Three Steps to Creating a Contemporary Setting for your Novel

World Building - Creating Fictional Communities

Red fisheries sheds, Tancook Island

Writers can be inspired by characters or an event, but as the story evolves the characters need a place to live. Setting is a character is it's own right and often dictates direction in the story. Some writers set books in real places. In a large city, this works. However, using a smaller, limited population creates privacy issues and limits events. The solution is to create a fictional community to showcase the story. Caleb's Cove in the Caleb Cove Mystery series is a created community inspired by three real-life geographical locations.

Although a contemporary setting is easier to create than a fantasy world, it's still necessary to define geography, to understand and remember the residents' philosophy and to know who in "town" your characters can trust.

To create your fictional, contemporary world:

First:
Brainstorm what type of community you want.

• Do you want a large place or a cozy, hamlet? 
• Will you locate it on the ocean's edge or the prairie's bold sweeping field?
• Canada has been settled by varied ethnic groups over the years. 
• What is the origin of the community? Has the town grown from the WW11 interment camps in Canada? Or did its settlers arrive in the 1700s?
• Is a second language spoken in the area you are creating?
• What about the geography, the buildings, the occupations in your newly created town?

Second:
Find towns and locations that have your wanted ingredients.

• You do not have to take a whole town,  you can choose elements and relocate them to wherever you like in your town. I found elements in a number of places and combined them to create Caleb's Cove, set on Dane's islands off Nova Scotia's South Shore. following are some of those places. 
• Several real locations provided inspiration, visuals and ambiance for Caleb's Cove. However, all people and story events are products of my writer's imagination and other than the awesome ocean setting, bear no connection to any real person in the three background communities.

Third:
Create your town, describe it, download pictures and draw a map of the areas in your book.

TANCOOK ISLANDS, Nova Scotia, Canada 

Tancook Island started it all. I've had a fascination with Tancook for decades. My sister-in-law's mother worked on Little Tancook and I loved her stories and the name. At eight I thought it a great setting for a mystery and wrote (longhand in a Hilary Scribbler) The Mystery on Tancook Island.

Accidentally, or at the bidding of  my unconscious, my mystery series is set on an island off Nova Scotia. Additional details and ideas for Caleb's Cove came from Tancook and two other Nova Scotia locations. (For more on Nova Scotia visit: http://www.novascotia.com/explore)

BELL'S ISLAND 

What is know as Bell island today is actually three older islands that were combined when the road through the LaHave Islands was built. The road now joins Jenkin's Island, LaHave Island and Bell's Island into one large island know collectively as Bell Island.

PETITE RIVIERE

• Caleb's Cove is on a fictional set of islands modeled on current day Bell Island. Bridges join the three separate parts and the main fictional island is larger than the real one.
• The hamlet and various buildings and stores are based on Petite Riviere along the 331 and Fisherman's Wharf located in Eastern Passage, back of Dartmouth.

How to use the 5 senses for more vivid writing

Using the five senses enriches the setting, enhances character and shows your reader the story.

Used wisely and folded into the world of your characters, the senses ground your reader in a unique location, add textures and atmosphere to the story, and draw your reader in.

The five senses at work.

Sight

What does you character see in the surroundings? What is unique to the current location?

Trees crowded the road but here and there squares of cleared land sported buildings. On the inner side of the island he saw a house with an outbuilding and a circle of trees at its back. The clearings on the left, the ocean side, often left gaps and he caught glimpses of water, dark, rolling and cold looking. Some of the houses were older two story places— weathered and over-painted, houses of time and displayed character. (A glimpse at Dane's Island and Caleb's Cove in the Caleb Cove Mystery Series.)

Sound

Are the sounds those of a city, an ocean, a mountain? A city boy at night in the country will be aware in a different manner than a country boy in the same spot. How does your character react to the sounds around them? What memories or anticipations do those sounds trigger?

Frank tipped his head against the tree and closed his eyes tuning in to the sounds. Two birds nattered above him. A slight breeze brushed the tree, the sound not soft enough to be a rustle, not sharp enough to be a clatter. He'd spent years drunk, sleeping in parks and culverts in good weather and heading to the homeless shelters in bad. Back then he wouldn't have noticed the birds or the breeze. He'd have been too consumed with locating the next drink.

A cough echoed around him, and he jerked up. He checked the open area, the rock pile off to the right and the bush on the left. There was a second cough. Tension drained away. Some poor slob was behind the bushes. A drunk who couldn't or wouldn't get sober. (Excerpt from Came Home to a Killing, Book 2 in the Caleb Cove Mystery Series)

Touch

This is much more than a hand on an object. It is the brush of air against a cheek or the chill seeping into toes about to freeze. Air can be perceived as soft or harsh, breezy or still. The elements, air, water, fire, and earth create touch.

She breathed in. There is air. I won’t smother. She rolled onto her knees and felt with her hands. One hand plunged in the water. She lost her balance, rolled and hit the ocean's cold, gasping, she sank under the surface. The shock stopped her breath for a heartbeat. She kicked and came up sputtering and clawing at the ledge. Fright once again had her by the neck. (Excerpt: Came Home Too Late, Book 3)

Smell

The odors of a farm yard are very different from the local bus terminal. Smell evokes the strongest memories and reactions. Use it to your advantage when portraying your characters.

