Home
>
Writing
>
Sense of Place

Sense of Place

What is Sense of Place? It's the image of a scene's environment evoked by the writing. The author becomes an artist; the book page is the canvas, sentences and phrasing are the brushes; words give color.

This element of a story is something most readers look for. They want to feel as if they are in the scene. Sense of place is vital to fact and fiction.

Some writers overuse adjectives with the mistaken belief that this will offer sense of place. But saying "the elegant house" isn't enough. That abstraction has little substance. "The well-landscaped house set on a knoll overseeing the valley" might say more.

Another attempt is to list things.

"Brenda looked around. The room had a brass coffee table, and a bright sofa flanked by two Queen Anne chairs. Three prints were on one wall, with the sheer curtains hanging at the wide window. Two ornate candlesticks set on the fireplace mantle."

Brenda has become a camera, with no emotion attached to the description. How about this:

"Brenda thought the bright sofa flanked by two Queen Anne chairs seemed cozy. She admired three prints, and fingered one of the ornate candlesticks on the mantle as a breeze billowed the curtains. Scents of lilac wafted through the wide window. The books on the brass coffee table caught her eye."

This second paragraph only uses eight more words than the first, yet engages the character into the description of the room so that the reader learns about the room and the character.

Sense of place is important in nonfiction, too. A manual might read: "When managing a large office setting, it's important to develop good interaction between employees."

"Large office setting" is rather vague, and so is "good interaction." To give this sentence sense of place, it could be written:

"When faced with multiple workstations, harsh lighting and the continual background noises of telephones and copy machines, it's important to encourage dialogue with all employees."

Sense of place should continue throughout a paragraph or section. Here's a scene of a man stranded on a stretch of Kansas back road. "The hot July sun bore down on him" could give the initial detail. But it must be carried through the scene. Several sentences later a sentence could read, "Robert looked at his useless car." Add sense of place to this: "Robert wiped sweat from his forehead and squinted toward his useless car.

wiped sweat (it's hot) squinted (it's bright)

Later: "He looked around for the closest house."

This would work better as, "The surrounding fields of ripening wheat seemed unending, without a single roofline or driveway in sight."

By adding these touches, the sense of place enhances the story.

A good sense of place also engages most of the five senses. Include colors, smells and textures in descriptions.

"The hot July sun bore down as Robert backed from the vehicle. Why now? he wondered. He wiped sweat from his forehead and squinted at his useless car. He could smell hot metal from the engine. A puddle of radiator fluid stained the gray asphalt a sickly green..."

Robert walks along the road, thinking about what got him here, then

"His sigh was barely audible in the dry wind, and the surrounding fields of ripening wheat seemed unending, without a single roofline or driveway in sight."

Weather and nature can also establish a sense of place. In my historic novel KANSAS DREAMER: Fury in Sumner County, the weather becomes a prominent plot element--almost a character. (That will be the topic of a future newsletter: "Non-Human Characters".) But for sense of place, a story based in the tropics could be rife with descriptions of humidity, vivid sunsets, blown sand, myriad scents and colors from vegetation; on the negative, these areas also have hurricanes, riptides, mosquitoes, sink holes and sharks.

Weather can become a motivating factor for a character; it can parallel a character's emotions or trigger a memory; it can be an antithesis for the actions, too. The bright day did nothing to relieve Arthur's morbid thoughts.

With a few well-placed phrases, a writer can establishing a good sense of place. This will strengthen characterizations and greatly add to a reader's enjoyment of the final product.

About The Author

Karyn Follis Cheatham, a 23-year member of Western Writers of America, has authored eight books, including Dennis Banks, Native American Activist (Finalist for the 1998 Spur Award). She has edited for magazines and publishing houses, and her articles and poetry appear in national journals and newspapers. Her books can be purchased through Writers West http://writerswest.com/ web site: http://writerswest.com/ e-mail: http://writerswest.com/

http://writerswest.com/

disinfecting cleaning services Lincolnshire ...

In The News:

Uber teen accounts now feature live video streaming from the driver's camera, but encrypted recordings stay on Uber's servers for up to 14 days.

Router firewalls and software firewalls serve different roles in protecting your home Wi-Fi from unwanted traffic and suspicious connections.

A Chrome extension with 70,000 users and a 4.7-star rating began injecting fake update warnings after a threat actor acquired and weaponized it.

Amazon's Alexa+ rolls out free to Fire TV devices across the U.S., but hands-free microphones and stored voice data raise key privacy questions.

Meta's new teen accounts settlement sets a default two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, plus night mode and school mode restrictions.

The CareCloud data breach exposed Social Security numbers, banking information and medical records belonging to more than 3.75 million people.

Waymo reveals its custom 5-nanometer chip and dual computing systems designed to take over instantly if the robotaxi's primary computer fails.

Identity theft now includes account takeover, phone hijacking and payment card exposure. Here's what to look for in identity theft protection services.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

The FBI and Justice Department seized domains tied to QScan and QTRouter, tools allegedly used by China-linked hackers to breach NASA and other agencies.

Uber Eats drone delivery launches later this year through a Zipline partnership, starting in Dallas and Houston with a goal of one million daily flights.

Medicare Open Enrollment scams start with data broker targeting months before October. Learn why August is the time to remove your personal info.

The World Humanoid Robot Games' crashes show how far the technology still needs to go to be useful, "Survivor" reality TV star and robotics scientist Christian Hubicki says.

X-Humanoid's TianGong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, beating last year's winner by more than half.

A tap-to-pay charity scam is turning small $15 or $20 donations into charges of nearly $5,000, with victims losing thousands before they notice.

Kurt Knutsson shares seven emergency preparedness lessons from surviving Hurricane Katrina inside a New Orleans hotel as conditions turned desperate.

A contractor stored credentials in a Google Doc set to "Anyone with the link," and Google Search autocomplete eventually surfaced the password string.

New Orleans 911 uses Carbyne AI to triage repeat auto crash calls, but strict limits keep human call-takers in control of all other emergencies.

A single card skimmer can generate $1 million in stolen funds, and Secret Service video shows criminals installing them in under two seconds.

ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google now use memory, connected apps and past chats to personalize ads and responses in ways most users overlook today.

MagicalAuth by Glide.id uses cryptographic SIM credentials to verify bank logins without sending SMS OTP codes that scammers can intercept or phish.

A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging Usain Bolt's record.

An AI agent using Claude AI canceled another person's gym booking after finding a security flaw in the reservation system's authorization checks.

Trump signed a memorandum allowing vetted private U.S. companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations under oversight.

Your Social Security number appeared in a breach, but exposure and identity theft are not the same. Here's how identity restoration actually works.

Sense of Place

Writing