The unobtrusive character of place.
The role of background in a picture–in a movie. In a piece of music (written or performed). In writing. Story. Can you write about a place unobtrusively? Give it character–make it a character–without imposing a story? What kind of story emerges in a place–in a description of a place? A place–its presence–has a story, but it is not the dramatic story of human characters and human conflict. It is dramatic, but not explicitly dramatic. But its drama informs the human drama. It’s the substrate–the medium in which the human drama resonates and comes to life.
A place has a story. The story of a place grounds the humans stories that emerge in that place.
But a place is not just background. A place includes the objects in that place. Any two objects in a context have a relationship. That relationship over time is a story.
Human readers are uninterested in just any group of objects relating across any time in any place. But a human writer, photographer, filmmaker, painter, creator finds the human heart of the story–of any group of objects relating across any time in any place. Long ago, the heart of the story was called a conceit. Imposed conceits are clumsy. Conceits that emerge from the place, objects, and humans in that place over time have heart.
The heart of a place is the heart of your story. Place is the unobtrusive lead character of drama.
(reflecting on the Wim Wenders school of seeing the world–of creating the world)
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I enjoyed this: the importance of place in a story — it is sometimes easy to forget —
For sure!
Lovely and so true. Place is definitely a lead character. Jillian
😀
I agree with your basic concept. Yet sometimes the place IS the story. I have a friend who lived for a decade in a place so bizarre that I never would have believed it if I hadn’t visited her there myself. If the place is beautiful and peaceful, it tends to fade into the background of the story. However, when the place has become broken or dangerous, it moves from the background to the foreground until in certain circumstances, the place BECOMES the story, and everything in the story is so tied to the place that lives and characters are irrevocably marked by that place. A modern-day example of this is Mara and Eleanor Latham’s debut novel: “Sentenced: my life without parole for crimes I didn’t commit: the other prison wives.” The main characters remained invisible to their husbands’ workplace, the state prison, until the ladies moved to the compound where their husbands worked. Suddenly, regardless of the lives they had lived before, THE PLACE became this women’s story. You can find the book online by searching FaceBook for Mara Latham the other prison wives.
The interplay between the story of the place and the human story in the place is probably best when it focuses on one or the other. It is very effective when, as you said, the story of the place BECOMES the story. Maybe hidden in the background at first, with perhaps hints and foreshadowing, and then can be a surprise as its relevance slowly (or suddenly) emerges into the main narrative. Thanks for thoughtful comment and the book suggestion!
Thank you for liking my comment.
Alas, I threw in a piece of bad grammar:
“this women’s story”
should have been
“these women’s story”.
Sigh!
🙂 Was going to read it over more carefully this evening and give a good reply. I’ll overlook the grammar, as I hope others do for me. 🙂
yeah, indeed everything on that place can play the main character of the story.
Good to hear from you. Thanks for the comment!
We’ll always have Paris, Texas
This is quite interesting…I was unfamiliar with the term “conceit”, so I learned something! And I’m wondering if it applies to poetry as well…even short work, like haiku?
Thank you for visiting my newborn blog.
It’s just a matter of attitude. I’m sure you can make it work with even Haiku. Give it a try. 🙂 Thanks for the comment!
I think I’ll let you be the judge if it works or not. Most of my poetry will be haiku, senryu, or tanka… Again, thank you for being my first visitor.
Yes, yes, yes! In all three of my novels, place is critically important. I love how you’ve expressed this marvelous perspective on writing!
Thanks for letting me know!
I absolutely agree!😊 As an avid reader, it’s not rare for me to be drawn to a book or a story because of the place it takes place in. Many time it’s not just a background but the foundation of the story on which everything else is built!
Good to hear from you! 🙂
Yes. Not just who she or he is, but also where.
Thank you for liking my poem!
Good one! 🙂
🙂
It’s true, sometimes the place takes the lead of the story, and all other characters get recognized through the place. This is a place called “Bobbili” in South of India close to Vizag in State of Andhra Pradesh. The name of the place has become a folklore and remembered even today and the characters who created history comes alive attached to Bobbili. I stumbled upon this story for my newsletter.
In fact this place started getting occupied by migrants from other state, which included few royal families. The interesting part is each royal family has a spiritual guru, and one of the family guru advised against settling on this land, they brushed the advise aside. Royal family feud begins, one of the royal family takes the French govt into confidence and rage a war. A time when French had invaded India. The worst war of 18th century. The story has a significance due to the characters involved and has an historical importance too.
I pay a lot of attention to place, but never saw it in terms of “A place has a story.”
I admit I’m fascinated. In my Novel Research folder, a huge OneNote file, I have six sections, one is Location. And for some reason I have a great deal of attention focused on locales and the stories of the places.
It’s really strange that it never occurred to me that story of a place is, in a sense, its own character.
I go to the extent to gathering photos of locales that resemble the “place” in the story, even juxtaposition from global maps (from satellite). I study the history of an area as it pertains to a “place” or I invent history about the place if none exists. But in all of this I never consciously saw the place as story. It’s an enjoyable insight, Rick.
These are new thoughts to me too. Much of why I write about them is to just work out how I feel. I’ve watched a lot of Wim Wenders movies lately, and he kinda has this perception of place/space in his movies. Two objects, in a place, over time = story, and all those elements are characters. He doesn’t say as much per se, but it’s my intuitive summary of what I’ve been exposed to.
You note, “Much of why I write about them is to just work out how I feel.” Yes, that’s how I feel also. If I write about a place, I want it to be real in my mind. A lot of my work goes into studying a period of the ancient past, a place that is gone but of where there is a vast body of information. Each element helps color so much of my thinking. It’s so strange to me that this is a revelation.
And your comment, “…it’s my intuitive summary of what I’ve been exposed to”, rings true to me also. I put a lot of weight in intuition, point of view, and vantage point.
And messing with point of view is one of the pleasures in my Reading Ulysses series. I think tonight’s RUIM will be full of twisted POVs.
Yes, but place should be subtle, be almost an invisible character in the story. I’m thinking of Louisiana in anything written by James Lee Burke, or Portsmouth in anything written by Graham Hurley.