Writer on the road: researching setting

photo by deegolden at morguefile

If you're heading out on the road (or air or sea) for some much-needed rest and relaxation, you don't necessarily need to lug along your laptop to keep your hand in your writing. Just grab a small notebook and a pen, and you can easily use you leisure travel time to build a repository of details for use in a current or future project.

One of the most fun things to research through observation is setting. If you plan to set a story in your vacation destination, then any and every detail you can record will be useful. But even if your story world is quite different from where you're headed (i.e. science fiction or historical) you may find that observing real-world settings helps you think through key aspects of world building.

Pens ready? Here are some key things to observe and take notes on.

Topography

• What's the lay of the land? Is it smooth and flat? Undulating with small hills? Mountainous? 
• What is the quality of the ground? Rocky? Dry? Sandy? Reedy? Swampy? Muddy? Covered with sharp, stiff grass? Full of manicured lawns? Meadow-like? Lush fields of crops? Densely forested?
• What bodies of water are nearby? Ocean? Sea? Lake? Pond? River? Stream? Creek? Wadi? Swamp?
• What features of the land do you find most striking for positive or negative reasons? Gather sensory details about how they look, feel, sound, smell, and (where appropriate) taste.

Weather

• Does the area have distinct seasons? What signs do you see to indicate that? 
• How much does the temperature change in a given day? 
• How humid or dry is the air? How does that make your skin and hair feel? 
• What sorts of storms do you encounter? How does the air feel before, during, and after the storm? How does is smell?
• What do you like and dislike most about the weather in this location? Gather sensory details about how the weather feels, sounds, looks and smells. 

Architecture 

• What is the mix of public buildings? Mostly national chain stores, unique boutiques, or struggling mom-n-pop shops? Many office buildings or many factories? How diverse are the houses of worship? How well-kept are the schools?
• What do most homes look like? How can you tell the prosperous neighborhoods from the poor ones?
• In what era were most of the buildings built? How do older sections differ from newer ones?
• What unique features seem adapted for the environment? (i.e. screen porches in buggy places, homes on stilts in flood-prone places)
• What color schemes do you see most often? What kinds of furniture?
• What buildings best represent this place? Snap some photos and gather sensory details of how the buildings look, feel, smell and sound.

Culture

• What kinds of cuisine are offered at restaurants? Ethnic? Fancy? Unhealthy or healthy? Generous portions or stingy? Is food generally expensive, mid-range or dirt-cheap? 
• What foods do locals love most? (A grocery store visit helps here)
• What do the locals do for fun? 
• What activities seem most advertised and supported? Sports? Arts? Shopping?
• How do the locals dress? Are they fashion-forward or backward? Do they seem to spend a lot of time on their appearance or very little? What sorts of outfit would fit in or draw stares?
• How do the locals interact with one another and with visitors? Are they chatty or standoffish? Polite or brusque? Easygoing or high-strung and rushed?
• What's the prevailing mood of the local population? Do they seem happy and hopeful? Angry and annoyed? Discouraged and listless? 
• What features of the local culture do you find most striking? Snap candid photos of everyday activities and gather sensory details about how foods smell and taste, how venues look, smell and sound.

What do you  most enjoy observing and learning about in new locations?

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I'm back!

Oxford, where we spent our first jet-lagged day.

We returned from our UK trip yesterday evening and soldiered on valiantly to stay awake until 8 p.m. (1 a.m. UK time). I brought back a head cold with me (thanks so much, germy London Underground), along with a handful of souvenirs, many photos and a head full of great memories of our experiences.

It will take me some time to unpack it all--the laundry, the photos and memories especially. In fact, I took so many photos, I used up the last of my available space on Dropbox to store them. If any of you aren't using Dropbox to back up your work (it's a free cloud server), let me know in the comments, along with your e-mail and I'll send you an invitation. I get a little extra space for my photos with each friend who signs up. Did I mention it's free? It also allows you to easily share data on multiple computers.