He sipped his coffee and savored both it and the pungent salt odor of seaweed roiled by the storm and the damp, old smell of the dock soaked by the waves. (Came Home Dead)

Taste

This gives you a wide area in which to play. Can we taste the air? Experience city grit when rain hits our tongues? Does the freshness of ripe cherries burst over our senses when we kiss our lover?

Additionally, food eaten is different cultures and areas of the country can add to the texture of the setting. Hodge Podge, a mixture of baby vegetables topped with a butter and cream sauce, followed by a dessert of Blueberry Grunt is a meal indicative of the South Shore of Nova Scotia. (Find the Blueberry Grunt Recipe in last week's blog below.)

Mix and Match

The senses can be combined in various ways. The odor of BBQing pork precedes the taste and texture of the meat on our tongues. The sight of a field of ripe, plump blueberries can bring back memories and summon taste experienced from the past. A vivid mix of senses intensifies the experience of a character.

Heat filled the trailer and voices echoed in the campground and, in one final, jerky movement, Emily sat up. Her hair straggled around her head and strands stuckto her cheeks. Her shoulders ached and her P.J. collar, damp and clammy, clung to her. Her mouth was once again that telltale dryness that followed being drugged. Pounding filled her head and tightened her scalp. One hell of a night. (Came Home Too Late.)

How to Stumble into Writing a Series.

HOW I STUMBLED INTO A SERIES

Photo by Destination Halifax

As readers, we tend to love a series. Getting to know characters and having the ability to re-visit them in subsequent books makes for happy reading. Originally, I'd intended this series to be in Toronto. However, the South Shore of Nova Scotia kept popping into my head and we have The Caleb Cove Mystery Series.

My first book ever (I was about 8 or so) was set on Tancook Island off Nova Scotia. A mystery with an old house, hidden rooms and a ghost, the story starred twins, Pam and Penny. A few years ago, I followed my inner urging and returned to an island off the East Coast for my first published grown-up book. After reading it, a sister-in-law said, "Why don't you write a three book series like Jayne Ann Krentz does?" Off I went and wrote the first three books in the series. (They are not necessarily as well written or romantic as Jayne's.)

I write what I like to read. 

My books are traditional mysteries with a touch of suspense and sometimes incorporate the voice of an evil antagonist. Written in a style blended from my favorite authors, Mary Stewart, Dorothy Gilman and Dana Stabenow with an underling hue of Agatha Christie, they are "clean" reads suitable for anyone from an older teen to grandmother.

Series that Grow After the Fact: 

I had plots for three books and they became linked as I wrote. However, one original character fell off the grid and his sister took his place. She's quite a demanding character and has insisted on her own book. Therefore the Caleb Cove Mystery Series will continue in Book Four. There are also rumblings from the cast for a five and six as well. It's fun to return to a known group of characters in order to throw in a stumbling block (usually a murder). How they handle it is sometimes a surprise to me.
For example, in book three they have formed a club called The Touched by Murder Club. I had not seen that coming.

My advice to writers:

 If a your characters want their own stories - go ahead and create a series. But do start recording details early so you know who is in town when you start the next book. If about book three you realize things will be ongoing, backtrack, re-read your first books and get that character/setting Bible up to date!

The first three Caleb Cove books are the Came Home books as in ...Dead, ...to a a Killing and ...Too Late.

UPDATE: Book Four: Came Home from the Grave was published in 2017

Readers: 

Caleb Cove Mystery #3

Please enjoy the current release--Came Home Too Late, (Monday, June 27th, 2016) and if you haven't already done so, check out books One and Two as well. They can be read as stand-alones, but if you'd like to meet the recurring community start with the first one, Came Home Dead**.

What do you like best about a series? 

How many books do you think should be in one series? 

**For an explanation of the term Came Home Dead, visit my interview with Makenzi Fisk on her blog.

Fictional World Building

How to build a fictional world?

1) Ask your characters what type of community they want.
2) Find inspiration in places with ingredients your character likes.
3) People the world with family, friends and enemies.
4) Provide jobs on main street; homes on side streets; add beaches, parks or bowling allies as required
5) Draw a map of the village or town.

For Caleb's Cove, I looked to Nova Scotia's south shore islands, ocean-side markets and beaches. I sprinkled in hurricanes, boats, history and ghosts.

 Inspiration #1 - Greater TANCOOK ISLAND, Nova Scotia

WORLD BUILDING - CREATING FICTIONAL COMMUNITIES

Writers can be inspired by characters or an event, but as the story evolves the characters need a place to live. Setting is a character is it's own right and often dictates direction in the story. Some writers set books in real places. In a large city, this works. However, using a smaller, limited population creates privacy issues and limits events. The solution is to create a fictional community to showcase the story. Caleb's Cove in Came Home Dead and Came Home to A Killing is a created community inspired by three real-life geographical locations including TANCOOK ISLAND.


Although a contemporary setting is easier to create than a fantasy world, it's still necessary to define geography, to understand and remember the residents' philosophy and to know who in "town" your characters can trust.

