How to Use a County Fair in Our Stories

It’s county fair time in my neck of the woods, so I decided to revisit how to use a county fair in our stories. I love county fairs, so it’s no surprise that I see them as writing inspiration.

Part of that love comes from nostalgia. In the county where I grew up in eastern Ohio, the county fair arrived the week after Labor Day. The fairgrounds were right across from my elementary school, and I always looked forward to the afternoon when we left the classroom and took a walking field trip to the fair. I was also eaten up by envy at the kids from the farms who got out of school to show their animals in 4-H competitions. I competed but in baking and won five blue ribbons.

When I discovered that the county where my husband and I built our home holds its fair in September, it felt just right. And when my kids won their own ribbons at the fair, I had a satisfying feeling of coming full circle.

That feeling could inspire a story of a parent or grandparent passing on a tradition which includes going to the county fair for some reason, not just competition.

Another thing I love about county fairs is how it brings together the land, animals, and people of a community. You don’t get that at a state fair. Too many strangers. But at the county fair, you run into so many friends, neighbors, and acquaintances that it feels like an enormous family reunion. When my family and I visit the fair, we make a point of reading the names fastened to the pens and cages of the 4-H animals, so we can see the animals kids from school and church have entered. It also reminds me that, no matter how sophisticated we become, we still depend on the land to produce crops and sustain animals and on our neighbors who farm and manage it all.

Those themes of community, family reunion, or ties to the land could be explored in a story set at the fair.

A special feature of our fair is the prominence of harness racing. Our fair really has a split personality. The front half, where the barns, rides, and buildings for exhibits are located, is for the local people. The back half has the stadium and barns for the horses that come to race. I can thoroughly enjoy the fair and never venture into the back half, which has a completely different atmosphere. The harness racing is business, as well as the gambling, so I feel no sense of community, but I’m an outsider looking in. I’m sure the members of the harness racing business probably feel differently.

I recently watched the film noir from 1956, The Killing. In this heist movie, a gang of crooks plot to rob a racetrack. One of them shoots a horse in an important race to create chaos while the robbery is executed. I’ve been wondering if I could write a story about a robbery at county fair with harness racing. I don’t know enough about how the betting is done to know if there’s enough cash on hand to make it worthwhile. But it would be interesting to research.

I like to research small, local events like a county fair and see if they have unique or unusual aspects to them, like harness racing. These quirks can ignite all kinds of inspiration and set my story apart from others.

Do you love a county fair? How can it inspire your writing?

Here are more posts how different settings can inspire our stories.

September 11, 2025 2

How to Use the Sea in Your Stories

I’m away at a writing conference this week, so I’m reposting this article on how to use the sea in your stories.

Since I was twelve and went sailing with my cousin and her husband on their sailboat in Chesapeake Bay, I’ve been in love with ships and the sea. The might and the mystery of the sea fires my imagination. Below is inspiration for using the sea in speculative fiction, mysteries, and adventures.

Speculative Fiction

I’ve only visited the beaches on the east coast of the U.S. where European settlers first arrived, leaving behind four hundred years of recorded history. That history infuses the area, making it perfect for a tale of time travel.

In North Carolina, my family and I stay at Emerald Isle, a barrier island near a maritime archaeology site. Experts believe they are excavating the ship Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s flagship. In a speculative story, an archaeologist finds a way to Blackbeard’s time—a portal or some item salvaged from the wreck. Blackbeard discovers the way and travels to our time. The archaeologist has to get Blackbeard back to the 18^thcentury.

A monster story works so well in the sea because, unlike stories of lake monsters, the unexplored depths of the oceans gives a hint of reality to the idea of giant, undiscovered forms of sea life. A fantastic story based on some fact has always appealed to me. “The Foghorn”, a short story by Ray Bradbury, comes to mind.

Mysteries

The possibilities for this genre are nearly limitless. How many middle grade mysteries have centered around an old lighthouse or sunken treasure? Tons, but that doesn’t mean current authors can’t put a new spin on classic settings.

For adult stories, the episode “Shark Mountain” from the PBS show Nature inspired me. It featured Howard and Michele Hall, a couple who run Howard Hall Productions. They produce and direct underwater films. Michele is also an underwater photographer and logistics coordinator for their expeditions around the world as they travel for their films.

I would love to invent a couple like the Halls. In a foreign country, the couple record or photograph something dealing with a crime but don’t know it. Their boat is searched, a colleague is attacked. When the local police seem unconcerned or corrupt, the couple conduct their own investigation.

To give a mystery an eerie atmosphere, nothing beats a deserted boat. The crew of a fishing boat finds a deserted ship. They can bring it in to harbor and then mysterious events start occurring, like someone following the captain or the fishing boat is vandalized. Or after the crew finds that abandoned boat, another ship begins to chase them and it’s a battle of wits for the fishing crew to reach port safely. That storyline combines mystery and adventure, which leads me to my next genre …

Adventure

When a writer sets a story in nature, she can count on using that element for all kinds of plot twists and tension.

Two of my favorite nonfiction books are The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone and Dove, both by Robin Lee Graham. The first is a children’s books, stuffed with photos and the latter is for adults. Both recount the adventure of the author who became the youngest person to solo around the world starting when he was sixteen in 1965 and ending in 1970.

