Grounding Your Writing in a Place

“I think setting is, curiously, almost always underrated by the beginner or the amateur, and almost always of intense importance to the accomplished writer.  Why is that?  We only have space and time. I suppose that time happens of its own accord in a story: this happened and then that happened.  Whereas place must be achieved in words, it’s part sleight-of-hand, finding the images and atmosphere to transport the reader to that far away.”

—Janet Burroway, as interviewed by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

Make a list of ten-twenty places you no longer have access to. Choose one and describe it in as much vivid detail as possible. Repeat with another place on your list. And then do it again.

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