{"id":6801,"date":"2017-09-26T07:42:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T11:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6801"},"modified":"2017-09-26T07:42:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T11:42:26","slug":"where-are-your-storys-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6801","title":{"rendered":"Where Are Your Story’s Characters?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"road<\/a>

photo: rabi w, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Occasionally a book review will comment on the strong sense of place an author has evoked, so much so that the city or country almost becomes another character in the story.<\/p>\n

Many details about the way a place looks, feels, smells, and how its denizens behave make up that reader impression.It starts with a clear\u2014or clearly imagined\u2014geography. Get the bones of the place right and you can attach all those memorable details to it. Create geographic confusion, and your reader may be lost.<\/p>\n

I love maps, so imagine my delight to discover a kindred spirit in author Barbara O\u2019Neal, <\/a>\u00a0who wrote a fascinating Writer Unboxed<\/em> essay titled \u201cThe Complex Power of Mapping the World of Your Novel.\u201d It isn\u2019t surprising that many science fiction and fantasy writers who create \u201cnew worlds\u201d create physical maps of these places as a writing aid. My two novels-in-progress are set in real places\u2014places I\u2019ve been\u2014and yet I rely on numerous maps, both paper and electronic, to plot my characters\u2019 actions. O\u2019Neal has connected with other writers who also need \u201cthat physical representation of the world of our imaginations,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Some authors go so far as to create a map on the flyleaf of a book–or on the back cover as in a “locked room” mystery I recently read\u2014to keep the reader in the picture. That book, Hake Talbot\u2019s The Rim of the Pit<\/a><\/em>, contained a map of the grounds as well as the layout of rooms in the hunting lodge.<\/p>\n

Why It Matters<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Without a firm sense of place, fantasy authors risk confusing their readers, but my readers would be writing angry letters: \u201cYou should know it\u2019s impossible to walk from the Piazza del Popolo to the Colosseum in Ten Minutes!?\u201d Either problem distracts the reader from the story and diminishes its believability. And it is<\/em> a problem because, as author consultant Chris Roerden explains, \u201cWe humans have a primal need to orient ourselves in our surroundings.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve lost something with GPS giving us a mostly narrow view of where we\u2019re going and what we need to do next in order to get there. The \u201cbig picture\u201d orientation a full-sized map provides is gone. (I laughed when I read a millennial\u2019s observation that some of his co-workers use GPS to get to the office and home again, every day<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal cites a growing body of research that shows our brains are wired<\/a> to ensure we have a connection to places\u2014\u201cto be oriented, very intricately, to place, time, and thus, emotion.\u201d The blind child Marie-Laure in Anthony Doerr\u2019s magical All the Light We Cannot See<\/em><\/a> navigates the physical world through the map that exists in her imagination. How her father taught her that map was Doerr\u2019s powerful evocation of finding her place\u2014literally and metaphorically\u2014in the world.<\/p>\n

The maps O\u2019Neal creates in parallel with her fiction, like the reference points I establish for my characters, help us establish a consistent geography, are the first step in establishing a strong sense of place, which is, she says, \u201cone of the most powerful parts of writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further Resources<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

American Nations<\/em><\/a> by Colin Woodard \u2013 maps eleven cultural strains in U.S. history and politics; fascinating! Great insights for establishing \u201csense of place.\u201d
\nDon\u2019t Murder Your Mystery<\/em><\/a> by Chris Roerden – helpful guidance and refresher for authors; winner of an Agatha Award for best non-fiction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasionally a book review will comment on the strong sense of place an author has evoked, so much so that the city or country almost becomes another character in the story. Many details about the way a place looks, feels, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Where Are Your Story's Characters? - the first step in establishing a strong sense of place","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40,174,29],"tags":[1126,284,28],"class_list":["post-6801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-barbara-oneal","tag-map-making","tag-writers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1LH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6802,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6801\/revisions\/6802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}