Writers Tips #82: 7 Tips on Time and Place from Donald Maass
Great tips for soon-to-be great writers
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can't quite put your finger on it, but you know you've done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer's tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
In Donald Maass' excellent how-to-write treatise, Writing the Breakout Novel (Writers Digest 2001), each chapter ends with a checklist of items writers simply must accomplish if they plan to 'break out'. Here's one from his chapter on time and place:
Every story has a context, whether it is emphasized or not
Creating breakout time and place involves more than just describing setting
Using psychology of place means capturing how a place makes a point-of-view character feel
Convey a sense of the times
Portray historical forces and social trends through characters
Unexpected tragedy or grace adds a sense of destiny at work
Detail is the secret ingredient of breakout settings
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter's journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she's working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: characters, setting, writers tips Tagged: donald maass, writers tips
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