Andrea here, musing today about “place” in a story and how a setting can become a character in a story. For those of you familiar with my Wrexford & Sloane mysteries, you may have spotted many well-known Regency landmarks as settings for my scenes—Kensington Palace, the Royal Institution, Merton College at Oxford, to name just a few. Now, many of them I have actually visited, and I take lots of photographs for future reference material (causing many a curious stare when crouched down photographing a detail of a door latch or decorative wall trim!) I love trying to create a real sense “being there” so that the ambiance plays a part in the setting the mood—and sometimes the tension, as navigating a physical space can heighten the drama in the same way that playing cat-and-mouse with villain does.
But there are times when I really want to place a scene somewhere that I have not yet had a chance to explore. So, how do I make it come to life and have my characters find their way through all the twists and turn accurately?
Well, these days it’s easier than you might think. I have some gripes with the internet, and find many things about it a negative influence, but access to history and virtual tours of historic places is one of things that is an amazingly wonderful asset—you literally have the world at your fingertips!
For example, in my latest Wrexford & Sloane mystery, which releases on September 24th (You can order it here.) I wanted to have an important scene set at Eton, the iconic boarding school for aristocratic gentlemen during the Regency. (No spoilers, heh, heh, but the current headmaster might come looking for me, birch switch in hand!) However, one small detail—I’ve never been there!
No visit? No problem! To begin with, the school has a wonderful section on its website about its history, complete with wonderful vintage prints and photos. I had a great time looking at the images and exploring its museums and collections. I also found a vintage book from the late 1880’s on Google books with a large section on Eton, complete with beautiful colored illustrations. That was a gem for visualizing my characters within the school’s courtyards and interiors.
Next up was a search for maps showing the nearby towns and the actual layout of the school grounds, so I could accurately move my characters around. It was important to me to know where to position lookouts (ie. the Weasels!) so they could signal to each other if anything was going amiss in their intricate plan. The school is also close to Windsor Castle, and I needed to plot a route for getting from here to there.
Yes, I’m writing fiction, so I suppose I could take liberty and make things up. But I find it much more fun to do deep dives and actually learn interesting details and anecdotes that to me, add even more color and texture to the story because they are real.
An example of that is the less than admirable history the school had in the Regency era concerning its treatment of the boys in their charge. Beatings were common by the school administrators, as was bullying by the older boys. (It can be shocking to our modern sensibilities to discover that boys as young as five were sent away from home to board at the school.) I do work in that unhappy aspect to my story, but only obliquely. That said, times have certainly changed, and today Eton has a well-deserved reputation for being an exemplary world class educational institution.
So, how do you feel about real places in a fictional story? Do you enjoy learning something about the venues along with following the book’s characters and plot. Are you a stickler for an accurate depiction, or are you okay with an author taking creative license to create an element that helps the plot? Or is background simply background? Please share your thoughts?
(all images public domain)
Andrea, I agree it’s fun to dig out details and you do that better than almost anyone! As you said, the internet is great at helping us find interesting places for our characters.
Thank you, Mary Jo! High praise, indeed. I think all the Wenches are careful observers and d a great job at creating areal sense of place in our stories . . .even if we have get a little help from virtual tours!
I love details about real places in the past, and yes, the internet offers such wonderful opportunities to “visit” them. Even when places are invented, the internet makes it easier to make them plausible. (No mountains on Cape Cod, please!)
I’m also fond of Google Maps for visiting places I’ve never been. I know I’m seeing places as they are now, and I’m limited to the view from the road, but it’s still a great way to do some armchair traveling.
Glad to hear you like historical details, Lil. The inter net really is a gidft for visiting faraway places. Not a substitute for the real thing, of course, but it allows us to get a real flavor of a place. I, too, enjoy armchair traveling!
Love real places in fictional stories and always enjoy learning something new. I’m not a stickler, but I do appreciate it when the author leaves a note letting us know when they take creative license with the facts. Interesting posts Andrea.
So glad to hear that, Mary. I’m a big fan of Author Notes—I probably go a little overboard with mine. But I like sharing backstories. And I do try to explain if I’ve done any tinkering with a venue. I really try not to!
I appreciate very much the effort and research that goes into creating the setting, and I enjoy visualizing it and trying to work out the details of how they got from point a to point b, or where the desk is situated in the library, or whatever. It bothers me when it’s obvious the author hasn’t done the research, because a lot of us dedicated readers have been to many of the places depicted. I have been to Windsor Castle for example, and I would be seriously irritated if it were surrounded by mountains, or if it were supposedly a day’s coach ride from Eton. I read all of the Wenches’ books, usually at least two or three times, and I know you all do the hard work of creating REAL people and REAL situations with believable issues. When I get something from another author and there are glaring errors, like a cloak supposedly made of muslin, or someone says “ok” or someone’s interest is “peaked” rather than “piqued”, I snarl and snap just like Wrexford!
Oh, hah, ha! I will definitely try not to earn a “Wrexford” snarl or snap! I take it seriously to get my facts and places right. Of course, we all make errors, but I do try to make sure I do careful research. For me, it’s hugely fun, not a chore, so I don’t mind spending the time. Especially when discerning readers like you appreciate it!
It is so important to get locations right if they are used so well done for doing the legwork. And I have never had a problem with a Wench book and in fact have learnt a lot about places I haven’t been to, which is one of the many pleasures of reading. However it is awful when a writer gets it wrong. I used to live near a town called Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Suffolk is very flat but there is a square in Bury St Edmunds called Angel Hill and it is next to the old Abbey. The hero was described as struggling up the hill from the hotel to the abbey which is actually about 50ft below the hotel!
Oops!
There is where the internet would have helped avoid such a faux pas. Looking for a video or a panorama shot woud have saved the author a lot of embarrassment. None of us like to get it wrong . . . but it takes take doing one’s homework.
Hmm. The only time I’ve caught something that was obviously wrong was in the ABC miniseries version of The Stand. There’s a scene set in East Texas where they briefly show some mountains. I’ve lived most of my life in Texas, and there are no mountains in East Texas. I think the miniseries was filmed in Vancouver, and I guess nobody caught that.
There *are* mountains in Texas – far West Texas. Definitely not in East Texas.
Yipes, Susan! That’s a BIG mistake. You would think someone associated with the filming would have pointed it out. Maybe they thought people wouldn’t notice?
What an enjoyable post, Andrea. I definitely appreciate all the research you do to be able to set your characters in a given place. I don’t object to some authorial license, but (like Mary T) I like Author Notes which discuss where liberties have been taken regarding place or historical events.
Thanks, Kareni. And glad to hear you like Author Notes. I really have fun writing them, hope readers enjoy some of the backstories and and further histories on things mentioned in the story. I like weaving in unheralded people I discover in my research (especially women) whose accomplishments aren’t well known. So it’s fun to tell readers that I didn’t make them up!
You always give a sense of place and mold your characters to them.
Thank you for your wonderful stories, histories, and ideas.
Marjorie Hilton
who writes about the trade in
the ancient Near East in the book,
I’ll Trade You.