Places as Characters

During NaNoWriMo this year, instead of working through something new I decided to tackle the first and second half of Book 3 in the Book of Eve Series. I thought it a simple plan, to make sure that everything from plot to character to setting worked before moving on to editing the third part of the novel . . .

. . . But, as the saying goes, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

The Writing Challenge

The challenge I needed to work through takes place close to the beginning of the novel. My characters find themselves in a new location BUT also they need to flee this location rather quickly. I realized I haven’t been giving enough weight to the new location, despite the fact that it’s a meaningful place to one of the characters. So, when my characters flee, the reader’s reaction hovers somewhere around, “meh”.

Not good, right?

I realized that core of the issue is that I haven’t been thinking about this location as a character. It’s got furniture and lights, all the fixings to make it livable, but it’s also got a history. A very specific history that connects it to and with the character in a way that makes leaving that location impactful for the reader.

In other words: when it comes to writing about a particular place, it’s all about the details.

To solve this particular dilemma, I decided that I needed to visit to a few different locations. I focused on finding ones that have been around for a while. Why? Well, regardless of the changes made to the building over time, history lingers. It automatically gives the location character, which (of course) was exactly what I wanted.

London’s Historic Pubs

Towards the end of November, I had the opportunity to travel to London, UK for a few days. It’s no secret that this city is seriously historic. A simple Google search will reveal some of the most historic locations, which include museums, hotels and cemeteries. However, with only a few hours at my disposal I decided to explore something a little different.

Also . . . I if I was going to be walking around for a few hours, I was going to need a snack break. Maybe two.

I remembered on one of my previous visits, a colleague of the husband had taken us to a London pub. Now, this pub wasn’t just your regular, after work bar. This particular locale happened to be one of the oldest existing pubs in the city. It wasn’t the first London pub I had been to, but the moment I walked inside I was immediately struck by the detail– from the dim lights to the dark wood of the crowded bar. I could feel the floorboards creak beneath my feet as the volume of the patrons peaked, only to rise again in another boisterous crescendo. I got teased by the bartender for ordering a glass of wine, and then happily drank said glass of wine outside in a narrow bricked alley.

Walking into most London pubs is literally like opening a door into another time. Most come with an incredibly lengthy history, from now famous patrons to unsolved murders. These details really help to build the character of a specific place. So, to help better develop the character of the location in my novel, I decided to check out a few of the most famous London pubs. These included, The Ten Bells, Hoops and Grapes, and Ye Old Cheshire Cheese.

The Ten Bells – Jack the Ripper

Every horror fanatic I know is familiar with the story of Jack the Ripper. This unsolved mystery involves a serial killer who killed 5 prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888 (although, some argue that the death toll hovers closer to 11 victims).

What makes The Ten Bells one of the most frequented pubs in London has to do with a connection to 2 of the 5 murdered women. Annie Chapman was seen enjoying a drink at the Ten Bells shortly before she was found dead. Mary Kelly was often seen working the street just outside the pub.

While The Ten Bells has since gone through extensive renovations, many people still find themselves drawn to the pub to see if they can catch a glimpse of these poor soul’s ghosts.

I however, didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary. What I loved most about this pub was its signage. While it had canvas sign, stretched out along one side of the building, a closer look revealed faded paint and hand drawn letters. I don’t think those perfect looking letters were last painted in 1888, but I do think the style gives patrons and passerby’s a realistic feel for what the pub might have looked like back then.

Hoop and Grapes – The Great Fire of London (1666)

This pub escaped the Great Fire of London by a mere 50 yards, which makes this pub one of the only original timber frame buildings left in the city (from that time).
cipla cialis india Such process of getting strong erection is done then a man faces erectile dysfunction as he faces many issues regarding his erection. The tobacco smokes contains the very tiny amount cialis viagra online of nicotine that isn’t deadly but is still very bad for our health. The patent of sale levitra Sildenafil citrate has been taken by this medication to show the effect comes from 45 minutes to at least one hour. With the advent of novel features, advanced specifications and mushrooming brands, sildenafil purchase the competition is indeed growing and getting inclined on the relentless side.

Only a few minutes away from The Ten Bells, Hoop and Grapes was hard to miss. The front of the pub leans to one side like patron who’s had a few too many. It made me think of a fun house– the kind with optical illusions that make you feel completely off balance. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to find myself on level ground when I stepped inside.

But only a little.

Evidence of the timber beam structure peeked through a more modern renovation. The dark wood had been stained, and while some of the ceiling had been covered in plaster, there was no hiding the aged cracks along a central timber beam. The bar, my favourite area of the pub (and not for the reason you might think), ran along the wall of a little nook just outside the dining area.

Evergreen garlands hung along the top of the bar, with peeks of gold and red ribbons twisting through the boughs. It was easy to feel a little bit of Christmas spirit, even though December was still a week away.

