When you know what this blog post is about, it may sound as though I am banging on about the same old thing, the rejection. Like rejection isn’t a part of the process. I know it is and it’s fine. This post is about a part of the feedback that came with the rejection. Feedback that I am learning from and working with.
The problem with this piece of feedback, hence the blog post, is that I now have to back track and really learn from the people who know. I have to admit that what I originally thought and felt was wrong and adjust my writing accordingly.
The feedback was that my work didn’t have a real sense of place about it. This is something, I was informed, that crime readers like to be immersed in.
Why does this mean I have to backtrack? Well, very recently I have been interviewed on two different blogs. On both Elaine Aldred and Martin Frankson’s blogs, I say that place isn’t important to me. I don’t feel personally tied to a place, for me, it’s the people who make where I am, special and important. I also said that I wanted readers to feel that what they were reading could be taking place anywhere, where ever they are, they could recognise similar city streets. I was wrong.
I obviously wasn’t wrong about how I feel on a personal level about what is important to me, but to readers, in crime novels, place is important and on reflection, I can see this.
For me, this is a fairly easy edit to make to the manuscript. For every scene, the place was already in my head, I just didn’t identify it enough for the reader, or name it. Now I am going back through it and doing this in the relevant places. The one thing I have had to make decisions about, is the use of real and fictional settings. What I think I’m settling on, is a real city, but with smaller outlying area’s that are fictional.
The rejection didn’t just hang on this one thing, there was another, which I may attempt to discuss in another post.
As a reader, do you like to know where the scenes are taking place and does it matter if they are real or fictional? Or as a writer, do you prefer to write about real or fictional settings and why?
Alex J. Cavanaugh says
I can usually form my own sense of place, so a lot of detail isn’t necessary.
Everything I write is fictional, so I have to make up the place. Although after living in the desert for a few years, I used what I remembered to create the desert planet of Tgren.
Rebecca Bradley says
That’s what I was hoping for Alex, but the advice I was given, is that specifically crime novels tend to have more of a sense of place about them I think and you if you think about Rebus for instance, he does, I love Karin Slaughter, an American writer, she does place extremely well. I do take it in board and will hopefully weave it in so it’s invisible but there if you know what I mean!
I can well imagine the desert did you the world of good for creating a desert planet. A place that hits several senses all at once.
Margot Kinberg says
Rebecca – What an interesting question! I like to have a sense of place although I agree with you that in many ways human nature is human nature. Certain kinds of interactions could take place in many different kinds of settings and contexts, so I can see what you mean when you say that it’s the people/characters who matter to you. But I have to admit I like to have a feel for the places where stories happen. Place affects us I think so the characters are bound to be influenced by the place and culture where they live.
Rebecca Bradley says
Yes, I don’t think I can get away with it. The human psychology is important to me, but I am going to have to ground them somewhere I think. Give it a more realistic feel, after all police procedurals have county boundaries etc and so it is particularly important for things like this.
kimmwalker says
Thought provoking post, Rebecca. I don’t think you need a specific identifiable spot on a map but place can help the reader bring their other knowledge and experience into play, giving more depth to their appreciation of what’s going on. For example, in Scandinavian crime novels I enjoy learning more about the culture in that part of the world and the extreme weather is another challenge for the characters. While reading your post another crime novel came into my head, Broken Skin by Stuart MacBride. These are my notes taken for a novelists group about the use of setting at the beginning of the book:
Uses setting to build tension & atmosphere but in slight brush strokes not big heavy lumps.
1st para ~ Feb in Aberdeen and freezing cold. Hard and unforgiving environment mixed in with the descriptions of the soft, innocent, vulnerable girl.
3rd para ~ cobbles – difficult to walk in with high heels on, makes the girl more vulnerable. ‘dark, silent’ River Dee, ‘dark, grey street is deserted’ – ‘dark’ used twice in same paragraph – we know to be afraid for this girl.
5th para ~ ‘bleak’, ‘granite buildings stained almost black with grime’, ‘piss yellow street light’
6th para ~ ‘long, sweeping curve of Victoria Road’ reminds us of the soft shape of a woman then we’re into the ‘fish processing factories’, & ‘horrible little bedsit’ and we can smell the evil that’s coming. This girl isn’t in a nice, safe place.
7th para ~ ‘back end‘, ‘empty‘, ‘cash and carry‘, ‘industrial units’, ‘silent and dark and closed’
8th para ~ ‘skip full of twisted metal’, ‘cold concrete pavement’, ‘big plastic bins overflowing with discarded fish heads and bones, grimy wooden pallets slapped on top to keep the seagulls out’
That opening has stayed with me for years. Hope this helps.
Rebecca Bradley says
Kim, thank you so much for sharing your notes. It is funny isn’t it how certain passages stay with us and we keep reflecting back on them. I do like the way the words are used in the sentences you have highlighted to show how we should feel about the surrounding area.
You have also given me another thought with your point about Scandinavian crime focusing on cultures and weather. These are different aspects of place, that aren’t literal place, but do still give it that sense of place and I hadn’t thought of these. Thank you so much. Your comment has helped me think this through even more. Thank you!
Jane Isaac says
Interesting question, Rebecca. My book is set in a fictional area, loosely based on Northants, where I live. I wanted a little room to move around outside the set boundaries of my locality, however local readers have said they enjoyed identifying places mentioned.
Some famous authors like Ian Rankin & Peter James even have tours named after their characters, where their books are based in Edinburgh & Brighton!
Personally, as long as the description enables me to picture the area in my head, I am quite happy with either.
Best of luck with your revisions.
Jane
Rebecca Bradley says
I think that’s what I intend to do Jane, have the city identified, but then have outlying area’s fictional. Particularly where the police station is based etc. That way I won’t be upsetting the local law enforcement who I’m sure are a sensitive bunch if there is a whole heap of crime going off in their city! 🙂
Elle Turner says
Hi Rebecca
I like to get a feel for a place and be able to picture it, but I do find it distracts me from the story if there’s a lot of accurate detail about a place that I know well. I like your idea about a real city with fictional areas. Best wishes, Elle x
Rebecca Bradley says
Thanks Elle. I thinkk that’s the way I will go with it. Now I just have to weave it in so it’s there, but without leaving great big bricks of the place all over for you to fall over! 🙂