I'll have immense amounts of catch-up to do at my day job this week, so please be patient with my continued relative quietness online. In the meantime, here are some pretty pictures:

detail from a building in Oxford

Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire

Stow-on-the-Wold, another Cotswold village up the road

Church doors in Stow, looking like someplace in Middle Earth

Any tips for overcoming westward jet lag? Do you use Dropbox? If you'd like to try it, please leave your e-mail address.

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Hospitality month at Laurel's Leaves

Photo by hotblack, morguefile.com

I will be heading overseas in eleven days, which means I won't have tons of time to write posts. Instead, I'll be playing host to a bunch of wonderful writers throughout the month of June.

Wednesday, PK Hrezo will be coming by to share writing lessons learned from reading book review blogs. Later in the month, Jessica Bell will be talking about fiction in verse, Catherine Stein will discuss world building, and Beth Fred will share insights as well.

I have a few more slots open for guest appearances this month. If interested, leave a comment with contact information. All posts would need to be to me by Saturday (6/8).

Any special topics you'd love to share or hear about? 

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Finding the stillcenter

One month from today, I will be arriving here:

photo by schurch, morguefile.com

As you might guess, planning is making life a bit hectic. It's my fourth trip to the UK, but instead of being in a college program, on a bus tour, or having a romantic getaway with my hubby, I'll be taking a family trip. It's my 10-year-old daughter's first  time off the continent of North America, and we'll be renting a car and driving. On the left side of the road. Yeah. A many of new adventures lie ahead.

My day job tends to get very hectic in late May, when all the college professors get busy with summer writing projects and submissions to scholarly journals like the one I work on.

Promoting my novel and poetry collection continues to take my time in dribs and drabs.

And then there's the new novel, crying for my attention.

It's so easy on days like this to scurry from thing to thing and feel like I never fully engaged with anything.

That, friends, is "attention splatter," a helpful concept in the social media-soaked world. This article by Christine Kane explains it well.

She recommends having fewer priorities a day. Awesome. I'd love that. However, I can't control my agenda to that degree. I can, however, build pockets of focus into my day.

How? Set aside "sprint hours" and "concentration hours." In other words, give yourself pockets of quiet to do focused work, then at set intervals, deal with the small tasks that tend to interrupt: check and respond to e-mail, make a call or two, pop onto Facebook or Twitter.

Then stop.

Breathe.

Get up and walk a little. Drink a glass of water. Say a prayer or hail the muse.

Sit. Sink into your stillcenter.

Dig in to your next concentrated task with your full attention.

Do you have certain times of year that bring more "attention splatter"? How do you cope?

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Mid-month report

Hello, friends. I hope you are all having a lovely August. As promised, I'm dropping in briefly to give an update on my hiatus happenings.

My lovely alpha reader, who has cheered me on endlessly through book one, sent me a good, old-fashioned letter, asking to see pages from book two. How could I say no to that? I spent a week cleaning up the first six chapters (can't say how many times I changed chapter breaks), printed them and mailed them to her at the camp where she's a counselor.

I gave myself the goal of repairing and finishing chapters 7 and 8 by mid-month. I finished that up last night. I'll put those in my alpha's hands when she returns from Maine.

Some things I learned while on the road last week:

~Weak coffee is the bane of my existence.

~I do my best drafting in longhand.

~Preparation is everything. Before leaving home, I had organized a notebook with printed pages of the draft, my novel "bible," plot notes and drafting spiral-bounds. At quiet moments, I could review and add brainstorming notes.

~Asking for blocks of time away from the family to just write does wonders for my morale. A quiet museum cafeteria was my most productive venue.

~Staring out car windows at nice scenery is good for the subconscious mind to do its mysterious work.

~Understanding character motivations and desires is so foundational. Spend time freewriting about each character's psychology and scene ideas will come to you fast and furious.

