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Author, cathryn hein, diana gabaldon, Felicity Pulman, Hunter Valley, Jilly Cooper, Juliet Marillier, Kate Forsyth, Margo Lanagan, Norah Roberts, places, Scotland, Settings, Stephen King, writers
Hello again reader, sorry it’s been so long. All I can say is life seems to have taken some interesting twists and turns and I’m just now beginning to catch up.
My days have been jam packed and writing is only one part of the routine. But I am pleased to be able to say it still has top billing. I’ve actually been blessed with more time to call my own, but somehow, it’s also been sucked down a vortex of having to share my house again.
One of the things I’ve been contemplating is my story setting. With any novel, there needs to be research done. Even when you know your subject, there are points and information that will need checking.
Sinclair Girnigoe Castle, Caithness, Scotland UK The setting for my YA timeslip.
I began writing a YA time slip story about ten years ago, I got about half way through and got lost. I found I couldn’t write it when I had never been to Scotland. In an effort to not simply stop writing, I decided to write an Australian Historical. Maybe a short story. Just to keep my writing happening.
I found a suitable competition for a story of about 3,000 words and thought it sounded perfect. 100,000 words later I had my first ever finished first draft. It was wobbly, had no structure and way too many adverbs and adjectives, but I finished.
Fast forward seven years and several million words, well maybe a bit less, but you get the idea, and I’ve dragged out the old manuscript and have started again.
Hunter River, setting for my historical fiction
The setting for this is the early settlement of the Hunter Valley and it’s been so much fun to research where we live. There is so much I didn’t know about the river and the people. Every time I come across a familiar name in historic accounts or articles I want to add yet another character to my too long list.
The setting in my stories are pretty much a character in their own right. From the wild northern coast of Scotland, to the brown ribbon of the Hunter River, I love to weave in a sense of place for my characters to move about in. I also love to read stories that ground me in the setting. I want to feel as if I am standing in the characters shoes and looking out through their eyes; smelling, feeling, experiencing everything they do.
Some of my favourite authors are really good at this and I find reading their stories inspiring. My top 5 favourite Australian writers are Kate Forsyth, Juliet Marillier, Cathryn Hein, Margo Lanagan and Felicity Pulman. But I can’t fail to mention Diana Gabaldon, Jilly Cooper, Stephen King and Nora Roberts. I love lots of different writers for different reasons, and we’d be here all day if I listed them all. Now reader, how about you? Who are your favourite authors and why? I’d love to hear from you, so don’t be shy.
paulabeavan 
Hello, Paula. How I miss you and the Hunter Valley. It truly changed me.
But to settings: My first novel, If I Perish (story of Esther from the Bible) is thoroughly researched. I have never been to Persia, but I did live for my growing up years in Ethiopia, which was part of the Persian Empire at the time. The Ethiopia I grew up in was largely unchanged in many ways from that time. Most people still rode horses, used donkeys for moving water and huge bales of hay, walked miles on foot, got water in cans from a muddy river. There were few roads and fewer paved roads.
I researched as well as I could for Perish and wrote the story using as much detail as I had available. I am no going back and rewriting it, thirteen years after it was first published. So, so grateful for the internet. I have found a wealth of details not available to me when I first wrote it nearly thirty years ago (yes, it sat around for a while till I got it as “right” as I could). I plan to weave these new details into the story, take bout the wobbly bits and basically breathe new life into this book. I am so excited about it.
I also write science fiction and for that, I have to make up my world and my setting. How much is too much? Not sure. I love the spread, the potential that anything and everything could happen, yet at the same time it has to be something we earth-bound readers can understand. So some limits.
Overall, I think setting is a character of its own, subtle, but it plays the part of holding the story up; the foundation of everything, if you will. Would the story be the same without the setting, with NO setting?
Best luck with the writing. See you soon on WW.
Deb
Hi Deb, thanks for joining in the discussion. I love your take on setting as a character. You totally nail it. There is a certain “something” about going back over an old story and rejigging it. I’m loving adding to my arsenal of historical notes. I’ve just spent the morning reading a book on the early settlement of the area and am busting to get started on writing the new version of On the River Bank.
I liked it the first time around. It can only get better for the additional setting threads. I found with my historical set in 1888 Manhattan, that I could have researched for a very long time. I found all sorts of newspaper clippings and articles from that period, as well as magazines and gossip columns. I finally had to just stop and do the writing. I had enough. I keep promising I’ll go back and get more, but I don’t really need to. And you’re right about going back to an old story and rejigging it. A story is never really done, no matter if we publish it or not. We just have to decide when it’s done enough.
LOL I guess there has to be a cut off point with both research and polishing 🙂
Paula, If I’ve been on a research binge and have to cut it off so I actually do some writing, I feel bereft for a few days. Once I get stuck into the writing, it’s better. I swear I’m a research addict. It’s so much fun to LEARN. I know you understand.
Hi Paula
I thought your article was a fascinating read. Mainly because it helped me realise some more about how much goes into your writing, thought, time & effort plus the facts and more.
That sounds basic the way I put it (naively) but you know what Iâm trying to say xx
It must be exciting planning it all outâ¦Looking forward to reading more of your stuff!
Luv Mel
So glad you popped in Mel. There is a lot more to writing than just typing words on the page. But it’s all fun,