“We’ll build a world of our own that only we can share…” (Oh, you’re probably too young to remember The Seekers!)
As writers we have to build worlds we can share with our readers, layering our manuscripts with info and images, sprinkling a little setting here, a few senses there.
For inspiration, I’m getting out, away from my desk and the imaginary characters and places I create, and into the real world. In other words, I’m doing lots of looking, listening, feeling, smelling and touching (oh la la!!). Seriously, it’s amazing what you notice when you focus on breaking down something as simple as a walk on the beach into touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell.
I also went to Ulmarra the other day. About an hour or so by car, it is a quintessential Aussie country town.
While my Calingarry Crossing is a fictional town, I drew a lot of inspiration from Ulmarra’s hotel (no come on, I mean inspiration from an architectural perspective!!) Even while drawing inspiration from an existing place, I think using a fictional town in your writing is much better than a real town. I recently started reading a novel but in chapter eight the author slams Coffs Harbour as both a place to live and visit.
Why do it? Why alienate readers when you can make up a town that is slightly north or south, give it cute name and get on with a story that keeps people interested?
I stopped reading.
So I’m sticking to building fictional worlds. Here are a few pics of Ulmarra.
