What Makes a Sense of Place in A Story?
Mar. 18th, 2021 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryI've been thinking recently about what makes a story have sense of place. I've noticed that quite a bit of fanfic feels placeless. Just the settings feel generic, like things are in a city, or maybe a university, and there are some streets but nothing has name or more than the vaguest description. To me as a reader it can feel a bit adrift. I like stories to feel grounded, and to have a lot of texture. My favorite books tend to be SFF that makes me feel like a whole other world is real. I know that not everyone is into that. So I thought I would chat about what does give a story a sense place for me.
A key thing is simply specificity, places with names feel more real. Also things like a quick nod to the existence of seasons and weather can really help. If people are eating something then what are they eating? All of these kinds of things helps the reader build a sense of the the place the story happens in.
A long the same lines sensory details really add texture to a story. I want to know what buildings look like, what the food tastes like, how it smells when the characters enter a new place. That kind of thing is very grounding.
Finally a sense of space and movement. This one is the trickiest. But if you've every read a story set in a place you know and thought "those streets don't connect!" you might know what I mean. This is about how spaces relate to each other, how close or far away in both space and time are things? How big are spaces relative to other spaces?
A sense of place is something that takes work to create in story. These things all require the author to do a bit of work. And it makes readers like me very happy. So what make a story have sense of place for you?
A key thing is simply specificity, places with names feel more real. Also things like a quick nod to the existence of seasons and weather can really help. If people are eating something then what are they eating? All of these kinds of things helps the reader build a sense of the the place the story happens in.
A long the same lines sensory details really add texture to a story. I want to know what buildings look like, what the food tastes like, how it smells when the characters enter a new place. That kind of thing is very grounding.
Finally a sense of space and movement. This one is the trickiest. But if you've every read a story set in a place you know and thought "those streets don't connect!" you might know what I mean. This is about how spaces relate to each other, how close or far away in both space and time are things? How big are spaces relative to other spaces?
A sense of place is something that takes work to create in story. These things all require the author to do a bit of work. And it makes readers like me very happy. So what make a story have sense of place for you?
no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 10:36 pm (UTC)I've read one fic where the characters had anglo names. And it was little bit hard to keep track of who was who. But of course you are right: all the Chinese Americans I know have Anglo names, though most also have Chinese names.
Maybe Anglo names could work if there was a consistent fanon about it so they where the same from fic to fic.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-18 10:55 pm (UTC)I wrote one fic in a previous fandom where a Chinese character and a Korean character lived in California and became Brian and Alex and I think it worked (I had no complaints, anyway), but I think with Wangxian, the way they address each other is an important aspect of their relationship. You lose some of that even in modern AUs where they're Lan Zhan and Wei Ying to everyone, and it would be even harder to incorporate that with Anglo names (and just feel weird to have them not calling each other Lan Zhan/Wei Ying).
no subject
Date: 2021-03-19 10:42 pm (UTC)