked libraries, and empty churches. It was a somewhat melancholy pursuit, but it was also a healthy way to get fresh air and sunshine and, of course, exercise. It was also a good opportunity to think about my manuscripts and other creative projects without distraction or conversation. Yes, it was lonely, but it was also time well-spent, especially as I would often take photos to later use as reference shots for some at-home urban sketching sessions.

In the last year things have changed considerably. Most places such as cafes and shops are fully open, more people are out walking or bicycling, and the general atmosphere is a lot more upbeat, exactly what you'd expect from a busy urban environment. I love the activity--even if it is more crowded and not as easy to take photos of individual businesses without appearing overly intrusive.

However, the change from "empty deserted street" to "watch where you're going" got me thinking about how fun it would be to switch from "urban sketching" to "urban writing." How could I use what I saw on my daily walks as writing prompts rather than solely as potential scenes for drawing?

A big part of urban sketching is what artists refer to as "reportage." More than simply drawing or painting what you see in front of you, reportage asks that we give an impression of what we feel and think about a scene. In other words, what's the story? And what do we personally bring to the sights we are witnessing? What part of us makes the scene our own?

To explore these topics more fully, I wrote up a list of ideas to get my pen moving:

Urban Story Prompts

• Choose a location and then write a scene that takes place there in the past.
• Take the same location, but now cast it into the future. What has changed? What is better, or worse? What are the people like?
  
• Could the same or a different location be the setting for a fictional crime? What could I add to make it more sinister?
  
• Or how about using that setting for a romantic tryst?
• Is there a particular area I see every day that could be the catalyst for neighborhood dissatisfaction? A place that a group of characters might want to tear down or drastically improve in some way? Why do they want to do this; what's their motivation? What's preventing them accomplishing their goals? Politics? Money?
  
• Choose and use a location as the basis of an important fictional memory for one or more of your characters. It could be an entirely new piece, or woven into something you're already working on.
  
• Create tension by showing a character's fear of a setting, or their excitement at the prospect of going, or returning, there for some reason.
• Invent two characters that have just left the place you are looking at. Why were they there? What transpired? What was their mood when they left?
  
• Use the setting, even if it is a beautiful, elegant environment as the backdrop to a dystopian, Orwellian nightmare.
  
• Or how about as the setting for a whimsical, heart-felt children's picture book?
  
• Imagine the setting at midnight. Add some supernatural or paranormal elements.
• What are the possibilities of using your setting for a nonfiction piece? You might enjoy researching the site or area and then writing about a little-known aspect or history of the place.
  
• Could the setting be an essential part or reason to write a memoir of some sort? Is it a place you know well and therefore holds a wide series of associations for you?
  

Whether or not you are more than familiar with a certain place or are seeing it for the very first time, try to tune into your emotions as you write. As with all the best and most productive freewriting sessions, write about what makes you sad or happy or nostalgic about a certain view or group of buildings. Don't stop to erase, cross out, or censor what comes up for you. Always go with your initial thoughts and instincts.

 

Lastly, be sure to include as many details of your setting as you can: doors, windows, gardens, the cat under the tree, the way light falls on the pavement. You might not want to use absolutely everything you write when it comes time to edit, but it's handy to have a full account to pick and choose from.

Tip of the day: Keep in mind that you don't always have to go for the photogenic or "postcard perfect" scene. Dilapidated, neglected, and forgotten "out of the way" places can often be the most fun to write about. Enjoy your walk and don't forget your notebook!

 

Goal Check-in: One Book, One Picture at a Time

For today's post I thought I'd share how one of my goals for the year is going: Use one art book at a time completing ALL the lessons.

The book I'm starting with is How to Draw Buildings, by  Ian Sidaway. I chose it for a number of reasons: 

• It dovetails nicely with my other art goal and theme of drawing and painting doorways, especially those connected with my current WIP, Ghazal.
• It give me a good foundation (no pun intended) for my weekend outings with Urban Sketchers.
• I really, really want to learn how to use perspective better/correctly.
• Being familiar with buildings and architectural detail will help me with some ideas I'm tossing around for illustrating picture books.
• The more buildings I draw for practice, the easier it will be to sketch in my travel journals.
• And more than anything, I just love buildings!

