Comments on: Literary Pilgrimages–Site Research

By: Bonnie Grove

Bonnie Grove — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:44:58 +0000

I’ll be writing a book next year (you know all about it, Wendy) that takes place in a sea side setting, far from land-locked Saskachewan. My family and I have opportunity to travel to the places I want the setting to be (for me, I’ll want to draw on several different but similar locations in order to create a composite setting in which to place the story). Hurray for family and friends who can put us all up while I walk the cliffs and search for the towns and clearings and beaches.

I’m also looking forward to soaking in the micro-culture of the places I visit. The figures of speech, the favorite haunts, the lore, the stories.

I’ve traveled once before to a place that feels much like the setting for this upcoming book – and I was strangely home there. I hope to capture that in my book.

Thanks for this great series, Wendy!

By: Christine Lindsay

Christine Lindsay — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:30:41 +0000

For me setting is terribly important in a book. Setting to my way of thinking is anogther character. It alone has something to say. So I need to feel it, smell it and experience that setting. For my first novel, I knew the place well–Northern Ireland where I was born and had gone back to visit twice. Much of the story takes place in my favoritie great aunt’s beautiful Irish country home. However the setting for my second story was one I could not go to. So I did a heap of research on India circa 1919–everything from the memoirs of famous people in history to ordinary soldiers and their wives, even cookbooks from that era. For my current story, I’m giving myself a break, and writing about the Pacific Northwest where I live. So much easier to step out he front door and breath the air and then put it into my story. And the local museums are fun.

By: Valerie C.

Valerie C. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:37:36 +0000

I’ve not specifically planned a trip for setting but once I had been really struggling with a story idea for a chapter book that sprang out of an old mineral survey. I could not get a handle on the setting. I couldn’t find any information that verified if what I “saw” as the setting was possible in a mining/cave situation. I ended up putting it aside in frustration.

Then as we were planning our vacation and were looking for some options as we traveled through South Dakota, I saw a brochure for the Jewel Caves. We put it on the itinerary and bingo! Problem solved. It brought the whole story back to life.

By: Brian T. Carroll

Brian T. Carroll — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:39:03 +0000

I tend to be compulsive about researching the locations of my scenes, which means I write very slowly, but I’m happy with what I have when I’m done. My WIP is a 1960s California story, concerning capital punishment. Among other things, I’ve gotten myself locked into a cell with a Death Row inmate at San Quentin, ridden along on a sweep-rowing workout just off its shoreline, and talked to an assistant warden who worked there in the 60’s. I’ve walked the Delano locations of Cesar Chavez’s UFW strike. I’ve walked the perimeter of the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles (the building itself has been condemned since the 1971 earthquake) and interviewed retired DA’s who worked there. Before I knew how they would fit in my book, I visited a San Gabriel Valley farm labor camp that has since been torn down and two European locations that serve in flashbacks. I’ve also spent time sitting in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, where another key scene takes place. Still to come: I want to walk some of the Sacramento Delta back roads. When my knees and I were younger, I felt walking a place was the best way to get to know it. Just about the time the knees started to go, Google Maps came along to take me places without getting out of my chair. I may not write the Great California Novel, but it will be full of great California locations.

By: Wendy Lawton

Wendy Lawton — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:35:21 +0000

Such fun to think about these places. . . I’ve stayed at The Grand Hotel twice. Such good memories. And Camy, I think England sounds wonderful but just to make sure it is a research trip I think you shoud take your literary agent.

By: Camy Tang

Camy Tang — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:25:13 +0000

I took several trips to Sonoma, California, to research my romantic suspense, Deadly Intent (and hopefully the rest of the books in that series). That was a lot of fun, especially because I had already outlined the book in detail and knew which places I needed to pay attention to and take pictures of.

My dream would be a research trip to England. No, I’m serious! I’d want to go to certain areas that aren’t necessarily big touristy places, but would be of interest to me as a writer.

Camy

By: Lynn Dean

Lynn Dean — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:55:14 +0000

Just finished a story that started with an 1867 riot in my hometown (Waco, TX) and wound up in Elizabethtown, New Mexico–a real gold-rush ghost town. I’ve traveled through that area many times on the way to Red River, so it was easy to make the setting very vivid. Can’t wait to get back to the next story in that series!

My current wip is set at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan. I was surprised at how much harder it was to write about a place I knew only through research. My sister found a bargain package this summer that enabled us to go for a weekend, and the story came alive with smells and sounds.

This week’s discussion reminded me of something I learned this summer. Branson, Missouri, became a tourist destination as a result of the runaway success of Harold Bell Wright’s 1907 novel, The Shepherd of the Hills. So many people came to see where the story took place that the locals were inspired to give them something to see once they got there.

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:23:31 +0000

Since writing my latest WIP, I would really love to see the Breakers mansion in NJ, the basis for the home that my heroine lives in. It would be so neat!

Union Station here in KC is great…gets the 1920-30′s feel that I’m using for another manuscript.

By: Judy Gann

Judy Gann — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:39:17 +0000

The setting for my WIP is ten minutes from my house. So, no exotic trips for me either, Crystal.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the annual Apple Squeeze in this town. (Yes, Wendy, I twittered about it.) I walked down Main St. dodging dogs, strollers, and throngs of people enjoying the festival while they lined up to squeeze apples in the old presses. I took photos, but more importantly for me at this point in my writing, I soaked up the atmosphere, the sense of place that uniquely defines this small town.

Of course I returned home with delicious apple goodies, too.

By: Crystal Laine Miller

Crystal Laine Miller — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:41:04 +0000

I once worked on an Underground Railroad story and traveled to Levi Coffin’s house in Fountain City, IN to experience the unique home that “spirited” over a thousand runaways from slavery. (He had a well in his “basement!”)

I live in this area, but to actually crawl into the space in the wall or see the bed where giggling girls were secured under the mattress was powerful stuff.

I love exotic, historical or distant settings,and historical/historical romance are my favorite genres to read, but I realize that probably my own place is right where I live, which doesn’t require much travel, unfortunately.

But perhaps I’ll need to travel to find the back story…