Inspiration # 1 - Tancook Island, Nova Scotia, Canada 

Three real locations provided inspiration, visuals and ambiance for Caleb's Cove. However, all people and story events are products of my writer's imagination and other than the awesome ocean setting, bear no connection to any real person in the three background communities.

Tancook Island started it all. I've had a fascination with Tancook for decades. My sister-in-law's mother worked on Little Tancook and I loved her stories and the name. At eight I thought it a great setting for a mystery and wrote (longhand in a Hilary Scribbler) The Mystery on Tancook Island.

Accidentally, or at the bidding of  my unconscious, my first published novel is set on an island off Nova Scotia. Additional details and ideas for Caleb's Cove came from Tancook and two other Nova Scotia locations. To follow Tancook Island on FB for some great ocean shots, go to: Tancook Island on FB
For more on Nova Scotia visit: Nova Scotia's South Shore.

Sweeping his gaze from left to right Greg checked the altered sandy strip, the docks and the rocky protrusions. The waves still arched and crested against the land, splashing through gaps in the boardwalk and sucking back to display the damage. In the harbor beyond, white caps revealed the sea’s continued turmoil. The rhythmic roar and whoosh was primal. He’d wait for calmer seas before launching the dory even if she was designed for rough waters. And you? What are you waiting for?

Tancook Island-dock in winter

Came Home Dead 

Readers, what location would you like to see in a book? 
Writers, what location inspired a book setting for you?

Who blocks your writing dreams?

    

 

 

What were your dreams?

What were the family expectations for you?

•  I wanted to write mystery stories like Nancy Drew books and Miss Marple stories.
• Heck, I wanted to solve mysteries like Nancy Drew and be a detective.
•  I wanted to fix my bicycle myself—not a girly activity in the 60’s—and be a mechanic.
•  I longed to drive crazy-fast and be a race-car driver.
•  I loved to play-act and wanted to be an actress.
  

AND THEN I FELL VICTIM TO THE FOO – Family of Origin!

That’s nice dear BUT:

•  you can’t make money at that
•  girls don’t do that
•   <laughter> don’t be silly, ordinary people like us don’t do those things

I hated the word BUT. However over time, I conformed to the expectations that came with being a small-town minister’s daughter in the ’50’s and 60’s.

I took figure skating lessons, but never took any tests to get the badges. Testing was on Sunday and we had to pay for them. At that time, exchanging money for goods or services ON THE LORD’S DAY was frowned on. Minister’s daughter had to set an example. No Tests.

 Another phrase I heard often was, ‘what would people think of your father?’

• ·        if you go the Elvis movie
• ·        if you date a Roman Catholic
• ·        if you stay out at that party until midnight?

And you should have heard the lecture I got when I went to the Homecoming Dance with the captain of the football team. The young man with the wildest reputation in the school who (supposedly) had a condom in his wallet. (And no, I never confirmed that last bit.)

Looking back, it’s no wonder that I’ve worried about the opinions of the omniscient “they.” That fear slowed me down.

I see the next generation breaking into a variety of fields, excelling at their work, branching out and being the best they can be. I’m happy for them, I’m excited and I’m proud of them.  The world has come a long way since the 50’s. Thank goodness.

The FOO may have slowed my down, but it didn't stop me.

I’ve had my successes in spite of the FOO

•  First female real estate appraiser in Nova Scotia, drawing down a “man’s” salary in the ‘80s
• Teacher, trainer and public speaker in a variety of areas
• And in recent years, author of two published mystery novels.

I sometimes wonder what I could have accomplished if the FOO had supported me in those early dreams. But I am who I am, and I am happy with me! In retrospect, I learned different lessons and those serve me well in many other ways. I have no regrets - it's been a heck of a ride through life.

But there is no doubt, the FOO shapes us.

  

What did your FOO visit on you?

Did it help you or hinder you? What advice do you offer to others?

What is your learning style?

 One size does not fit all when it comes to learning.

  

Link here

There are four types of learners - visual, auditory, read-write and kinesthetic. Each type listens differently, learns differently and uses different memory systems. Learn more about the types of learners here. Recognizing how you learn best can speed your learning processes.


If you love audio books, speak slowly and think in a linear fashion you are probably an auditory learner. Learning from recorded instructions works for you.

If you talk quickly, find yourself interrupting other speakers, and enjoy visualizing you are probably a visual learner. Charts, graphs and pictures help you learn. You might be a doodler. Tony Byzan's mind maps are just what you need. I found this one helpful.


If you like text based presentations, reading how-to's and reading and writing in all forms you are most likely in the read-write learner category. 

Kinesthetic learners like hands-on problem solving with trial-and-error processes, are slow to make decisions and engage all their senses when learning. They also enjoy any activity that includes body movement - like dancing, swimming or running.

As with many categorized processes for humans, many folk may have a primary learning form but draw on one or more of the others as well.  

As a visual learner, I learned to crochet and cut hair from magazine articles. My kinesthetic side comes out when I  crochet from a picture and learn by doing, unraveling and doing again. And I love to dance and learn exercise routines.

What type of learner are you?