In a post on Writer Unboxed, Emilie-Noelle Provost offers advice for creating true to life settings, based on her experience working in the travel industry. She shares some techniques she’s adapted from her work as a travel writer that have helped make her settings feel vibrant and tangible.
- Remember that places are dynamic. “Depending on the weather, the time of year, and the actions of storms, people, and wildlife, a particular location can sometimes be unrecognizable from one day to the next,” Provost notes. “It wasn’t until I started hiking that I began paying attention to the ways places constantly change. A trail I’ve used a dozen times can occasionally feel like someplace I’ve never been depending on variables like vegetation, snow cover, leaf litter, or even the time of day.” In urban areas, architectural details and signage may change over time, and nature and traffic will alter roads, sidewalks, and buildings. Some places may change from day to night or with the seasons.
- Know where the roads go. “Good travel writing explores ‘where the roads go’ in interesting places and shares the experience of discovery with readers,” Provost writes. “Some of the best travel writing goes even further, introducing readers to little-known places through the eyes of locals who are intimately familiar with them.” A character familiar with the roads will have a different experience than another who is new to them. Familiarity also presents an opportunity to create emotional resonance for the character, if important events occurred in these settings. “For example, someone who got into a car accident on particular road might have a very different view of it than a person who uses it to commute to work every day, or someone who only drives on it occasionally,” Provost explains. “Describing fictional settings through the lens of a character’s heart and mind helps infuse them with meaning and mood, making the places in your stories feel more intimate and dynamic to readers.”
