Welcome to 40 Days of 3 Questions!
For the next few weeks, meet here every morning with a notebook or document to answer three questions about writing, about your status quo as a writer, or about the writing life. You can answer briefly and go about your day, or you can use this as a warm up exercise before your regular writing schedule. Whatever works for you, works for me.
Day 5 Questions:
- What is the time and place of your current project?
- What do you hope a reader will discover or consider about this setting?
- Did you select this setting to fit a plot or vice versa?
You may post answers in comments or keep your thoughts private–your choice!
And here is today’s pretty picture:
Ramona DeFelice Long 
1) What is the time and place of your current project? This is a contemporary mystery taking place in late fall in downtown St. Petersburg, FL.
2) What do you hope a reader will discover or consider about this setting? This book introduces the vibrant community of mural painting / painters in our city. We have more than 500 curated murals throughout the Central Avenue corridor.
3) Did you select this setting to fit a plot or vice versa? I think it selected me. I’m intrigued by the lifestyle of these paint slingers.
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The story I’m revising is set in the near future. I hope the reader will discover that we’re still human, with all the same flaws and foibles, as well as the strengths. I also get to imagine the technology of today that is in development, such as driverless cars, in common use. I picked this setting because it’s fun and fits the plot.
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What is the time and place of your current project? Present time, but with the past a big part of story.(historian sleuth) Brooklyn Heights, a lovely and historic neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY
What do you hope a reader will discover or consider about this setting? The past itself has mysteries and influences us, whether we know it or not.
Did you select this setting to fit a plot or vice versa? The setting always inspires the plot for my books
PS Love that peaceful snow photo
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Triss, the photo is from my favorite retreat house.It’s a wonderful setting.
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My WIP is set in contemporary times in a fictional village on Cape Cod. I hope readers will discover that real lives go on behind tourist attractions, that regular people with love lives and money troubles and more run that candy shop and that bike rental place. I’m writing the plot to fit the setting, because it’s the second book in a series.
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I’ll answer in the context of my historical.
What is the time and place of your current project? Buffalo, NY November 1942
What do you hope a reader will discover or consider about this setting? I’m not sure people realize how important Buffalo was to the war production. Also, I hope to convey a sense of the richness of the immigrant population for the city.
Did you select this setting to fit a plot or vice versa? I came up with the setting as a response to a call for submissions to last year’s Malice anthology, which had a historical theme. It was inspired by my grandmother’s work during WWII. So I guess I came up with a plot to fit a setting.
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What is the time and place of your current project? It is current time and is set in a fictional city in southern Arizona.
What do you hope a reader will discover or consider about this setting? Most people consider south of Tucson to be hot, barren desert. I’d like to emphasize the beauty that comes from the struggle of living there and how the increasing heat affects people.
Did you select this setting to fit a plot or vice versa? I just moved from Tucson. I attended talks about the drug and human trafficking and how the lifestyle sucked in individuals who had limited options. So, this setting fits the story I want to tell.
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My project is set in London 1898. I’d like my readers to learn about the political upheavals taking place while Victoria was on the throne. I didn’t choose the setting. The plot was the boss. It couldn’t take place anywhere else.
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
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***What is the time and place of your current project?
Present day, but I’m using a 2017 calendar for my plotting. The place is Fredericksburg TX, a German tourist town in Hill Country, near a lot of wineries.
I’m currently working on book two in a cozy series called Vintage Sweets.
***What do you hope a reader will discover or consider about this setting?
If the reader knows the area, I hope they’ll love being there in my books.
If they don’t, I hope they’ll be charmed by the place, as I’ve been when I’ve visited there. I also hope they’ll think, as I do, that it’s an ideal setting for a cozy mystery.
The place has a fascinating history, and I’m slipping a little of that in, too, so the reader can have a deeper appreciation for the area.
***Did you select this setting to fit a plot or vice versa?
I selected it to fit the sub-genre of cozy mystery. This is a three-book series (so far), so there will be at least three plots. I hope the setting is a good background for a few different scenarios.
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My WIP takes place in 1913 south Georgia. It actually could be anywhere in the Gulf area but I chose the Okefenokee swamp/St. Marys River as my location because I know the area. I hope the reader will understand what the early 20th century was like and what the people thought in the south at that time and that advances my plot. Actually, I really appreciate Ramona’s question because I didn’t think about location. And it is an important question to answer. Location adds another dimension to the story. Ramona is making me rethink the why in my location and how to exploit it.
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What is the time and place of your current project? Do you mean where and when it takes place? One week in 1942, Guadalcanal.
What do you hope a reader discover or consider about this setting? The humanity, the mistakes, the serenditous events and beings that contributed. The horrific violence, the crippling fear. The relationships, love.
Did you select this setting to fit a plot or vice versa? nope
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Time and place? A South Texas ranch in the mid-1950s.
What do I want the reader to discover or consider? I hadn’t thought about this. The geographic scope, perhaps, which is important to the plot.
Setting to fit plot or vice versa? The plot required a sparsely populated rural area, so I set it in South Texas rather than farther north.
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