If you’ve come from the fabulous Dani Jace, welcome!
This week’s challenge comes from the amazing and prolific From Betty Bolte…
Our surroundings influence our mood and view of the world as much as setting in any story. What is the view outside your window, or what would you like the view to be?
Environment affects my stories when they are born. A landscape, sounds, sunshine or rain, contribute to my idea and help build the plot. Watching the people around me adds to the atmosphere. But when I actually sit down to write, there is only that created world. It doesn’t matter if I’m at the kitchen table, in my office or on a plane. I go to the place the characters inhabit and I settle in there with them, observing them in their daily lives.
I am lucky. I have an office upstairs in my house that is my kind of place. It is cluttered with post-it-notes and bits of manuscripts, research and a bed for my dog. I have a window that lets in sunlight, but the view is insignificant. It doesn’t matter, since I like to see what my characters see. In “Texas Summer” I saw the desert and the broken down town. In “The Defiant Bride” it was the castles and the meadows where a horse could run forever. In “Captain’s Captive”, I was aboard the ship, then in a cottage in the colonies. In the soon to be published “Hannah’s War” it was the battlefields of the Civil War. And in the just sold “The Dream Dancer”, it is dreams.
That is why I love to write. I can go anywhere, do anything. It is a great gift and I am grateful for it every day! And I feel especially blessed when readers go with me.
Let’s see the wonderful Kathryn Renard’s favorite view.
http://kathrynrenard.com/?page_id=12
I love your view. You can go into anyone of your novels, that is amazing.