It’s hard for authors to evaluate their own stories. One thing I have trouble with is judging whether I’m describing a setting well enough. I want to write about my settings vividly enough for readers to think they are in the scene with the characters. Writing the settings in my latest novel was no different. One way for me to do this is to visit actual places and take photos. This information provided inspiration for settings in A Storm of Doubts.
Writing from my own back yard
I’m fortunate that the county where I live is not much different from the part of the state where I place fictional Marlin County, Ohio. So I find inspiration as soon as I walk out my door. But I have to pay attention. Last spring I took photos of wildflowers on my bike rides so I’d know what flowers were blooming when my novel takes place, which is Memorial Day to Father’s Day.
I also took a vacation to a state park in southeastern Ohio at the right time of year and discovered something I probably wouldn’t have discovered if I hadn’t hiked in that area. In early June, so much honeysuckle is in bloom that the entire woods are perfumed with a smell similar to Easter lilies.
Literary inspiration
Literary inspiration also helped me describe my settings. One of these books, one of my favorite novels, is Watership Down. Now, you might think a cozy mystery would have nothing in common with a classic of fantasy fiction. But Mr. Adams’s description of nature as his tribe of wild rabbits experience it inspired me to write about the nature my characters experience in my own version of his immersive style.
My settings were also inspired by The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, which may seem odd. HIs description of a golden evening that the Time Traveller finds in the year 892,701 is one of the best I’ve read that captures the mood of a warm, summer evening. In The Time Machine, the beauty of the evening belies the dark secret of the culture the Time Traveller discovers. But in Storm, my final scene occurs just before supper on Father’s Day, and the golden light plays an important role in setting a peaceful mood.
What books have you read that make you feel like you living in the setting?
That’s a great idea to take pictures of the plants in the area at that time of year! You’re giving me good ideas!
That’s something I loved about Watership Down. The author provided details about the setting, like the names of the plants.