Reading · Writers' Narrative eMagazine

Maressa Mortimer - Core Contributor

ISBN:2977358x (Online)

The problem with writing stories is that once you start, it is hard to stop. You look at people differently, narrow little alleyways become get-away lanes, that cute café on the corner is a secret meeting place and so on. Going away on holiday makes it even worse, as you now have a whole new set of places to think about, as well as more time to think and look.

One of the previous months there was an article talking about the dangers of having a very setting-driven story, and that is still true. The setting will influence your characters, but it is still the people side of the story that attracts readers. Having said that, there is something wonderful about a holiday destination being the setting. Especially when writing in the cold, dark winter months, sitting down to write about sunny Crete, with its gorgeous beaches, baklava dripping with honey and the views across the bay cheered me up no end when writing Sapphire Beach. Writing is often as much about escapism as reading, maybe even more so, as you have to completely submerge yourself into the setting and the characters.

Altering the Setting

There is nothing to stop you from altering the setting to suit your characters and story. I changed the resort in Crete, and instead of a sweet little complex, I made it into one of the larger, bustling buildings, mainly because I needed my main character to be the Holiday Rep. There was no full-time rep at the lovely resort we stayed, so I changed it to suit my needs. In the same way, you can build an extra Italian Villa, add a few different characters to the bus tour, and make the little road out of the resort more creepy than it was. Obviously, you might have to add a little note at the back of the book explaining this, so people don’t grumble at their favourite resort having been changed.

Something else I enjoy is setting the story in your favourite holiday destination, but setting it in a different world of time zone, maybe twisting it in some way to make it more fantasy than the average beach holiday generally would be. I do enjoy world building using my holiday settings, or the people or even the food. It’s a great way to add to your repertoire of background details. I doesn’t even have to be a single holiday that you use. Combining a Norwegian couple with an Italian villa watching a dramatic Welsh sunset would make a great setting for that conspiracy or missing scientist.

Using Your Holiday

Of course, holidays allow for museum trips, days on the beach, long mountain hikes or watching the sunset. This all adds to your collection of feelings and atmosphere as well as actual settings. I remember drinking coffee from minuscule cups, leaning on a high bar in Italy, right across the road from a famous statue. Very different from barely-brown English coffee some people present you with in their living room. It’s such a wonderful deatil, something I can still picture years and years later. I can almost taste the coffee, which makes your eyes open wider with every sip, knowing it will probably keep you awake for a week. The chatter between the other patrons, I have no clue what they were saying, but I can still hear their voices, see their faces. Their tanned hands holding the minute cups more delicately than the size of their fingers would suggest. Those moments in your holidays are like gold dust. You may not use it in your next story, or the next one after that, but one day, you will remember the scene, and it’s perfect for that flash fiction, that dramatic opening to your novel, the poem that you have been thinking about.

You can make notes, but I find that holidays are just for soaking up the feels and tastes of the places you go to. You may not use a particular place, but the feelings the memories provoke will come in useful. Just taking in the settings may inspire you. If there is something in particular, take notes by all means, and never forget to take pictures. Loads of snapshots. Not only will they be useful in jolting your memory, it can add to our collection of pictures to use in blogs or social media posts.

Holiday Extras

Remember it is not just the settings you are thinking of. There is that name of the list that catches your eye. Or people in the café, and their laugh makes you smile, and you know it will simply have to appear in a story. Food is a huge point for me, as there is something special about reading about food and the memories. Then there is the way people dress, or walk across the very hot sand, or the way places will remove unattended beach towels from loungers… Again, how will you make notes of these details? I prefer to simply enjoy those little nuggets, and tuck them away in my memory somewhere. When you write the story, they will come to mind as you see them going onto the beach, and the husband is grumbling about the towels left out. It sets the scene. It is the reason, she looks away, too tired from the never-ending complaints, and she sees something she should not have seen, or talks to the wrong person, and suddenly, a simple beach day becomes full of danger and intrigue. Of course, people often let their hair down on holidays, they drink more than they should, they take more liberties, and make decisions they may well regret.

That in itself is a good reason to use holiday settings for your stories. It is the way that people will do things they would normally not dream of doing. People make rash decisions when normally they are calm and collected. The heat will interfere with their drinks, they feel unseen as they’re simply tourists. It is those risks that people take that give you a great reason to get very normal people into lots of abnormal trouble. It also means that as a writer, you have a great reason to look around whilst on holiday. Having a drink on a sunbathed terrace is merely research, and those annoying people in the room next door? They become the centre of your next story.

There are so many ways to use the holidays for writing, and I love how varied a topic this is. What would be your favourite holiday setting and why? Do let me know, as I find it fascinating to see how people look at places in different ways.

Escape It All

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