Tips for Fantasy Writers

chapter 8

#8) Locations are characters too

Okay, before you go off and write about a room that kills people, let me explain. Locations need to be given the same attention as characters when they are brought into the narrative. They need a vivid description that gives the reader something to visualise; something that fixes the scene in their imagination. A location description doesn't need to be a dry brick by brick list of what is present. It should be a brief outline of what people would notice about the place first: the scattered debris, the statues of gold, the smell of onions.

Think of some great gothic novels and how the locations seemed to take on their own personality. Wuthering heights, Manderley and Jamaica Inn; they all provided the brooding and oppressive backdrop to the action, lurking in the reader's line of sight like a sinister servant. Hmm.. I think I may need to revisit tip #5.