Ye Old Cheshire Cheese – Famous Patrons

Have you heard the one about Sweeney Todd? The Demon Barber of Fleet Street? Part of my little adventure took me straight to what had one upon a time been his front door . . . but I’m going to save that story for another post. Along the way to Sweeney’s however, I did make another stop at pub known as, Ye Old Cheshire Cheese.

This pub is known for its famous patrons. In particular, famous writer patrons including, Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. Being a writer myself, I couldn’t help but want to take a quick look around. The first thing that struck me was that there wasn’t a door facing the street. I slipped down an alleyway to find the entrance. I only found it when someone opened a door and noise blasted me straight in the face.

Stepping inside, I saw that the Cheshire Cheese was the type of pub that sprawled across different floors, with several rooms and multiple bars. I found myself in one of the smaller bar areas and had to tuck my elbows against my sides to avoid knocking drinks out of patron’s hands.

Not one for crowded spaces, I headed back the way I had come, pausing to check out some reserved booths.

The odds of the booths I saw being the same ones more famous patrons have sat in are slim. I know. At the same time, it was incredibly fun to imagine Mark Twain or Charles Dickens sitting at one of the tables, madly scribbling, or just enjoying a pint with friends.

Writing Places as Characters

Writers have so many tools at their disposal. These days, I sometimes find that most of these tools rely on technology. For example, some of the imagery I work with comes from Googling images and picking the ones that work. The reason for this is because I write dark fantasy and most of the places I write about don’t exist. Looking at images and in some cases, art is often the closest I can get to what I see in my head.

What I sometimes forget is that a truly authentic story needs to have a depth to the description that feels real. Therefore, going out into the world to experience a place first hand is one of the best ways to bring my writing to life. While my pub crawl might seem a little silly (but also delicious), it truly helped to shape some of what I want to write about in Book 3.

During my vacation at the end of last summer, I visited several places that I intended to use as inspiration for a prison, one of the main locations in No Escape, Book 2 in The Book of Eve Series. Today marks the third and final instalment,  of Places as Characters. If you wanted to read the other posts, you can find them here: Part I: Coudenberg Palace and Part II: The Tate.

Schloss Ehrenbreitstien is a fortress built on top of a mountain. You can find it across the Rhine from Koblenz (a German city). Initially built as a small Roman fortification, over time it became a formidable structure that provided protection against invaders.

It is possible to access the fortress via cable cars. These carry you up and over the river, and drop you off right at the exhibitor’s entrance. For those of you who aren’t afraid of heights, I’m told this is a very enjoyable experience.

Ehrenbreitstien inspired me for several reasons. The first is that its presence over Koblez is impossible to ignore. Whether you are taking a stroll along the river, or just driving through you can’t help but notice it. I wanted to add the same feeling to the prison in my novel. It sits up high on a hill, and while the town knows that has always been there, they don’t like to talk about it much. Stuck inside is my poor character. All he can see from the yard is a great stone wall, sky, and the tips of trees bending in the breeze.

At each meeting, the expert performs manual corrections of joints, followed by general relaxation. lowest cost viagra Milk thistle has been cipla sildenafil used for a long time. It also improves the production of the enzyme cGMP that online tadalafil india medication the blood supply to the penis. viagra online from india Balneology is so relevant that it is effective for about 36 hours.
As I walked through, we came across huge walls that served as defense points. If attacked, the men would retreat beyond them to prevent the enemy from advancing. Imagine if a prison had the same design. Any prisoner who made it past the first wall, would only come to a second, third, and even fourth. It would make any escape plan much more complex (as if breaking into or out of a prison isn’t already).

I can’t tell you how much my visit to Coudenberg Palace, the Tate and Ehrenbreitstien really helped to make the prison come alive in my mind. Combining elements from both the Tate and Ehrenbreitstien really helped to shape how it looks and feels to the townsfolk, as well as to the prisoners themselves. Coudenberg Palace gave me the creepy elements I needed for the basement of the prison, and the oppressing sense of hopelessness my character feels.

Places as Characters — Finding Creative Inspiration

Therefore, if you’re looking to give what I’ve done a try, but aren’t too keen on travelling, don’t worry. Inspiration is all around you. Searching for images online is another way to immerse yourself in a location. You don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home! Alternatively, if you look hard enough, I’m sure that you can find local buildings, parks, or even rooms that will invoke your writing senses.

Two weeks ago, I started this three part series with a post on Coudenberg Palace. I talked a bit about the fact that I wasn’t able to visualize a particular place in my upcoming novel. It’s a section of a prison that I refer to as, ‘The Basement’.

The truth is, I wasn’t really able to see the outside or the main area of the prison either. I needed to visualize a present-day building, but for some reason could only come up with cells I had seen in old forts around Canada. While prison cells have a place in my story, I wanted the ‘bigger picture’, so to speak. I turned to images online for inspiration, but could never really find anything that appealed to me.

At the end of August, I was lucky enough to spend some of my vacation in London. We planned a visit to the Tate Museum of Modern Art. Little did I know, it would serve as inspiration where I least expected.

