Roadtrip to NaNo: How I Let Go of Setting, Overdescription, and the View In My Head
November is coming. To get ready, we’re taking a Road Trip to NaNoWriMo. On the way, we’ll hear from writers about how their cities can inspire your novel. Today, volunteer Municipal Liaison Stacy in Chicago, Illinois, shares her struggles with writing about place:
One of the most important things I have discovered about writing is how I personally like to handle settings. In short, I don’t.
I am not really sure when my aversion to “settings” as a writing concept began. I just know that, somewhere along the line, I got really tired of trying to describe everything. Is that something a writer should never admit? After all, isn’t our whole existence predicated on describing things for other people to envision as they peruse the worlds we’ve created? But despite it being a huge faux pas, I’m admitting it. I’m a writer who doesn’t like to describe things.
