Original subtitles

in this lesson I'm going to talk to you

about how to create Vivid strong

realistic settings that really bring

your story to Life we'll talk about the

importance of research and visiting the

places that you're going to write about

ever since going to Sydney to research

my debut novel Lucy and the sky and

hearing from countless readers

afterwards that told me that they felt

like they were there I've tried to go

and visit the places that I'm writing

about there's nothing quite like being

able to sit in a place where you're

setting your novel and actually writing

about what you see and hear and taste

and smell and actually rooting

everything in reality I've set books in

Australia and la and Rome and Norway and

Key West and Cornwall and Thailand so

many places around the world and

sometimes it's where I am planning to go

on a family holiday sometimes I go to a

place specifically for research I always

prefer it if I can go somewhere

specifically for research because it

just means that my mind is more focused

and I'm really taking in what I'm seeing

and what I'm hearing but I will always

try to write a book set in a location

that I visited because once you've been

there you just can write from uh from

your own experiences rather than

researching things online and there's

nothing quite like being able to sit in

a location that you plan to write about

and actually write a scene set there so

start thinking about the places where

you might like to set your novel is

there somewhere that you'd really like

to shine shine a light on is there

somewhere that you would love to visit

and will be able to go there for

research or perhaps it's even just your

hometown because writing about your

hometown is is really lovely too

especially when you can return

repeatedly to the places that you might

be wanting to set your novel and

actually sit there and write from that

cafe that might appear in your novel for

example so definitely writing from your

hometown is a great thing to do but I do

also think it's just lovely to be able

to pick some really beautiful

inspirational settings that will be

fantastic for your readers to later read

in your novel The most important thing

to remember is that you need to make

your setting feel as real as possible

because if it feels real to you then it

will feel real to your readers and your

story will ultimately feel more

realistic so you need to make your

setting feel as Vivid and realistic to

you as any of your

characters I decided to set the opening

scenes of Only Love Can Hurt Like This

in a place called berryon Edmonds in

England it was a place that I really

liked visiting on day trips and it was

really nice to be able to go there and

imagine where my character Ren would be

visualizing this moment that her fiance

realizes that he's fallen in love with

someone else they have this incredible

park there which has all these Cathedral

ruins and it looks like something kind

of a fairy tale so it was a really

inspirational setting for me to be able

to go to then just being able to wander

the streets and imagine where Ren might

live and later being able to describe

what I actually saw the sort of house

that she might choose to live in and the

journey home even from work I ended up

not writing that into the book but it

was really helpful for me to be able to

imagine it because it just made Ren feel

more more realistic to me so try to do

as much of that as you possibly can and

also take plenty of pictures because

it's brilliant when you can go back and

look at the photographs you know later

and also it's really helpful for posting

about things like that online like I

post a lot of my research pictures on my

Instagram page and my readers really

love seeing the real places that

inspired the places in my novels so I

definitely recommend taking loads and

loads of pictures while you're out on

Research

trips as much as possible go to places

that you're going to be setting scenes

from your novel because if you can sit

there you don't have to take a laptop

with you you can take your notepad sit

there order a drink at the bar or a nice

cup of coffee and just sit there and

imagine the scene that's going to take

place in this location because often

you'll see other things that might you

know lead you to have other ideas you

know and spin-off ideas it might be a

character or something else that

inspires you so it's really really

helpful to go to the places when you can

if you can't go to the locations then

spend some time visualizing them maybe

it's a location that you've been

somewhere before in which case you can

look up photographs that you might have

taken if it was somewhere that you went

on holiday but you need to just close

your eyes and just really imagine what

it's like to be there you can also do

this with pictures online so look up

some really inspirational places places

that you might not be able to get there

to visit and just imagine um where you

might set your book close your eyes

imagine that you're actually there what

can you see what can you hear what can

you smell what can you taste how do you

feel imagine small details like if

you're walking on a beach you know what

the sand feels like or what the waves

sound like what birds might be in the

sky or if you're at a bar or you know

restaurant you know what what do the

flowers look like that might be you know

surrounding the restaurant perhaps you

can imagine that there are citronella

candles burning you know perhaps you

imagine that a mosquito has just landed

on your arm and you've just brushed it

away all of these little things if you

can write a few of them into your novel

it will help your story to feel more

realistic and like I say you know

sometimes you might have been to a

location but you haven't been there in a

while and that was the case for me with

Only Love Can Hurt Like This and the

location of Indiana I had spent some

time living in Indianapolis and visiting

Indiana and the surrounding Countryside

but it had been a long time so I needed

to do plenty of research looked up these

places online look up Google Street View

and I could plot the directions of the

character going from Indianapolis to

this amazing location called Fountain

Square for example and I set one whole

chapter in this location Fountain Square

and remembered that I had photographs of

it so I could look them up and then I

had to really try and imagine placing

myself back in that situation sitting

there at that table looking at the

sunset looking at the Billboards and the

things that I could see and just

imagining my characters seeing them as

well and it's so cool if you can write

about places that you've actually been

it brings you closer to those places and

it just brings you a little bit closer

to your character you know if you can

actually write about the things that you

saw when you were there but I also had

to go online and look up things like the