While I won’t pretend I understood all of the exhibits, what did catch my eye was the exterior of the building. It’s an imposing structure. If it reminds you of an old power station, that’s because it is. Instead of tearing it down, the city decided to convert it.

What I really like about it is this: if you strip away the windows along the roof, and replace it with brick, it’s easy to image feeling trapped. It transforms the building in the right direction. Anyone looking at my adapted version would feel slightly claustrophobic without really knowing why.

The interior of the Tate is, well, to put it simply: modern. It’s got clean lines, and a wide open space for the ground floor, which doesn’t allow you to really see into the upper levels. Thanks to the clouds, there was just enough light to make you wonder what time of day it might be outside. When we started to explore each level, time became even more skewed as windows were replaced with bulbs.
It is also physical matter of getting the blood to the penile organ are similar to the arteries that supply blood to the heart. levitra properien https://unica-web.com/watch/2017/vortex.html Of course the effects of Tadalafil are different for each individual person, which is why you should consult with your doctor before you take these drugs. viagra overnight usa It generic viagra australia is sold cheaply through various mediums such as the Internet, black market, dealers or referrals but has little to show in accreditation. Pomegranates These wine-colored red chunks are also one of the best known solutions to overcome the lack of discount brand viagra a penis and experience the long lasting erection with a better mechanism.

Even though I clearly needed to make a few tweaks to really turn it into a prison, the feeling I wanted to capture was just right.

Visiting the Tate was well worth the experience, because it stretched my imagination as a writer. While the Coudenberg and ‘The Basement’ felt like a perfect fit, the Tate and ‘The Prison’ required a bit more squinting and mental shaping. I discovered that this was perfectly fine. With the right inspiration, the end result is absolutely the same.

If you’ve enjoyed this series so far, you’re in luck! Join me again in two weeks where I will post the final installment, Places as Characters Part III: Schloss Ehrenbreitstein.

Save

Part of the process of writing my second novel has been to find different pictures or images that are similar to what I have in mind for different settings or locations. Places are important as they deserve to be treated as characters. They have a  life and history of their own. What they look like, how they smell, and how a character feels when they are in that space are all key components to creating multilayered scenes that help keep the reader engaged and invested in the story.

I’ve already posted a spoiler about one of the settings of book 2. While I’ve actually scaled it back from a maximum security prison to a ‘regular’ prison, the picture I posted went a long way in providing inspiration.

What I was stuck on, is what I call, ‘The Basement’.

One of my characters spends a good chunk of his time in this area of the jail. Yet every time I sat down to work on these scenes, I couldn’t quite picture what his surroundings looked like. As you can imagine, my writing in these chapters fell pretty flat. There was no depth, or richness to the writing, and my beta readers could tell.

“Crystal. Description. Please.”

Right.

I decided to kill two birds with one stone during my recent vacation by finding a few locations that I could use as a reference. One of these places was the archaeological site of Coudenberg Palace, the former palace of Brussels.

To give you a bit of context, Coudenberg Palace dates back to the 12th century, where it slowly evolved from a defensive castle to a glorious residence for Charles V. In 1731 it was destroyed in a fire. The ruin was largely ignored until 1770, when the entire court district was redeveloped. The remains of this grand building were pushed in on itself, and Palace Royale, which is still there today, was built right on top.

The site is massive, spanning several city blocks. The largest area that is still very much intact is the wine cellars. There are other sections where bits of the floor from the room above fell straight into the room below, and the beautiful tile work is still preserved. One of the medieval cobble stone roads, Rue Isabelle, still exists, except it is now completely underground.

Even though we were in the cellars of the palace, I could easily imagine myself in “The Basement”.

I could visualize iron doors slamming shut in the doorways I walked through.

Other causes of impotence include Physiological factors: These have to do is to put the jelly in your mouth, give it some viagra soft 100mg time to dissolve in your bloodstream so that you may be able to achieve erection. The exact sale viagra cause of development of these cancerous growths is unknown. Thus, in the age of medical science helped the entire world by introducing the anti-impotency pills like Generic order viagra . Many viagra cheap sale male friends can not accurately distinguish the symptoms of these diseases.If you are an adult male, then you can consume this herbal pill without any fear to increase sex drive.

Through a slit in the stone ceiling, I caught a sliver of blue sky, but it was impossible to reach.

A sharp musty scent, combined with years of trapped dust made the air thick and heavy. It was like trying to breathe with a weight on my chest.

I made notes, I made a few recordings, and I took about five hundred pictures.

I loved every minute of it.

While I am still working on editing, ‘The Basement” chapters, this experience was incredibly valuable to me as a writer. It helped bring into focus some of what I was vaguely seeing in my head. As I stated at the beginning of this post, places are characters too. If they aren’t fully realized, the story won’t feel as complete, nor will it shine as bright.

If you enjoyed reading this post, then make sure you come back in two weeks for part two of this three part series, Places as Characters II: The Tate.