Comments on: Setting Thesaurus Entry: Tropical Island City

By: Conda V. Douglas

Conda V. Douglas — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:10:04 +0000

Fascinating approach–great post.

By: Stina Lindenblatt

Stina Lindenblatt — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:05:35 +0000

Hmmm. Wonder why I suddenly have a craving to go to a tropical island. 🙂

By: Leanne

Leanne — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:13:34 +0000

This is a great idea for brainstorming a setting and keeping your ideas focused as you move forward in the writing. Lists of words rather than written descriptions…wish I’d thought of that! Thanks Janice

By: Janice Hardy

Janice Hardy — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 12:41:26 +0000

I love the idea of a setting sketch! That wold be a great pre-writing exercise. Just brainstorm things your senses would find about a setting before you write. I bet it would be like unlocking a visual door in your brain. The details would come easier as you wrote.

Hmmm...I wonder if that would work for characters as well? For those of use who don't do full sketches, a quick "these are the details about them that pop to mind" exercise could be an easy way to figure out what to say about them, much in the same way you set a scene.

By: Amie Kaufman

Amie Kaufman — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 09:09:24 +0000

What a vivid setting! Vonna’s right, this would be a great pre-writing exercise.

By: Lenny Lee!

Lenny Lee! — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 03:56:45 +0000

hi miss angela! wow that was a neat post full of lots of good writing stuff. it got me pretty proud of that post i did on using your senses cause thats just what you said is real important and you showed just how it got done and got it sorted real neat. im doing one tomorrow on details so it just like you and me are connected out on our minds.
…hugs from lenny

By: Vonna

Vonna — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 00:59:14 +0000

This would also be a great pre-writing exercise. The five senses are so important to making a story come alive. Identifying them ahead of time could help ensure these senses don’t get left out.

By: Bish Denham

Bish Denham — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:36:56 +0000

What you have done here would be an excellent exercise for any writer, a way for us to get inside where our stories take place. Just like we do character sketches, this would be a great way to do a place sketch.

Thanks!

By: Bish Denham

Bish Denham — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:36:32 +0000

By: Bekah

Bekah — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:35:32 +0000

It is very neat how you have everything sorted out in this way. It probably really helped to contrast it once you knew they were going to be different. I going to try this!

By: Janice Hardy

Janice Hardy — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:35:06 +0000

Thanks all! Description is really my nemesis. I always have to go back and fill that layer into my stories. But now I wonder if that forces me to spend more time thinking about it. It may have been a benefit all along 🙂

By: Jaleh D

Jaleh D — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:04:14 +0000

Fantastic post, Janice. I love reading just the right amount of description in a book, even though I’m terrible at writing it.