Those books alone provide a host of story elements from falling into the sea while working on the ship, to losing the main mast, to experiencing star-spangled nights on a still sea.

I could incorporate or adapt those real world experiences into a story involving a teen trying to sail around the world in the 21^stcentury.

What books have taken advantage of the sea as a setting?

September 4, 2025 0

Writing Fun with Settings

What I mean by having writing fun with settings is finding places you can explore and see what fun you can have if you develop a story around them.

Fun Ideas for Settings

Here are some ideas to use if you just want to have fun writing about settings.

Research a location you’ve always wanted to visit and see what story ideas your research sparks.
Scroll through photo sites, like Pixabay, using search terms for locations you’d like to see, especially sci or fantasy landscapes.
Scroll through photo sites and write a quick scene set in the first setting that captures your interest.
Make a list of settings you personally hate. For example, I don’t like hospitals. Try writing a scene with a character who hates being in this setting. Then write one with a characters who loves it.
Do the same as above with settings you love.
Select a setting where you’d feel uncomfortable. For example, if you’re an urbanite, choose a small town. Write about what you would dislike about the setting. Write about what you might like.
Write about some of your favorite locations from childhood.

Since setting can also mean a period of time …

Research a favorite time period.
Write about which seasons is your favorite and why.
Write about which holiday is your favorite and why.
Write about the best event or year in your life.

Fun Ideas for Settings within Your WIP

Like I said last week, sometimes you need to have fun with your writing, but you can’t leave your WIP for very long because of a deadline. Here some suggestions for having fun writing settings within your current project.

Determine if you can move a scene you’ve already written to a new setting. For example, your main charcter’s (MC) best friend works at a candy store and you haven’t set any scenes there yet.
Examine your overall setting to see if there are locations within it you’ve overlooked. If your overall setting is a business within a skyscraper and most of your scenes take place in offices, see if you can set some in an elevator, the cafeteria, a stairwell, or even a bathroom.
Examine your settings to see if you’ve taken full advantage of what they offer. If your MC has a fight with a henchman in the kitchen of a restaurant, make sure the two opponents are using what’s in the kitchen–grabbing a chef’s knife, hurling a bowl of salad, throwing eggs on the floor.

For more tips on writing settings, click here. I’d love to read your suggestions for having writing fun with settings.

January 16, 2025 4

Review of Description and Setting by Ron Rozelle

My last repost for the month is another one with a high number of comments. If you’re a writer, I hope my review of Description and Setting by Ron Rozelle introduces you to a very helpful book.

In my prompt from last week, I related Mr. Rozelle’s advice about carrying a journal with you wherever you go so you can make notes on memorable people, places, and things and then draw on those notes when you need inspiration.

The book is chock full of great advice like that. It covers topics in chapters such as “Showing, Telling, and Combining the Two”, a skill difficult for me to acquire, “Sensory Description”, and “Description and Setting in Specialized Fiction”. Mr. Rozelle uses examples from fiction and nonfiction and from both literary and popular fiction.

All the chapters had useful advice and information, written in an engaging style, as if the author was sitting across from you at a coffee shop. Even more helpful were the three to four exercises at the end of each chapter so readers can practice what Mr. Rozelle preached.

With so much information to learn, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. I summed it up for myself this way: the setting must do more than hold characters. It should do double, triple, or even quadruple duty.

Pulling double duty

For example, my amateur detective Rae Riley is a budding photographer. That interest influences how she sees her world. I write in first-person, so the entire novel unfolds through her eyes.

Let’s say Rae enters a house and describes it in unflattering terms. Then she meets the owner and doesn’t like him either. Through my description of the setting, I’ve told readers something about Rae, something about the house, and something about the owner of the house. If this dislike makes Rae act in a certain away, then my description has also influenced the plot. So the setting is working hard, not only being the background for the action but revealing characters and affecting the action.

It’s similar to laying clues in a mystery. Readers don’t know if a conversation is only imparting information or if it’s also providing a clue. Or it may be a red herring. But a conversation, action sequence, setting, or character should be more than what it initially appears to be.

This concept energizes and intimidates me. I love the challenge of making my settings work that hard but also wonder if I can meet the challenge. Some of Mr. Rozelle’s examples are so perfect that I feel I could never equal them.

How do you work your setting? Do you have a book you recommend?

December 28, 2023 1

The Mystery Structure Is …

And now I’ll reveal what the mystery structure is from last week … a furnace used for separating iron from the rock it was found in. My kids and I are pictured beside Hope Furnace, found at a trailhead in Lake Hope State Park. A poster on IG knew what these were. Can you imagine the heat these furnaces gave off? The iron industry lasted about thirty years in Ohio. The furnace was shut down in 1874. Now I understand better how Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego into the fiery furnace.

Visit the comments for the prompt last week, and you’ll read how the photo inspired the start of a story with dual timelines. I still think it would be cool if these were structures left by an ancient people. That’s what makes writing so fascinating. A dozen people can look at the same source of inspiration and come up with a dozen different stories.

For more prompts inspired by settings, click here.

May 1, 2023 0

Category: Setting