Middle Grade Settings: An Introduction Having photos in front of you can help you write about your settings I’m going to make a confession. Settings are not something I often spend time planning. Perhaps my stories are the poorer for it, but the settings come as I’m writing or editing. The Glass Room, in Taking Wing, is not something I planned before I started writing. Personally, I’m a very visual writer, seeing my characters as though they are a video in my head, and I write what I see. As such, the setting just happens! There are benefits and drawbacks to this. The main benefit is that the writing process is more interesting. Not everything is set, and my story can still give me surprises. The drawback is that, similar to AI, I cannot know that I’m not stealing settings from films and books I’ve seen/read previously. I certainly don’t mean to plagiarise but the concern is a real one! With that in mind, I have started to at least have a vague idea of my settings before I start t...
Writing historical fiction, it is impossible to ignore the overwhelming impact religion had on people's lives. It was not only the structure of organised religion, but the interwoven beliefs which dominated people's lives. Christianity, the religion which runs through most of my historical fiction, grew and survived with its ability to adapt as it spread from place to place and culture to culture, absorbing certain traditions as it powered on. I love Theology. I did my undergraduate degree in it, and it continues to remain a real interest of mine. I also love the idea of holding hands across history, seeing what my characters saw, and holding the same objects in my own hands as they or their peers did. Given the significance of religion and superstition throughout history, these things were common - although not necessarily accessible - and would have been understood by all. Religious iconography dominated Pre-Reformation Europe, speaking as a universal language to all. These ...