This week's reading is The Hunter's Wife by Anthony Doerr.
If you missed it, you can find it here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/05/the-hunters-wife/302198/
I picked this piece because it invokes such a strong sense of place from the first sentence: 'It was the hunter's first time outside Montana.' An introduction like this works really well because it already gives us some insight into our character, our plot and our setting.
It also highlights just how much imagery of setting you can put into a story without it becoming boring. There are some truly amazing descriptions in this short story that evoke such a strong sense of setting even for those who have never been there. Just read this first paragraph again:
'He woke, stricken still with the hours-old vision of ascending through rose-lit cumulus, of houses and barns like specks deep in the snowed-in valleys, all the scrolling country below looking December—brown and black hills streaked with snow, flashes of iced-over lakes, the long braids of a river gleaming at the bottom of a canyon. Above the wing the sky had deepened to a blue so pure he knew it would bring tears to his eyes if he looked long enough.'
One thing that works really well is personifying your landscapes and using analogy. The phrase 'the long braids of a river' evokes beautiful imagery of twists and turns, whilst the houses and barns looking 'like specks' gives us a perspective on the scene.
Another way that Doerr gives us perspective is by giving us a list of everything he sees as his plane lands: 'streetlights, headlights, stacks of buildings, ice rinks, a truck turning at a stoplight, scraps of snow atop a warehouse and winking antennae on faraway hills, finally the long converging parallels of blue runway lights'.
I think this works so well as the items at the start of the list are broad and vague, as if he is further away, but we hone in on more specific imagery the closer he gets to landing. Therefore, this description not only serves as a way of creating an image of the setting, but it also helps further the plot and provide some action.
Nature also seems to be plot-driving in the Hunter and his wife's relationship. It is the wind that presses him against the window where he first sees her. In this story, the setting seems to be almost alive: like a living, breathing entity that connects the worlds of the hunter and his wife.
What to take away from this week's reading:
1. You can set the scene as much or as little as you want. Don't be afraid of making it too realistic - but also make it interesting by using techniques such as personification and metaphor, etc.
2. How do your characters interact with their surroundings? If you're using a particularly hostile landscape, such as this one, how does it limit what your characters can do, when they can go out, etc.
3. How does your landscape change over time? Your story might be set purely in one season, but even seasons have unusual days - it might snow in April or it might be a beautiful sunny winter's day.
Related exercises:
Try writing a setting through periods of change. Write your setting as it is now, and then try some of the following:
1. The opposite season
2. In ten year's time
3. After a nuclear war or natural disaster
4. In the distant future
5. Fifty years ago
This will help you identify what is important about a place - what are its timeless features and what have changed/are changeable? For example, roads, cars and technology are in flux, but mountains, trees and houses are more permanent.
You could also try inverting this - maybe all that survives a disaster is the roads and pavements, but the hills and mountains have become flattened.
Happy writing!
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