Details of Writing I
By LMReviews on Dec 19, 2008 in Multicultural Writing, Writing/Freelancing
Often in developing the details that make stories real, we take from what is around us. While I live in Arizona most of my stories and novels take place elsewhere. As a result, I often research for general everyday objects or watch television shows set in locations I write about in order to get a sense of what those objects look like in a natural recurring environment.
For example, in describing a home in Phoenix or some other city with an abundance of warm temperatures, it would make sense to describe the features of the home—one feature could be a pool. Open up any home décor magazine set in Arizona or the Southwest and Shasta Pools is likely to have an ad. How this is helpful for the writer with a story set in this location? Well, some simple research can be conducted through the Shasta Pools website to get an idea of what kind of pool your characters would have in their home.
A tiny detail such as this can tell the reader a lot about the character’s income level and their taste. Also, reviewing applicable company sites could lead to ideas about occupation or action sequence in a story. Maybe I am writing a story about a pool builder, then visiting a site like Shasta Pools would be helpful in learning what my character pool builder does. Maybe my characters are having a pool put in their backyard, then a visit to a pool builder site like Shasta Pools, would provide me with a great bit of details to use in my character’s quest to build the perfect pool in the story.
As a writer, everything you come across may feed your detail arsenal for a future thread in your story or novel.
[...] we take the slightest detail to make our character’s lives more authentic. I mentioned in the Details of Writing post how researching an element within your character’s home environment can tell the reader [...]