LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
What is a sense of place, and how do you create it? It’s all about conveying atmosphere, says Jane Wenham-Jones
Feedback on my recently-completed novel included this observation: ‘The town itself plays an important part in the story, yet I couldn’t visualise it. You need to create a much stronger sense of place.’ The town is indeed an integral part of the plot as my main character has just moved to this town and soon finds there is a darkness under the apparently genteel surface. I thought I had included plenty of description, but clearly this is not enough. Can you plainly define terms for me? What is a ‘sense of place’ and how do I go about building one?
WIL JOHN Monmouthshire
Put very simply, Wil, I would say that a ‘sense of place’ is what would make your reader visualise your town as if they were in it, and it is not only achieved by ‘plenty of description’ but the sort of description that is.