I particularly like the way this book is structured. Each lesson is divided into three: first is the main example with several pages of instructions followed by the suggestion to "Try Another Medium," and ending with a third prompt, "Try Another Building." 

The first chapter, and the one I've completed, is all about drawing simple small houses, beginning with graphite on white paper. I used a new 9 x 12 inch Strathmore Recycled 400 series sketchbook I bought for just this purpose:

Once I'd finished the drawing, I then moved on to Part II: try another medium. For this I chose to use an ultrafine black Sharpie on a heavier sketchbook page (Strathmore Visual Journal) that I had already painted with a background using my Japanese Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors:

The last section, "Try Another Building" provided a photo of what the book called a "stern little house," which it certainly was. For this piece I chose a sheet of student-grade watercolor paper that I had previously experimented on last year by placing a piece of crumpled wax paper face-down on the surface and then ironing the whole thing with my craft iron. After removing the wax paper and letting the watercolor sheet dry, I then painted it with a light wash of Prang watercolors (my super-favorite, ever-so-cheap but excellent brand for art journaling, etc.). The result was an interesting resist pattern resembling bare tree branches that also matched the photo in this last part of the lesson. 

I drew the house and filled in the "trees" with Faber-Castell Polychromos color pencils and white charcoal--doing my best to make the whole thing as stern as possible.

So there you are, three houses, three ways, and all ready for the Three Little Pigs to move in! Another interesting option might be to write a story or vignette based on each of these settings. Anybody want to try?

I've set aside Sunday afternoons to be my "class time" using this and my other how-to books throughout the year. Next Sunday I'll be moving on to Lesson 2 and two-point perspective (the example shown on the cover of the book above). Already I'm feeling nervous which is exactly why I'm using this step-by-step approach. No more just buying books, looking at the pictures, and working on the "easy" parts. Instead, I'm "building up my courage" to go straight through from cover to cover, lesson to lesson. And because I've put that in writing, I'm now honor-bound to stick to my goal! (Taking a deep breath.)

Tip of the Day: What difficult phases of the creative process do you find yourself frequently avoiding and therefore never learning to the degree you want? For me it was never attempting the "advanced" lessons in my art and other reference books. I've found that breaking a task down into easy steps is a good way to overcome and/or work with anxiety. For instance, gathering all your needed supplies for a project a day before you start can be be one step. Setting a timer to work on a portion of the project for just twenty-minutes at a time can be another. Whatever you do, keep in mind that the only way to learn anything is with steady practice, not "instant genius absorption." Good luck and have fun!

The Importance of Background

When I first started taking art classes and learning how to draw and paint, I made a mistake common to most new artists: I painted everything in the middle of my paper and without any kind of background. Everything I drew just kind of hung in mid-air without a context to keep it anchored within the (nonexistent) setting. Over and over I'd have to go back into my pictures and add my backgrounds, if I could be bothered to do so at all, and that wasn't always an easy thing to do.

It was the same with my writing: I'd freewrite an exciting conflict scene out of the blue, add some troubled characters, and then have to figure out where they all came from. I'd have to travel back in fictional time and ask my characters questions straight out of a Henry James or Edith Wharton novel: "You want to marry whom? Where's he from? What's his background? Not one of those dreadful Van der Leeden Hoopsie-Kopecky boys is he??"

A quick and easy fix to both these problems has been to tackle my backgrounds first. The benefits of this have been practically endless, not the least being "No More Blank Paper Staring Me in the Face," and "No More Wondering What to Write or Paint."

This is especially helpful when I find myself with a limited amount of time to work on a project, for instance a spare half hour or two when I know I could do something creative, but I'm not sure where to start. Working on the background for a future painting or story is the perfect solution. For some well-spent art time, I try:

• Gessoing art journal pages or full-size paper or canvases. (Admittedly not the most exciting item on my list, but getting it done ahead of time is a huge step forward.)
• Adding some color to the gesso--or simply using color on its own, perhaps mixed with a clear acrylic medium for texture and durability--is a great way to step up the excitement factor.
• As is experimenting with brushstrokes: swirls, linear patterned grids, stippled dots.
• Or doodling into wet gesso with a stick or the end of a paintbrush. A dry sponge or any other kind of imprint-making object is effective too.
• Abstract collage: old newspapers, junk mail, decorative art papers--tear them up, paste them down, paint over with either a thin coat of gesso or a clear acrylic medium.
• Sprinkle sand or seeds, confetti or even dirt into the damp medium for a super textural effect.
• If you want to go beyond an abstract design, try drawing or painting a background of a more structured surface such as stone, brick, or wood. Or practice painting or drawing drapery of different kinds of fabric: seersucker, silk, cotton, terry cloth.

