One of the things that I need when I write is at least some idea of
the setting. Is everything taking place in the cab of a truck? I
need to have a clue how much room there is to move around, what angle
the steering wheel is at, and whether the seats have a lot of padding
or if they feel like a wooden bench with fabric stretched over them.
When I wrote 'Roja' I sat down and drew a map of the town, naming all
the important streets. When I wrote 'Stilling the Demons' I got my
wife to put me in touch with a friend of hers who sometimes drives a
snowplow up in Maine, because I wanted to know the layout of their
cabs. Good thing I did, too. I had no idea that there is usually
only room for the driver, since the controls for the blade take up
the passenger side of the seat. I had set a minor event occurring on
the passenger side in the first draft, and had to rewrite it.
Unless you've been in a coma for a few months or are just now reading
my blog, you'll know I'm rewriting my second book. This one is
science fiction, taking place a long time from now in a solar system
far, far away. (Nope. Couldn't resist) Ninety percent of it takes
place in one base, located on a dry, hostile world with barely enough
of an atmosphere to keep you from popping like a balloon if you walk
out the hatch without a pressure suit on. In my head, the base is
about the size of my old high school, and all the sections are
arranged in a rough square so that almost everything is connected to
everything else. It makes a kind of sense, since patterns that work
get reused.
I've had a vague idea of the layout for a while now, knowing which
side most of the airlocks are on and figuring out where they would
put the solar cells to protect them from the blowing wind. But I
have scenes that include walking through one section while our hero
subtly looks around, taking in the details that will mean something
later. I have elements in the plot that hinge on whether or not a
person can get from point A to point C without going through point B.
So I need to define if those points are in a straight line or not.
Doing this also gives me a better sense of the story happening in a
real location, a sense of place. I may end up creating a dozen or
more details that never get used, but if all of them are
interconnected, and if points two and eleven make it into the book,
then after a person reads it and the story is settling in their
heads, they just might connect all those invisible dots themselves.
Then out of the blue they'll say, 'Ahh, that's why everyone thinks
the carpet is made from human hair.' When a person makes a discovery
like that for themselves, they invest a little bit of their heart in
a time, place, and setting. Call me greedy. That's what I want.
Today was memorial day, and while my time of getting shot at was
quite a few years ago, the memories are never very far away. Some of
our men and women are going through times like that right now, and
some of them have already come back in boxes. Others may ask more,
but I just ask that you remember.
My wife and I got out to see Godzilla today, and I liked it. It's a
good retelling of what has become a modern myth that has its roots
back in the days when trees were black, noon-day skies were
off-white, and every person in every movie and TV show had skin that
was a shade of gray. They kept a lot of old and good, and added a
thing or two that was new and cool, too. The roar remains the same.
Oh, the title of this post? I'm drawing out a map of the base, with
all the important places that are used in the book. Looking at it, I
have to admit that except for my descriptive text being more mature,
and no longer being obsessive about words being complete and spelled
out (well, not always), it looks a lot like the ones I used to draw
in grade school, showing all the weird and fantastic places I dreamed
about seeing and building. So the answer to the question is no, not
very well. But the map will do what I need it to do.
It will help with my writing.
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