Writing about where you live

-
Inside AA ROAD BOOK of ENGLAND and WALESImage by EraPhernalia Vintage via Flickr
This links back to 'drawing from your life experience'. The block of flats you walk by on the way to the bus stop or the railway station you use on a morning can all provide locations in your writing.

I've lived in various areas of England and Wales, and beyond that family connections have leant further familiarity to places in Yorkshire and Scotland. I can picture my home town with great detail, even though I don't live there anymore and have used that city for one of my novels (as yet unpublished).

The first few murder mystery plays written for Murdering The Text were based in and around an imaginary market town called Dedleigh. Dedleigh is based on several similar towns in Yorkshire.

A children's novel that I wrote a few years ago (again, unpublished) used a house and area where I lived near Croydon, Surrey.

In the novel I'm currently writing, the future set, modern city is completely imagined but the old town where the magic users live is based on suburban areas I have lived in, using not only the setting but also the feeling of community.

Look around you. Take photographs even. Remember how it felt to live in an area. These experiences, like the rest of your life experience, can lend a reality to base your imagined worlds in.

Comments

Post a Comment

Your comment will appear once it has been approved. Thank you for your interest.

Popular posts from this blog

Taking location inspiration from real life

-
Image
Real life doesn't just have to provide inspiration for our characters. It can also feed into the locations we use in our writing. This is the school I attended between the ages of seven and eight years old. This photograph, and more of the interior, was kindly taken by an old school friend. I always loved this building and now it has provided the inspiration for Darkacre School in my novel. Photograph taken by Dan Howard of 500px.com York Minster (from my home town) was the inspiration for the cathedral where Rex Haven's funeral takes place in my novel. Taken from www.rightmove.co.uk The terraces of the South Bank area of York, where I lived for a time, are the streets of the old town in my novel. The details don't have to remain the same - we writers are tailors of imagination after all - but basing our story locations in reality can add a grounding element to our writing that convinces our readers. What real locations have you used in your wr...
Read more

A Writerly Advent Calendar - Window No. 13

-
Image
There's nothing better than taking a little writerly touch along on an evening out - even if no one notices it apart from me. Why not buy your writerly friend a piece of writing related jewellery or cufflinks. The Literary Gift Company The Literary Gift Company DoonyAndMoony - Etsy JezebelCharms - Etsy charmphilosophy - Etsy Custom Made
Read more

Fresh Blood

-
Image
I've recently finished a new murder mystery play called Thoroughly Murdered Millie . Set in the 1920s, rich young widow Millie Harper-Smythe shocks her family (and the staff) with her plans for the future. Her stepchildren will lose their home, William the butler has no choice but to emigrate and who knows what she has in mind for the gardener? Can anyone stop her? You can find this play over on the Murdering The Text website. Have a look .
Read more