Writing Series - Location, location, location.

Does the setting of a novel matter? Looked at through the authors eyes I suppose any location can be dark and mysterious, romantic, bright and cheerful or foreboding and scary. We can write it either way to add context to the plot.

We can also use the location as part of the plot - it can be used to add conflict, drama or interest. How much the location has an impact on the plot or storyline does depend on the author and their writing and desire for that location to be seen in a certain way.

Road through overhanging foliage

Most locations can be anything you need and often made to fit the narrative or scene an author is trying to set.

For me the location is everything. It's the starting point and almost a character of its own in the story. In Thai Die the location, especially the jungle and full moon party town of Haddrin are used to create tension provided only by the experience in that location at that time and the reason they are there. In Connecting Trains the stations (police and train), the trains themselves and the towns the trains connect, are all fundamental to the story and plot, even being not only a crime scene but the murder weapon. In Aloha Goodbye the cruise ship location creates the urgency, keeps secrets and limits in one way and helps in another, the investigation of the crimes onboard. The next novel Lethal Leith Hill is again a location I know well and provides not only the backdrop but the experience at that time, at that location that hinders or helps the investigation making it truly part of the plot, a key character in the story.

I believe that the location and my experience of it and the authenticity I bring to my writing of those places, and experiences in them, is part of what makes my novels different.

I spent the day on Saturday at the location for Lethal Leith Hill and whilst I'd been there before many times, seeing it not just from the road on a bike but walking in the woods and up the tower enhances the existing plans I had for it being a location in my novel. Being there, walking in the footsteps of my characters and seeing it from a different perspective also, for me, gets the creative juices going and plots, conversations, ideas and characters come to life for me.

If I get that from a place I know well and have experienced in different seasons, different times of day and weather I would love to know how writers of genres or novels set in imaginary locations or ones they have not visited use the location within their novels? Do you amalgamate and morph locations you do know or does the location not need or carry the same weight?

Please comment and let me know.

Have a great week,

Helen x