Since I’m in the thinking hard about a lot of things part of this new book I knew that the setting was important for me to know before I could really dig in and write very far. I had the title (can’t start to write without one), had the MC name (also can’t start to write without one), and I was thinking about place and the other characters in the book but nothing felt grounded in a location that seemed right for the story. Until yesterday. When Frankie ate a piece of chocolate and I knew where he got it, how it he got, and where his story would take place. I got that wonderful, hard-to-describe but physical feeling when you know something is right. From that piece of chocolate I learned where Frankie lived. I knew one of his hiding places. I knew two people who befriended him. And I learned what really happened to his little sister. There’s a lot still to learn and that will come in the writing of the story, but having this place, this perfect place for the story to take place, puts it all into prespective.
Where does your story take place?
About the Author: Susan Taylor Brown
Eating the chocolate sounds like the best part of the weekend plan!
I appreciate yuo sharing your process, Susan. I have a lot of trouble with place and setting, and I really appreciate it in novels where it’s done well. (I wrote a critical essay about setting for school and used The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things, it’s really grounded in NYC.) It’s cool that you got so much from Frankie’schocolate.
Me too, on the chocolate, and thank you. My weekend exploration may get postponed another week. Oh well. I’ve never tried to make place such a strong, integral part of a book before so this will be a real challenge for me.
The Place is very cool….
and “somewhere” I really wanted “to go” in my artwork… Thus my last piece when I put Richard, Liz, Macca and Zimmy in “a room”! It was new and different for me. For usually my subjects are in “a color” or some other scribbled background….
It’s funny you mention Cindy Lord…cuz actually her portrait was one of those times–maybe a first time (at least recently)–where I put a subject in a “place”.
I worked from various source photos. One of which was her by the ocean. Some land. Maybe islands were in the background. I used those as her portrait’s background. I made them definite islands. Her next book is about two islands. And made sure to include a lighthouse. As she is such an early riser, I often would joke in L-J blogs she was like a lighthouse….
So, that’s my bit on Place… It’s important in writing…and ART!
Thanks again Susan for the grey matter exercise!
Do you find that you tend to put your art subjects in rooms that you might not expect them in or group them in unexpected ways? I am fascinated by the way you, the artist, can actually transfer what you see onto the page. Sometimes my words just never capture the picture the way I want to, the feeling yes, but not what I SEE.
Do you find that you tend to put your art subjects in rooms that you might not expect them in or group them in unexpected ways?
The grouping of unexpected pairs is something I have complete control over as an artist. Total randomness. I grouped Bob Dylan, Joyce Carol Oates and Mark Twain. For no reason but I had those images already in my library. But as I did it the story evolved. I was trying to get accepted into a gallery and the committee felt I was “too cartoony” and this was a “bad” thing. So, as I’m renedering this piece, I became young angry Dylan upset that I was even doing this very piece but pleased that if this piece is accepted (as it was!) it was so dipped in sarcasm that would justify any self accusation of sell-out.
I rendered Joyce naked! (I think JCO is very sexy but only from my visual perspective cuz I don’t read.) but who am I to render this person naked? As I drew her, her story emerged. She was representative of my art. She was sad that she neede to be manipulated to be accepted. But she was proud in her defiance that she was chosen to be the art. To be the focal point to be the shocker. And yet she still return in moments to her sadness that Dylan. Me. The Artist would allow her…. His Love. To be exploited this way for acceptance.
Mark Twain was an actor here. I can relate to him as an aspect of “me” as I can Dylan. But here we needed Mark to play a part. A role. He needed to be villian. He needed to be that gallery committee. He scrutenize every inch of Joyce’s flesh. Did this subject of beauty pass his test? Did Dylan’s decietful plan–that betrayed and exploited his love, his art, his Joyce–fool the eyes of the Judge?
Well, the answer as I said was “YES”. The gallery loved this piece and I was accepted. But I guess my point here was where you as a writer take words–a story–to create a picture, a painting, a piece of art. I find I can’t put a picture together–no matter how random–without somewhere in the process “writing a story” for some meaning to their existence in this piece on this paper.
Now the grey matter is sufficiently furrowed and my coffee cup is empty…I’m off!
Thanks for this chat.
The Place is very cool….
and “somewhere” I really wanted “to go” in my artwork… Thus my last piece when I put Richard, Liz, Macca and Zimmy in “a room”! It was new and different for me. For usually my subjects are in “a color” or some other scribbled background….
It’s funny you mention Cindy Lord…cuz actually her portrait was one of those times–maybe a first time (at least recently)–where I put a subject in a “place”.
I worked from various source photos. One of which was her by the ocean. Some land. Maybe islands were in the background. I used those as her portrait’s background. I made them definite islands. Her next book is about two islands. And made sure to include a lighthouse. As she is such an early riser, I often would joke in L-J blogs she was like a lighthouse….
So, that’s my bit on Place… It’s important in writing…and ART!
Thanks again Susan for the grey matter exercise!
Do you find that you tend to put your art subjects in rooms that you might not expect them in or group them in unexpected ways? I am fascinated by the way you, the artist, can actually transfer what you see onto the page. Sometimes my words just never capture the picture the way I want to, the feeling yes, but not what I SEE.
Do you find that you tend to put your art subjects in rooms that you might not expect them in or group them in unexpected ways?
The grouping of unexpected pairs is something I have complete control over as an artist. Total randomness. I grouped Bob Dylan, Joyce Carol Oates and Mark Twain. For no reason but I had those images already in my library. But as I did it the story evolved. I was trying to get accepted into a gallery and the committee felt I was “too cartoony” and this was a “bad” thing. So, as I’m renedering this piece, I became young angry Dylan upset that I was even doing this very piece but pleased that if this piece is accepted (as it was!) it was so dipped in sarcasm that would justify any self accusation of sell-out.
I rendered Joyce naked! (I think JCO is very sexy but only from my visual perspective cuz I don’t read.) but who am I to render this person naked? As I drew her, her story emerged. She was representative of my art. She was sad that she neede to be manipulated to be accepted. But she was proud in her defiance that she was chosen to be the art. To be the focal point to be the shocker. And yet she still return in moments to her sadness that Dylan. Me. The Artist would allow her…. His Love. To be exploited this way for acceptance.
Mark Twain was an actor here. I can relate to him as an aspect of “me” as I can Dylan. But here we needed Mark to play a part. A role. He needed to be villian. He needed to be that gallery committee. He scrutenize every inch of Joyce’s flesh. Did this subject of beauty pass his test? Did Dylan’s decietful plan–that betrayed and exploited his love, his art, his Joyce–fool the eyes of the Judge?
Well, the answer as I said was “YES”. The gallery loved this piece and I was accepted. But I guess my point here was where you as a writer take words–a story–to create a picture, a painting, a piece of art. I find I can’t put a picture together–no matter how random–without somewhere in the process “writing a story” for some meaning to their existence in this piece on this paper.
Now the grey matter is sufficiently furrowed and my coffee cup is empty…I’m off!
Thanks for this chat.
I liked that post too 🙂
Fiction in Real Places
Susan– this article just posted in my inbox (from the WritersWeekly online magazine). Thought it might be of interest to you and the issue of place in writing:
http://www.writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/002965_09212005.html
Love to you,
Pamela