Tuesday Tip - Location, Location, Location

I've just moved house so I have suddenly become only too aware of the importance of location.

I read so many books where the important scenes happen in the obvious places - domestic arguments in the kitchen or the bedroom for instance. But perhaps these scenes could be more vivid in another place.

When a scene is not working, consider just changing the location.

An argument can be much more vibrant if one person is chasing another down a busy street, or if the disagreement takes place in a library where people are supposed to be quiet.

When revising your work, why not list three alternative locations for your scene? At first I was reluctant to do this, worrying about "how will they get there?" but for important scenes, the "where" of the scene outweighs the smaller consideration of the backstage transitions from one place to the next. And a change of location breathes new texture into your work.

An excellent book on location and how it can be both background canvas or foreground character is "Description and Setting" by Ron Rozelle in the series "Write Great Fiction."

And now - I'd better get on with unpacking those books.....