Settings

the view

I’m in the midst of my summer reading phase. This is something I look forward to all year and it has become a ritual out of necessity because I can’t write during the summer. Not that I can’t write physically but time wise. The kids are home and their friends come in droves. My friends come and the house is a hive of activity, brimming with dirty clothes, and  crowned by endless glorious summer evening meals that last forever... so not really ideal writing time. I look on it as resting time – hah, no really. I read, I watch people and I listen.

But yesterday I was thinking about setting…because I was in one of the most evocative places on earth – Frenchman’s Creek. Just the name produces images even if you have never been there or read the du Maurier book.

On a high bank at the mouth of creek a few Monterey pines stand guard bowing slightly toward the water from their towering height. Tucked in the trees is small wooden clapboard cottage which basks in the setting sun’s light. An old wreck peeks from below the green surface of the creek while the twisted oaks bend beyond the banks touching the high tide as a curlew cries in the distance….you get the picture.

So the setting screams romance, oozes history, magic and mystery. There are tales to be told. It’s almost tangible. Yet the reality of yesterday was more out of a sitcom. Biddy and I encased in wet suits had battled against the out going tide with a brisk wind blowing from the north west straight down the Helford River out to Falmouth Bay. No matter what we did the elements strived to keep us from entering the hallowed waterway. With the wind straight in our faces, it was a herculean effort to keep the kayak pointing straight. Each stroke sent us almost back on ourselves. When we finally reached the entrance, we were forced into the circles and couldn’t seem to cross the mystical barrier.

Of course being fierce determined romantic novelists with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to drink on Frenchman’s Creek we were not going to be barred. We fought on until Biddy paddled me straight into a waiting holly lining the bank. That was not enough – no next was a gorse. By the time we navigated under the cover of the majestic oak bowing over the river and tied onto a branch - frankly we were knackered and more than thirsty...but then the next challenge was upon us…opening the wine without overturning the kayak into the rather chilly water filled with circling grey mullet.

However we were rewarded with the sun breaking through lighting our little cave in the arms of the oak. The evening light turned the water from opaque green to glistening blue…peace had descended, the wine was cold and almost sweet to our salty lips…the romantic setting had arrived until some prat in a powerboat ignoring the 6 knot speed restriction came past at full throttle with wake that threatened to capsize us in nanosecond.

So all of this made me think - are certain places automatically romantic or frightening or …and if so what makes them that way? Yesterday Frenchman’s Creek wasn’t romantic – it was beautiful but in truth it was almost slapstick – two women absolutely shattered in wet neoprene trying to stay afloat in a lime green plastic banana drinking white wine. Yet in looking at my description above, I have described it in almost poetic terms.

So as writers do we pick setting to help the purpose of the scene? The gothic feel of a windswept moorland, the frenetic pace of a NYC street…then I asked myself how did we come to make these associations in the first place and would it be more effective to play against the setting rather than with it. Where do we get these feeling and associations – are they from literature and films or is it just our instinctive reactions to the environment? What do you think? How do you use settings? Will Frenchmen’s Creek be the location for the ultimate declaration of love or will it be more akin to my mother’s reaction of horror at the murky water filled with large grey fish and decaying tree branches? Or a comic scene of passion overturned in the frigid waters…..

A Challenge ...write a scene set in Frenchman's Creek and post the results on your blog and leave a link in the comments...

Please come back on Sunday when Biddy will be posting....

Biddy