Writing Life: Incorporating Real-World Locations into your Story
In early December, I finished writing Shades of Memory . It’s an urban fantasy meets conspiracy theory meets thriller kind of story, set in Canberra, and the first story I’ve written using the real world to contribute to the story as well as the backdrop for the story. To do this, I had to become familiar enough with the locations I wanted to incorporate that they were real to people who knew them, as well as to people who’d never come to visit—and that’s not as easy as it seems. Needless to say, I learned a few things along the way. Describing the Location: This is both as easy it sounds, and much harder. There is more to a location than ‘a statue of a horse surrounded by trees’. I mean, that’s a good start, but what kind of horse? What kind of statue? What kind of trees? And then there elements like how the sun affects the appearance of the statue, and the sorts sounds heard by the characters, the smells, and the environment itself. When describing a location, you have...