Setting Inspiration

Current Project: The Perfect Beau
Status: Pre-Writing, Worldbuilding

I spotted this shallow cave at Young’s Falls in Oregon and just had to put it in my story!

Deb’s post earlier this week about travel and setting got me thinking about what inspired me to choose certain settings for my stories. I realized that each story had different setting inspirations. In the first, setting was almost another character.

That book is set in small-town Iowa. I had lived in Iowa for nearly twenty years when I began Love Unleashed. The setting was as familiar as my own back yard. I love Iowa, Iowans, and small towns. I modeled my fictional town after the real towns of Independence and Mount Vernon, but it ‘feels’ like Mount Vernon, a quintessential Iowa college/farm town of about four thousand souls. Some scenes take place in Iowa City, which really exists. In this story, the setting is almost a character in itself.

The sequel to that story, which I’ve planned in detail, has the same small town as the starting point for a road trip to Portland, Oregon, where a daughter searches for the truth about her father’s disappearance. I still lived in Iowa. Why Oregon? Because my mom lives in Bend, Oregon, and I figured I could deduct a trip out on my taxes. And Oregon was a land far, far away, which forced my characters to spend several days together cooped up in a truck with the hero’s mother and her dog.

My next story, an unrelated paranormal romance with a suspense plot, is set on a fictional dormant volcano in southeast Washington State. I began this story after my husband was unexpectedly transferred to Portland. (Life, thy name is Irony!) I prefer to use settings I have actually visited. Since I wanted to try my hand at a chase-through-the-wilderness plot, I needed a remote location, surrounded by wilderness, but a short helicopter flight from a major city for my drug lord’s compound. Mount Saint Helens inspired my fictional Mount Astor. The Lava Cast Forest on Mount Saint Helens’ flank inspired the lava casts in my story. The tiny, remote town of Puma on Mount Astor was modeled after the real town of Cougar on Mount Saint Helens.

Currently, I’m worldbuilding a Steampunk YA set in 1870s Portland. This story is way out of my comfort zone, setting-wise, because so much about the city now has changed from the Victorian Era. I’m taking MWVRWA’s online Worldbuilding class taught by Rebecca Lynne, and it’s a lifeline I really need!

How did you choose the setting for your current WIP?

Setting Inspiration

It's rather serendipitous that our suggested blog topic for this month is Descriptions and Settings. I just got back from escaping the cold and wet by spending ten days cruising the Caribbean soaking up rays and, not incidentally, some fabulous potential settings.

One of the reasons we chose this particular cruise was because it stopped at several islands we hadn't visited yet, along with one old favorite. Visiting new places really kick starts my imagination and this trip was no exception. I found myself thinking about my current writing project constantly -- not in the "oh, no, I should be writing!" way, but in the much better, "hey, I could use this in my story!" kind of way. I even found myself dreaming about the characters in new settings and that's a sure sign that something's going right.

Each island left its own unique impression. In Bequia, I felt like I was visiting the Caribbean as it might have been about ten to fifteen years ago, before cruising became such a huge business and all the mega-ships were so prevalent (our ship had about 290 passengers and 500 people total). Bequia was a sleepy little place, but that might have been because we were there on Sunday and it seemed that nearly everyone was either in church or going to church and most of the businesses were closed.

Dominica was beautiful and a great source of inspiration. The vast majority of Dominica is unspoiled tropical rain forest--an UNESCO World Heritage Site. We took an aerial tram tour of the rain forest that was one of the most incredible things I've ever experienced. Take a look at the first picture on the blog--that's the tram we rode (in the front seat, no less; our guide sat in the rear). The tram is a converted ski lift from Vancouver, B.C. that was installed about seven years ago. Minimal cutting of the rain forest was done during the installation. The tram is very nearly silent and when our guide would pause in his narration, all we could hear were the birds, the light breeze through the trees, and the river far below. It was like floating through the forest. Oh, and the picture of the suspension bridge? We walked across that as part of the tour. The bridge is about a person and a half wide.

