When I’m writing a scene it’s not uncommon for me to get the wrong sort of environment stuck in my head. For example, the scene I’m working on now takes place on and around a mountain pass. The piece is fairly brief and I’m not expecting to use the location again, and, since I’m trying to write fast, I didn’t spend anytime at all thinking about the specifics of the setting until after I got going.

Once I did start, I realized I’ve been visualizing an austere, treeless, virtually barren summit area–which doesn’t make any sense given the general environment where this story takes place.

For me, shifting that mental image requires real effort. Sometimes it helps to go to Google and do an image search (“forest mountain pass”). With luck, a photo comes up of a setting similar to what I’m trying to envision. But luck is fickle, and when Google fails me, it’s time to take a deep breath, close my eyes, and try to rebuild the setting in my head, this time with proper features–because if I can’t see the scene map, what hope is there for the reader?

Posted on: Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 at 7:15 pm
Categories: Writing.