Have you ever taken your writing on the road? What did you get out of it?

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Special Report from Hogwarts Florida Campus

by Lisa Galek, Ravenclaw

ORLANDO--Ever wish tank tops were part of the Hogwarts dress code? Do you long for ocean-side Potion lessons? Been dying to use that sunblock spell you learned last year? Then consider taking a summer class at Hogwarts esteemed American campus located in sunny Orlando, Florida! This reporter was lucky enough to be part of a wizarding convention there last week and has the full scoop for you on all the classes, shopping, and extracurriculars.

The first thing you’ll see when you arrive is a replica of our beloved Hogsmeade. You’ll be amazed at how close these American wizards have come to our own village. You’ll feel right as home as you take a stroll past the shops, buy a butterbeer in the street (I recommend the frozen variety), or enjoy a song performed by the frog choir. They have a branch of Zonko’s selling all kinds of magical mischief. There’s Honeydukes, too (watch out for the chocolate frogs – they not only hop fast, they melt fast). You can pop into Ollivanders to watch one lucky witch or wizard choose their very own wand. Or you can buy some quality Quidditch supplies at Dervish and Banges. If you want to write home to all your friends, stop at the owl post. There your letters will be postmarked from Hogsmeade, so everyone will know how you’ve been spending your summer.

Make sure you leave room for lunch, too! You can stop into the Three Broomsticks where house-elves are cooking up delicious British cuisine. It will run you a few Galleons, but it’s definitely worth it. Be sure to check out the Hog’s Head next door, as well. The barmen are very friendly, but the hog behind the bar has been known to grunt at patrons from time to time.

On the way up to the castle, you can stop for a quick ride with Buckbeak on Flight of the Hippogriff (approach with caution though… my hippogriff went soaring all over the place once I boarded!). For the especially brave, you can even race a Hungarian Horntail or Chinese Fireball on the Dragon Challenge. I chose the Horntail and I’m very pleased to say that I won… and survived.

Hogwarts castle is truly spectacular. As you walk through, you can chat with the portraits, get a peek into the Headmaster’s office, and even see some famous Gryffindor alumni in the common room. In the heart of the castle is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. It’s a remarkable adventure… if you’re feeling up to chasing a dragon through the grounds. Watch out for the dementors (I had stowed my wand before getting on board, so I couldn’t even cast my patronus!) and spiders (I clamped my eyes shut the entire time we were in Aragog’s lair. One run in with a giant spider is quite enough for me). Oh, and one more warning – the ride feels a bit like disapparating for the first time. I had to sit down for a short while after I left the castle… but I soon recovered and, luckily, didn’t end up looking like the victim of a bad Puking Pastille.

The only real problem I had with the Florida campus is that they let Muggles in! Of course, the little dears can’t register for classes, but you’ll catch them aimlessly waving wands in the streets and gawking in the shop windows everywhere you look (it’s like they’ve never seen a mandrake before!). And the place is constantly jam-packed. Some would say this is excellent for promotion of cooperation between magical and non-magical peoples, but I doubt those people have ever had the hem of their brand new robes trampled on by a group of wide-eyed Muggle tourists.

All in all, a visit to Hogwarts’ Florida campus makes a fantastic summer holiday. My only question is: Do they accept transfer students?

Lisa Galek is the Thestral Gazette’s adventurous travel reporter. She spends her days up in Ravenclaw tower plotting trips with the help of Charles, her enchanted talking atlas. When she’s not busy seeing the world via broomstick, she blogs at Read. Write. Repeat.

Thestral Gazette is an unofficial publication for students of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Founded by Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevy, the tabloid continues its fine tradition of yellow journalism under the editorship of Laurel Garver and a large staff of student reporters. To join the reporting staff, contact us at thestralgazette (at) gmail (dot) com.

See all the back issues at our archive site:
THESTRAL GAZETTE

Which part of Florida campus appeals to you most?

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