Creative writing: Making settings feel real

What is it that gives a place its individuality? Could you see a photograph of Barcelona and imagine it was New York or Delhi? Architecture and landscape are the obvious identifiers of any place, but so are its people, history and traditions, its food and smells. Readers need more than a cursory description of the Eiffel Tower in order to place them in Paris, and taking those readers to another period of time adds a whole new level of research!

I always think of place in terms of the five senses. We don’t just see a place, we hear it, smell it, taste it. Visiting a new place is a multisensory experience, and we want our readers drawn along, so that they are in the piazza with our characters, being jolted across the countryside on a train, tasting peaches from a market stall.

Tempting though it is to imagine we know what somewhere is like, based on films, books and photographs, there’s no substitute for visiting the location of your book. Of course do the reading and watch the films, but they won’t tell you how the light changes at dusk in a Naples alley, or how Saharan sandstorms can sprinkle cars in the South of France with a fine, red dust. 

Try to find the things that are particular to that place or country, and subtly weave them in. Religious icons on street corners, local catch sold on the harbour wall ... It’s these details that will tell a reader they are in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing.

I always try to walk the routes of my characters, so that I understand the geography of where they are. I saved one young woman having to swim in the Seine when I found there was no towpath on the side of the river I had put her! 

You might also, whilst walking, find something you weren’t expecting, which can be incorporated into your story, taking it in an unexpected direction – keep your eyes peeled and notebook handy. Take lots of photos and make a mood board with them when you get home, so that when you look up from the keyboard, you are instantly there again.

Watch the weather and the seasons, and see how that shapes your chosen location: do people take siestas to escape the heat or huddle in cosy cafes? Are the pavements too hot to walk on, or too icy to navigate? What do the clouds look like? Which direction does the wind come from? Where does the sun set? Screaming swifts tell us it is early summer, whilst monsoons and blizzards point to their own time of year.

Taste the local dishes, drink the local wine, catch a bus or a tram, haggle at the market – all these things give us a true sense of somewhere.

People are at the heart of what gives a place its character, so find a pavement café in a non-touristy spot and watch the locals: what do they wear to work, to church, to meet friends? How do they greet one another? What games do their children play? What have they been shopping for? 

To help with a novel set in Naples, I hired an amazing guide, who took me round the city, including off-the-beaten-track areas where I saw the real Naples, and heard people speaking the Neapolitan dialect that is so different to Italian. She later fed me local phrases and traditions that really brought Naples off the page. Talk to as many people as you can – most will be only too happy to share their insight into where they live.

But without a time machine, how do we know what a place was like in the past, without mobile phones and modern traffic, pop music blaring from shops and bars?

If you’re lucky enough to meet people who remember, you’ve hit the jackpot. I once spent a whole afternoon with the nonagenarian aunt of a French friend, who told me first hand about the Resistance, and about what life was like for farmers and schoolchildren back in the forties. Read contemporary accounts and contemporary fiction, to get an authentic sense of what life was like, including the language used.

I spend a long time researching the clothing of the period I’m writing about, through my large collection of fashion books. Dress your characters right, and you’re halfway there. Transport is another clear way of flagging an era: horse and cart, steam train, rickshaw, sedan chair, vintage Bugatti. And of course don’t forget to look up old photographs to see how a place has changed over time.

Not only will all this help your reader, but it will give you confidence to write authentically and engagingly. Have fun with it!

The Last Letters from Villa Clara by Sarah Steele is published by Headline Review (£10.99)

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