While I'm working on these visual backgrounds, I find it's helpful to not think about what I might place in the foreground. My job at this stage is to build up a good collection of styles, colors, and textures that I can easily turn to when I've got the time and inspiration for a longer painting session.

The same is true for writing. Having a collection of pre-written back stories on hand guarantees that I'll always have something and someone to write about in the future. You can do this too:

• Without referring to any physical references such as a photograph or actual person, start by choosing a name at random, any name: Bunny McPherson; Lucky Holmes; Wendell Marlow. This is your new character. Now write about his or her early life: where have they come from?
• The ancestors--who are they? What's their story?
• Write about your character's childhood through the POV of a best friend--or a worst enemy.
• Write about the various settings in which you could place this person: e.g., home, work, vacation/travel spot.
• Write about a severe emotional trauma this person experienced as a child.
• What's this person's biggest secret?
• Place this character in a setting: restaurant, bus, city sidewalk, farmyard. Now envision the other people in the background: what are they doing? Who are they? How does your character interact with this background? Could any of them become secondary characters in a longer work?

I promise if you do this often enough and on a regular basis, a short story or novel will emerge without you even trying. Goal, conflict, and motivation--the big three essentials to plot and page-turning--are all in that background somewhere, just waiting to be uncovered.

The best part of having all my backgrounds--written and visual--in place before I start any new work is that often the finished background will determine what my next piece will be. Two weekends ago I took out a large piece of paper I had pre-painted in various shades of yellow and green. It turned into a scene I titled "Sunday Lunch." The green leafiness of the background brushstrokes lent itself to framing a shady outdoor terrace set for a lunch party. And because I always think art and writing are but two sides of the one story-telling coin, I was next inspired to write about the people who were going to eat their lunch there--more background grist for the writing wheel!

Tip of the Day: Shake it up: writers, try some painting! Artists--get our your pens and journals! Everybody: practice some backgrounds--ideally it would be fun to put both disciplines together into one lovely piece. How about writing a story or poem onto a painted background?

Writing With All Five Senses

 

Right now I'm reading a great book by New Zealand novelist, Rachel King:  The Sound of Butterflies.  The story is set in 1904 England and the Brazilian rain forest, and inside the front cover there are eleven review excerpts.  Starting from the top, some of the key words repeated throughout the reviews are:  sensuous, lush, luscious, and exotic.  Other reviews use the terms: rich, evocative, opulent, sultry, seductive, and rippling.  (I do like rippling.)

Lush, luscious, and yes--rippling--writing is a worthy goal for all of us, I think.  Even if you're writing "just about your own backyard" miles away from the Amazon or London's Richmond Park, there's no reason to make it dull.  Pull us in; help us to see, hear, taste those motor mowers and dandelion puffs.  In other words:  all five senses, people!

To really get those senses moving, we need to go beyond mere description--we need to associate the senses with the power of emotion and memory.  For instance:

1.  Sight.  Sight is the sense we most commonly turn to when adding description to our manuscripts, and it's the one most certain to trip us up and bore readers.  You know the sort of thing: there was a gray rock on the cement steps only inches away from a brown stick covered in mud. The mud looked dirty.  But let's ramp this up a few notches:  the rock, a chunk of brain-shaped coral, could be covered in blood because it has just been used as a murder weapon, instilling terror in your main character when she stumbles over it on her way to deliver a cake for the victim's birthday.  The rock could also be very unusual--a vivid shade of purple, and similar to one she's seen inside her new boyfriend's aquarium.  Seeing the rock now means something; it starts a chain of action, reaction, emotion, and future plot twists.  It's also a very unforgettable rock because of the color, the blood, and the association with a brain, and it sets a tone unique to the story.
  
2.  Sound.  We live in a world of noise that can sometimes be overwhelming, forcing us to tune it all out--much to our disadvantage.  An excellent exercise is to sit with your journal and listen, really listen, for 5 to 30 minutes and then record what you hear.  Do this for your characters too.  Imagine them in their individual settings, and then listen along with them to whatever is intruding on their environments.  Whether it's a string of Gregorian chants or the sound of a jackhammer three streets over, make it important to your character's well-being or distress.  Make it real.

