Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Setting - Places #MFRWauthor #amwriting

As I said before settings are important since they can do a number of things. When you go from countries and the other large areas, you need to be more specific. Places where the characters live or work are important to establish with word pictures. These places also show things about the characters and we'll get into that another time.

What do you know about the characters' choices of residences? Where a person lives and how they keep their place. Is the house well furnished? What are the things the characters choose to have around them. Writing contemporary stories can be easier that writing historical novels. In contemporary settings knowledge is easily obtained from books of house plans to sites that show furniture and other decorating tips.

I have some books that show the insides of Regency homes and the internet is full of sites and pictures of mansions, castles and other things. Make good use of these. A trick is to select just a few things that are of important and show a bit about the characters choices.

Now we look at places where they work. Places like schools, hospitals, offices, wharfs, ships and other places like this. The internet and the library are filled with things.

I write a lot of stories placed in hospitals. I've worked in hospitals and I've been a patient. I can draw on my experience. but then I write fantasies taking place in other worlds. The easy ones are when I do alternate history or reincarnation stories. There are sites and books I can depend on to help me set up sites. But these are also important for fantasies of other worlds since the particular sites I choose can give the reader a way to identify. A tower from a historical site can be adapted. What I always have to remember is how the characters will react and what's important to them in each particular setting.