About Location

Post 46:

            This one’s about writing, so prepare yourselves accordingly. If you hang with it I’ll find some nutty way of bringing it back to real life. Bear with me, brave souls.

            I’ve heard conflicting theories about the importance of setting when crafting a tale. My personal thought is that location isn’t as important as some writers make it. Yeah, I get your thing takes place in Los Angeles, but I don’t need to know what the street signs look like and the exact temperature or whatever other filigree you want to wrap around the narrative. Just give me the characters and the frigging story. But…

            There’s always a but. If setting is an integral part of the story, essentially, another character, obviously you need to spell it out with a lot more aplomb. Example. The Brothers Karamazov doesn’t work unless it takes place in Russia. I mean, Russianness seeps into every line, every character, every social interaction and the way the society functions. Needless to say, we readers need know a bit about Russia.

            Then there’s most stories. Most readable stories are based around tight plotting and problems that shape characters. Not really important where the problem is, just that there is a problem.

            Ah. This is a bit like life, by golly. Most cities and towns are pretty much the same, there’s the coffee shops, restaurants, the places to go and the places to avoid. Unless you live in frigging Hawaii. If you live in a place like that, the fact that you’re living there is pretty much the governing principle around which the story of your life takes place. Unless you’re one of those people who lives in Hawaii and avoids the Hawaii-type stuff. If you’re that person, I have some advice. Walk up the nearest active volcano and jump in. See. Now the setting matters.

            Location location location.

            See you after.