3.  Touch.  The way particular items feel to your characters can add volumes of emotional reaction and involvement to your writing.  A scratchy collar, a much-washed baby blanket, the sting of a wasp, the weight of a good book in your hand.  We've all been there.  Let your characters experience their story world in as tactile a way as possible, showing, rather than telling, why they prefer the feel of one item over another.

4.  Taste.  I enjoy descriptions of food, not just for the ingredients or how to put the recipes together, but because of the combination of mood and memory food writers seem to excel at.  I've mentioned before how helpful I find food magazines to be for found poetry and collage work precisely for the sensuous language contained in the articles.  But taste covers more than food.  How about the taste of rain or snow, a barely detected poison, or the taste of a lead pencil--the one your main character is chewing on throughout his four-hour math test?

5.  Smell.  I hope this isn't too much disclosure, but my favorite smell in the entire world is kittens' feet.  I think kitten paws are the sweetest, prettiest little things ever.  Katherine Mansfield described them in her journal as "unripe raspberries" and I've always considered that description right-on perfect.  One reason I love them so is they always make me a think of a little white and orange kitten I wanted as a small child and couldn't have.  Wah!  That kitty smelled delish and I've never forgotten.

Tip of the Day:  Make two lists:  one with your favorite sights, sounds, touches, tastes, and smells, followed by your most disliked items in these same five categories.  Once you have your lists, freewrite on why you love/hate these things, what they remind you of, how empty your life would be without them.  Now do the same for some fictional characters, either from your current WIP or a brand new story.

Breaking News:  Next Tuesday, May 24, 2011 Young Adult author Holly Schindler will be guest blogging right here at Dava Books.  Holly has written a special post, plus she'll also be sharing a writing exercise.  To celebrate, we're having a super giveaway--a copy of her new novel Playing Hurt, accompanied by a copy of my how-to-write book, The Essential Guide for New Writers, From Idea to Finished Manuscript.  Details of how to win will be revealed next Tuesday--don't forget.  In the meantime, keep those words rippling!

Researching the Children's Book; Make it Fun!

I'm baaaack--from a great 3-day weekend in Santa Fe, NM, that is.  I had a wonderful time attending the New Mexico Women Author's Book Festival where I presented my talk, "Researching the Children's Book." 

The subject is especially important to me as five of my books are for young readers, and I've never written any book for any age group, fiction or nonfiction, that I haven't had to research.  Convincing other people that this is even necessary, though, is a whole 'nother story.  Only a few days ago someone asked me, "Why would anyone research a children's book?" 

Comments and questions like this can make authors for children want to overcompensate and tackle far more research than is actually necessary or required for the book they are writing.  But too much research can be as bad as not enough.  Staying mired in endless research can be a convenient excuse for not writing anything at all. 

My three rules for researching the children's book are:  keep it light, keep it fun, and keep it as accurate as possible because chances are that whatever you put in a book could stick with a young reader for life.  I know I believed everything I read growing up, and I still can't believe there are no tigers in Africa.  In line with my three rules, I have five steps to keep my research on track: 

Step One.  I only research or write on subjects that I love or find interesting.  I've never chosen a subject because it was "hot" or because I thought it would be a quick sale.  Sometimes editors will suggest a topic to you.  Be wary about saying "yes" too quickly.  If you don't hold much passion for that subject, not only will the research process be long and tedious, but it will show in your writing. 

Step Two.  Once I've settled on a topic, I ask myself three questions:  What do I already know about this subject?  What would a child want to know about it?  And what are the things I need to know for this particular project?  These questions keep my research focused.  They also help me to think in terms of "kid-sized portions." 

Step Three.  Once I've brainstormed my answers, I start my research, often starting with the encyclopedia followed by the children's section of the library.  In today's info-driven world,  the choice of resources can be overwhelming, a dilemma made even worse by the Internet, which I have to say is not my favorite place to acquire facts.  The information found there is often too subjective and in some cases, downright wrong.  That said, the Internet is great for finding leads and links to sites and book titles I feel I can trust. 

