Location, Location, Location!

Many mornings that I go into work I end up walking to the office from the train station.  It is an amazing walk, especially for anyone with any type of appreciation of history.  I get to pass the United States Capitol on my right and imagine all the deals and votes that happen in a day.  I get to picture me looking up into the rotunda and all the artwork that is on top.  Then, on my left, I pass the Washington Monument.  The tallest structure in DC besides the Capitol building.  It is majestic and makes me think of Egypt even.  I think about the people that got to see it two hundred years ago and I am placing my feet in their path and who will be walking in my own path in two hundred years.  After I pass the Capitol and the Washington Monument my next attraction is the sculpture garden.  I love the sculpture gardens.  The weird shaped statues among the beautiful trees and flowers is rather peaceful even in passing.  Then I cross over Pennsylvania Avenue and trendy restaurants as I grab The Examiner newspaper and finally arrive at my destination and my work building, which, by the way, is right next door to the Spy Museum.

I obviously work in Washington, DC.  I just described a twenty minute walk that left no doubt in your minds that it was Washington, DC.  It is amazing how important a location can be to a story. In fact, I am of the opinion that a location often becomes almost another character in a story.  It can be moody as it was for my city this weekend with rain, clouds and cold air blowing and chilling the air so that everyone made a rush for Starbucks and got a pumpkin latte.  Wait!  That was just me.  It is fall and pumpkin latte time but how would you know that if I did not describe the air and the cold and then described the city I was living to make it appear real.  It can also be relaxed or happy with sunny, warm days and cool, crisp fall mornings that shine on the leaves as they turn red.  A city is another character in a story and just as important to have described as your main character and their flaws.

I remember a few years ago reading the phenomenal book by Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha.  It was an amazing book that I recommend for everyone.  Yet, would the story really have felt the same if it was set in San Francisco or Moscow?  Probably not, because the cities of Japan shaped the story.  I have read many books like that.  Another one that comes to mind is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  I heard of Afghanistan in the news of course but did not know its history or landscape really.  I just pictured a country like a dessert with caves and mountains in the distance.  This book showed the reader what Afghanistan was really.  The amazing part I felt was when the main character was living in the United States and the contrast of his new life versus his old life in Afghanistan.  Again, it was all about location. 

I am on chapter eight and have established that the setting of those beginning chapters are in the Washington, DC area but I have also alluded to a change in setting.  The story I am writing will have two main settings and two main time periods even.  One, the present time is set in the Washington, DC area which I can say I have gotten to know but am always willing to learn more about.  The second and upcoming parts of my book will be set not only in a different city but a different time period. I am not as familiar with that part of the story.  That will mean if I want it to sound even remotely familiar I will have to do research to make sure that happens.  I have already spoken to a few people but I am looking forward to getting to that point and going to the library or the bookstore with my little notebook and learning about a city as I get to also shape it for my story.  Just as my characters are discovering their new surroundings I too will be learning about it so the second location will be like meeting a new friend for both of us. 

As I picture the books and the stories it is like watching a movie set in beautiful scenes and colors or stark, cold landscapes and mountains.  I suddenly see the scene marker end scene and the landscape melts away to reality and I turn and my reality is Washington, DC right now and chapter eight.  The new location is still just a dream but will be like an upcoming vacation and a place to visit very soon.