Finding Your Sense of Place (The Writing Life Series)

Use setting and description to bring your characters to life and increase the emotional impact of your stories!

Setting is about much more than providing a few scene-setting details and moving on. Discover why the descriptions that seem to get in the way of your stories are actually the most powerful tools you have to bring characters to life and make readers care about their stories.

Two decades ago, acclaimed novelist Janni Lee Simner took her writing to the next level and began selling her work when she realized that emotion and description are, ultimately, the same thing. In Finding Your Sense of Place she shares insights and techniques to help you:

• Understand why different characters see the same places differently—even if they walk side by side
• Craft descriptions that help readers connect with your characters on a deeper level
• Make room for descriptive passages that won’t bog your story down
• Select the most powerful scene-enhancing metaphors
• Research your story’s setting—whether your story is set close to home or far away, in the present day or a thousand years ago
• Choose the descriptive details that best convey that setting to readers