On St. Kitts we took a ferry to the island of Nevis and toured an incredible private botanical garden. The garden grounds were beautiful, but my favorite parts were the water features. Sounds so simple--water feature--like something you'd put in your backyard. Hah! I walked down the steps from the upper garden, turned around, and was face-to-face with a two-story high waterfall wall that looked like it belonged in an Indiana Jones movie. Talk about getting the imagination going!

On St. Barths we wandered around the town of Gustavia. This is the island where the rich and famous come to play and the upscale (really upscale) duty free shops reflect that. We had fun looking at all the giat yachts and sailboats and imagining what life might be like on board them.

We visited a few other islands, but these were the ones that provided the most fodder for my imagination. I may never use the towns or places specifically as setting, but the bits and pieces, like the feeling of floating through the forest, or suddenly coming upon an ancient sculptured wall above a waterfall pool, or the giant wooden water pipe, or how it felt to walk across a narrow suspension bridge several hundred feet above the ground--those are the things that will make it into my writing at some point.

How about you? Do you prefer to research your settings in person? Or would you rather stay closer to home and get setting details through the internet and books? It isn't always practical or necessary to visit places in person before writing about them. Traveling, though, can stir your imagination in ways you never expected. Sometimes it's as simple a matter as seeing the sky on fire as the sun sets on the ocean.

Spring is in the Air

Current Project:Spirit of the Sky
Status: midway

The lengthening days and bright green tips of plants poking out of the warming earth are my favorite things about spring.

The early morning sun peeking out and spreading a fresh glow through my bedroom window before the alarm goes off makes waking easier. Six o'clock comes early enough, but when it's in the dark during the winter I have to drag myself out of bed. Yet, come summer time when it's light at five a.m., I can get up before six and head out to change the irrigation water with a light heart and spring in my step. The sun hanging lazy in the sky past dinner, allows more time to putter around the yard, sprucing things up for the new spring arrivals.

The first signs of spring; the Mountain Bluebird fluttering around the fields and the flowers peeking through the mulch lighten my mood. The bright green of Daffodil stems pushing out from their winter hiding flashes hope that winter was a fleeting thing and the land will soon be alive with color. The new buds on the barberry bushes and the maroon shoots of the peony all add to the colorful palate nature reveals after coating the land in shades of gray and white all winter.

Are you getting itchy for spring reading this? Then my job is done. Happy setting!

Paty Jager
www.patyjager.net

Confessions of a Setting Wimp

Current Project: Blindsight, Romantic Suspense
Status: Inching along near end of first draft
(I tried to write an educational limerick about setting and/or description in honor of St. Paddy’s Day, but the rhyme turned to drivel—something about mimes and shrines and York. Drivelly-er than ordinary limericks. Extremely drivelous. So I will leave it off this blog post.)

I have a confession to make. I don’t like to write about places I’ve never been. The challenge of writing authentic description under those circumstances nearly paralyzes me. Why should I risk antagonizing readers? Or the postman who must deliver tons of helpful and/or angry letters from readers compelled to correct my mistakes?

Instead, I cheat. I find a real setting that I know well enough to feel comfortable with, then rename it and alter it slightly or combine it with another similar setting. As Queen of my story world, I can plant a fictional place on the map and avoid many of those kind and/or indignant letters.

Or I go visit the place.

I also like to write alternate history stories. If anyone calls me on a Jersey cow when everyone knows all the cows in that area at that time were Holsteins, I smile and make something up. “Swine flu spread to cows in the 1850’s, and only Jerseys were immune. By 1861, all the Holsteins had been replaced with Jerseys.”
Both historically-accurate stories and alternate histories require extensive research and world building. With alternate history, a writer has some wiggle room.

With historicals, not so much. If I ever write an accurate historical, maybe I’ll choose a culture or time period that is mostly a mystery to archeologists and historians.

What tricks related to setting are hidden in your writing process?