Indiana Countryside and I wanted to

write about a big old family Barn so one

of these big red barns that they have in

Indiana I just went online and I

researched big red barns in Indiana it

just gave me some inspiration for being

able to talk about it and funnily enough

some farmhouses came up too cuz I had to

set the story in a farmhouse and there

was like a matching red and white

farmhouse so that was nice because it

added in a little bit of extra detail

that Ren could talk about being an

architect the history of why they use

red funnily enough that bit was actually

cut because you can go into too much

detail and that is something that you

need to be really really careful about

too so truthfully you know I definitely

go into way too much detail when I'm

doing my research I look up Luna Cycles

to see when there will be a full moon in

the sky and make sure that I only tell

that part of the story if it reflects

the actual time that my characters are

there or I look up flight times and see

you know what time they will land I mean

you should do this you should always

check to see what flora and fauna will

be in season at the time that you're

writing it's just small details like

that find it helpful to research it

because it if it feels realistic to me

then hopefully that comes across and

feels more realistic to my readers so

it's good to go into quite a lot of

detail it's also good to root your

settings in a little bit of Reality by

um just doing the odd seemingly boring

detail like for example You Only Love

Can Hurt Like This Ren is quite hung

over and you know she's walking down the

stairs and I just said that her hand was

a little bit sticky and clammy and sort

of sticking to the highly polished wood

on the banister and it's just a small

detail which is seemingly unimportant

and a little bit boring but it just

roots your character in that moment of

reality don't go into too much detail

because you don't want to bore your

readers but do just pull on the odd

little thing you know like it might be

that if you're out at a restaurant or a

bar and you're doing some research there

you might sort of hear a mother s

shouting at their child or something

like that just some small thing or

somebody you know sneezing at the next

table or talking too loudly you could

describe the way that a character sits

forward in their chair for example or

reaches for the salt and pepper shaker

and it's just remembering that they're

there remembering to place your

characters in a setting and just have

them interact with the setting too don't

just say okay here we are and then never

mention it again because it just then

sort of feels almost like your

characters are just floating around this

fictional Universe you know you kind of

want it to feel real to the reader so

just the odd little detail here and

there without going into too much detail

but just one or two seemingly

unimportant things can really help it

feel a little bit more realistic I often

hear from readers who love that I've set

my books in these real places because

they will go and visit these places and

they'll take photographs of them and

they'll post them on social media and

they'll share them with me and it's so

nice you know I have so many readers who

will go and do the tours of places that

I've written about in my book so I

personally love setting my books in real

places but sometimes a real place can

hold you back a little bit and it might

be that you might prefer to create a

fictional town which just has Limitless

possibilities and that's absolutely fine

too as much as possible try to go to

real places to write about fictional

settings so you can create a completely

fictional bar which I did in Only Love

Can Hurt Like This and in fact the town

that I ended up writing about even

though I based it on a real town I did

not want to be constrained by the

realities of it being that town so I

wanted to have other shops that they

could go to and a bar in particular

where you know quite a few key scenes

take place and so I just went to another

grungy bar and you know kind of made a

note of the exposed brick work on the

walls and you know the band posters and

just drew little bits of inspiration

from memories of you know grungy bars

that I'd been to but it all helps make

it feel

real so it might be helpful if I

actually show you how I ended up writing

about some of these settings in my book

so I'll get a copy of Only Love Can her

like this and just talk you through a

few of the the things that I've written

about

okay so for example talking about

berryon Edmonds in the opening couple of

pages on days like this I love living in

berryon Edmonds when the spes of the

cream Stone Cathedral seem illuminated

against the Vivid blue sky and even the

black Flintstones on the ruined Abbey

walls gleams under the sunshine as so

they've been polished so that was me

kind of like you know going to the place

and really you know just writing about

what I could see and then there's also

another section where I try to describe

a Big Red Barn so for example the barn

is a stunning piece of historic AR

architecture painted a deep red and

built almost entirely out of wood with a

mansard roof I think they call mansard

rubs Dutch rubs or Gamal Rubes here

they're symmetrical in shape with two

slopes on either side of the roof to

give added height and storage space and

then also talk about um The Farmhouse so

yesterday I noticed that the house

mirrors the design of the barn but only

now can I take time to appreciate it

it's red like the barn but much smaller

and more decorative with white window

surrounds breaking up the weatherboard

facade and a central Gable Dormer built

into the Terracotta tiled roof the

windows are rectangular and symmetrical

but below the roof line at the sides and

at the top of the Dormer are small

triangular-shaped windows so it's just

to be honest I described what I saw I

found a farmhouse that kind of looked

roughly how I imagined it and um like

the fact that it mirrored the style of

the barn and basically sat down wrote

and described exactly what I saw so you

don't need to use your imagination all

of the time sometimes it's just good to

be able to you know use it to fill in a

few extra details and it is honestly so

easier to describe what you see than to

make up every single thing because

you'll be using your imagination an

awful lot for the rest of your

story so I hope some of those tips on

creating Vivid settings have been useful

but I am going to leave you with some

tasks so you can practice because it is

so important that your settings feel as

real to you as any character so I hope

you enjoy doing these visualization

techniques and really bringing your own

settings to life in the next lesson I'm

going to be talking to you about the

importance of creating five Big scenes

that feel really really real to you so

when you come to ride them you won't hit

stumbling blocks