It All Starts With Place

I have found that my best writing starts with first identifying the location. Once I know where my characters will be, then I can create their story. And the more familiar the location is, the more quickly I can get going. Crafting a story is much easier and faster if I already know the place well. On the other hand, If the location is not one I know well, then I must first learn about it. I have to research the setting, which can take a good deal of time.

When the setting is one I already know well, then I know what the environment looks like, what obstacles are there, what opportunities my characters might encounter, and how people talk, dress, and act. Knowledge of place is one reason writers are advised to write what they know. Most often, I think, that means, write where you know.

In my first three novels, I deliberately used locations I knew well. That is why I placed my first book in suburban Connecticut (Development), my second in a mental hospital (Carrie’s Secret), and my third in Las Vegas (Empty Luck). I already knew those places well before I started writing.

More difficult for me was my short story about a little boy who worked with his parents in the kitchen of a Vietnamese restaurant (“The Portal”). In that case, I knew a little about the location. I had seen Asian restaurant kitchens, had a sense of the pace of work, the frenzied, fiery atmosphere, how it smelled, and something of what people did there. True, I never worked in such a place, but still I had a sense of how they looked and operated. And that helped me create that story.

My biggest challenge to date has been developing a clear sense of place for the book I am currently working on. This one is a work of historical fiction, set in mid-nineteenth century Ukraine. I started out with no knowledge of that country in that era. I had no firm sense of the place. What did it look like? What did people eat? What did they wear? And talk about? Who were the authorities in that world? Knowing none if this, I could not create a story. I needed to know the environment first. The only answer has been to research that world extensively, until I can feel myself there. Once I have that sense of place, then I can create a story.