Whatever your preferred method, though, the worst thing you can do is check out 50 library books and set out for a "course of study."  Perhaps the most cumbersome part of this process is accumulating so much good information that you feel compelled to add it to your book whether it fits, is required, or is even interesting to anyone else but you.  This is particularly true for fiction.  Novels can be ruined by research.  Information-heavy stories often seem contrived and can ring false, especially for younger readers. 

Step Four.  Now that you have your basics in place, you will want to add the flavor, the spice, those specific and unique details that make you and your reader feel "I really was there!"  My favorite research technique is to travel, which I admit is not always the easiest to do, but travel doesn't always have to be out of the country.  It can be as close as visiting the next town over.  If you can take a trip, take your journal, make dated and continuous entries, and go to all the places that have nothing to do with tourism:  grocery stores, schools, suburbs, post offices, banks, malls, apartment blocks, recreation centers, toy stores, houses of worship...in other words, all the places that make up a child's world in that particular setting.  Record details with your five senses, especially if you visit any kind of local industry.  And stay honest:  if someplace is stinky--say so!  Inquiring kids love the worst of details. 

If long-distance travel is impossible, I've often found foreign consulates and embassies to be great sources of information.  Not only do they have dozens of free publications they will happily give you, but many of them have excellent libraries and and photo banks for you to use as well. 

Magazines, my source for all sorts of things such as collage and found poetry, are also pretty good when they're used the way they were designed:  to be read!  Writer's Market can be a  starting point for finding industry-specific magazines with topics ranging from ice cream making to tropical pets to motor racing.  And don't forget to clip out, arrange, and study the accompanying photos for details not included in the actual articles. 

Step Five.  Beyond the reference book.  Sources such as cookbooks (children love to learn about weird food); foreign newspaper classified ads (What's for sale?  How much does it cost?  What kind of jobs are being offered?), and local chambers of commerce can all point you in a new and unexpected direction. 

And then there are blogs.  Here's where I think the Internet comes into its own.  Sometimes it seems the whole world is keeping a blog, and that's not such a bad thing.  Blogs, especially those written by young people and children, can be good sources for personal, day-to-day tidbits that you would never have been able to access in the past.  Written by real teens and families, blogs tell real stories about aspects of life you could never make up. 

Step Six.  Round-up.  Once your facts are in place, sift through and don't be afraid to discard anything that's boring or puts you to sleep.  As a writer for children, always think in terms of, "What would I have loved knowing as a child?"  As soon as you start thinking, "Children need to know..." or, "Children should know..." you're entering dangerous territory, one that borders on the moral tale: "And after her disobedience burned down the entire street, little Suzie never played with matches again..." 

The best advice I've ever heard came from my first editor when I wrote my first book on New Zealand:  "We want a nonfiction book that children will choose to pick up and read because they want to, not because someone told them they had to."  Goes for pretty much everything we want to write, don't you think? 

Tip of the Day.  More than anything, children want to know about other children.  They want to know what happens during a school day, what games children play around the world, what are the jokes, what pets do they have, the clothing, what do their houses or rooms look like?  When reading for pleasure, children rarely care about how many tons of export products come from where, or the precise dates that mark the beginnings and endings of long ago wars.  Keep your information interesting and you'll keep a child reading.

Finding True North: Bring Your Settings to Life

Last night I had the privilege of speaking to the Albuquerque branch of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. They’re a friendly group and I was happy to discuss some of my ideas on how to maximize the use of setting in our writing. For today’s post, I thought I’d share some of the things we talked about.

For starters, I enjoy writing about place, especially foreign places. Four of my books are set in New Zealand (two of these are nonfiction) and one is set in Egypt. One of the best things I can hear from a reader is that my settings “made the story come to life.” I take that to mean that I’ve made the setting essential to the plot; without my setting details, the story just wouldn’t be the same.

The following list includes some of the things I do to make writing about setting just as much fun and vibrant as all the other story elements I strive toward.

1. Choose the setting you love, not what you think will please an editor or follow a trend. In many instances, the place we are from is our best starting point; it’s our “root” equation. Give that same foundation to your characters. Everyone has a sense of “home” with both good and bad associations.

