{"id":9570,"date":"2022-03-15T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9570"},"modified":"2022-03-14T19:11:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T23:11:20","slug":"where-writers-ideas-come-from-seeing-the-world-through-a-characters-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9570","title":{"rendered":"Where Writers\u2019 Ideas Come From: Seeing the World through a Character’s Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Writing about Manhattan-based architect Archer Landis in Architect of Courage<\/em>, I had to try to think like he does. Not only does that mean jumping the gender divide, it means bringing to the fore all my instincts about design (my mom was an artist) and my opinions what it takes to be a responsible architect today. Luckily, I\u2019ve subscribed to Metropolis<\/em> magazine for decades and watched the field\u2019s attention warm to green design, then to sustainability, and, the concern of my post-9\/11 character, security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can design make buildings safer? In the novel, Archer Landis travels from New York to Brussels to visit the site one of his firm\u2019s major design projects about to break ground. It\u2019s the redesign of a major station in the city\u2019s rail and subway system. The station I chose for his firm to work on was Schuman station, located in the heart of Brussels\u2019 European Union district. Aside from strictly architectural considerations, he faces two major challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foremost, Landis is worried about terrorism, and he wants to be sure there\u2019s nothing about his firm\u2019s design that makes it more vulnerable. Would a glass canopy make terrorists think access is simple, or that they are too easily scrutinized? I incorporated Schuman station into the novel early on, and had thought a lot about its attractiveness as a target. Nevertheless, I was shocked when, on the morning of March 22, 2016, in real life, suicide bombers attacked Maalbeek metro station, one stop west of Schuman. In this coordinated attack, 35 people were killed and more than 300 injured. I could only wish my fictional choice wasn\u2019t so plausible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Landis\u2019s second concern arises from protests at the site. Construction will involve removal of a building regarded as \u201cBelgium\u2019s Stonewall,\u201d where a young gay activist was killed some years earlier (again, in real life). The protests seem manageable, and Landis doesn\u2019t immediately realize the danger associated with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, of course, he must deal with both of these dilemmas. I find the melding of fiction and reality a challenge that, for me at least, brings a story vividly to life. To write about Brussels, a city where I\u2019ve never been, I used several detailed maps of the city center and the EU district, and walked the streets with the little Google maps guy. I studied the websites of hotels near Schuman station, restaurant menus, and news outlets, as well as the station itself, which had indeed undergone a major renovation, thoroughly described and dissected online. The availability of that information to me, to you, and to anyone, led to a major epiphany for my fictional architect, in this era of endless information and unpredictable risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architect of Courage <\/em>is scheduled to be published 4 June 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing about Manhattan-based architect Archer Landis in Architect of Courage, I had to try to think like he does. Not only does that mean jumping the gender divide, it means bringing to the fore all my instincts about design (my … 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":"Authors not only have to walk a mile in their characters' shoes, they have to eat their dinners, understand their relationships, and borrow their eyesight--that is, how they see the world.","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":[61,40,174,5,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-fiction","category-first-draft-blog","category-imagination","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2um","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9570","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=9570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9572,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9570\/revisions\/9572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}