2. For fictional settings: write first, research later. Even if you’re describing your hometown, get your story down on paper first and don’t worry too much about the “facts.” You can add all the precise information you need later. This goes for any kind of extra detail you might need to further your plot. For instance, in my current WIP, my heroine is an art restoration expert. I don’t know how to restore a painting or what kind of environment is needed to do so. It’s far more important to me that I write about her motivations, goals, and character development before I worry about her cleaning products. Right now I’m calling whatever she uses to fix a painting “Magic Art Clean.” I’ll insert the correct brand names later. I’m writing a novel, not a treatise on art conservation. Equally, when I write about place in fiction, it’s important for me to keep in mind that I’m not writing a travelogue or a term paper. I don’t need to know everything.

3. To find what part(s) of your setting is important and worth including, think in terms of levels or “boxes”: in your WIP notes, describe your characters’ immediate safe place, i.e. their room, cave, or cupboard. Follow that by describing the home that contains that room. Move out into their yard; their neighborhood; workplace; city; country; and finally any foreign destination that takes them away from these safety zones.

4. Whenever you’re embarking on either fiction or nonfiction research, ask yourself: a) What do I already know? b) What don’t I know? c) What do I want to know? Brainstorm your answers. Make extensive lists and then pursue the information you truly need. Useless research can eat up a lot of creative time.

5. Narrow your focus: rather than try to describe an entire panorama, choose a few unique details to define your setting in as specific and simple terms as you can. The main reason editors and many readers claim to dislike the inclusion of overly-descriptive passages is that they slow the story down.

6. Good news, bad news: you don’t have to travel to the places you write about. (And here you were thinking you could call that dream vacation "research.") Foreign travel is great of course, but not necessary to your writing. The trick is to use research opportunities that go beyond simply reading a nonfiction book about your chosen setting. My absolute favorite starting point (as you’ll have gathered from my last two posts) is to collect magazine photos to get a feeling for the look of the place. I gather photos that show my setting by night, midday, dawn; luxury tourist areas and the poverty-stricken backstreets; private homes, grocery stores, schools, business districts. I try to get as wide an angle as I can on every aspect of my setting.

7. Read cookbooks. A good cookbook is so much more than a collection of recipes. Besides providing insights into foreign foods and ingredients, the books are often filled with memoir, historic references, and overall cultural attitudes to life, religion, festivities, as well as tiny details that may otherwise be overlooked. Trying out some of the recipes is just as important too!

8. Foreign newspapers are excellent resources, especially the back pages. Advertisements and the classifieds in particular can help you learn about the types of employment in a town or country, as well as the price of items and what kind of things people are interested in buying and selling.

9. Read as much foreign fiction as you can that originates from your chosen setting. Watch foreign films and television programs.

10. Order some items from your chosen country online: food, clothing, cosmetic items, and crafts. Just seeing how these things are wrapped for shipping is an amazing view into “how things are done.” Often these items will have their own unique and sometimes surprising scent that conjures up all kinds of images. For instance, I recently bought some paper scraps from India. The smell of incense, curry, and industrial strength bleach emanating from these colorful sheets is enough to describe an entire marketplace.

11. With that in mind always, always write with your five senses. Description of place goes far beyond the way it “looks.”

12. If you do get to travel to your chosen setting, make sure you take some time to be by yourself away from tourist sites. Go to the grocery stores, shopping centers used by locals, back neighborhoods. Be still; observe and record; again, use your five senses.

13. When in doubt, make it up. (Within reason of course!) But really, there’s nothing on earth to stop you inventing your own apartment building, restaurant, private school, or subdivision. Just make sure it follows the “norm” of wherever it's set and isn’t too bizarre, such as a Starbucks at the top of the leaning tower of Pisa (though maybe there is such a thing now, who knows…).

14. Fantasy, science fiction, or mythological settings. This is when you can put the Starbucks wherever you want it. The key to creating fantasy settings is to stay consistent. You will have to make maps, create your ground rules for place and image, and once again, use the five senses as much as possible. Magazine cut-outs are especially useful here to help you portray and remember your other-world.

15. Finally, keep in mind that setting is tied into the emotions of your characters. It can be a source of conflict, comfort, wonder, pleasure, and downright boredom for them. It’s up to you as the writer to choose which parts of your setting are the most important to your characters and discard whatever doesn’t keep your story moving forward.

Tip of the day: Get out those notebooks! Try a week’s worth of writing practice based solely on setting. Where are you now? Where do you wish you could be? Write.