Defaults

I had a moment.

Vague start to an Anxiety post, I know, but hear me out.

I was just starting to fall asleep and an idea hit me, as they do when one is just starting to fall asleep. It wasn’t my usual type of idea, though. It wasn’t a character or plot twist, event or backstory. No, it was a setting.

Simply, a setting.

I mentioned last week how I got an idea from a wisteria tunnel I had seen many moons ago on the internet.

Source

And my brain decided to kick at sleep o’clock and put that together with my dragon book into the idea, “What about a wisteria forest?”

BIG idea in one little thought. I could have an entire forest of this! There was nothing to stop me—I am writing a fantasy book in a different world/universe. If a hillside to the horizon was blanketed in fully-bloomed, opaque violet, hindering visibility and possibly infested with an array of strange creatures? That could be a great setting.

Why had I defaulted to the usual fairy tale forest when I could have a wisteria one infested with terrifying somethings?

Why had I previously defaulted to something run-of-the-mill when I have infinite possibilities at my fingertips?

We have the opportunity to default any time when writing. We can default with cardboard characters, static events, and unremarkable worlds. Why had it taken me until this sleepy eureka moment to see that I have every opportunity to push further?

I avoid cardboard characters and I have built backstories for even minor characters. I had that nailed down. My events are logical and point toward where I want to go. But my settings? Why had I not looked at them before?

Do you rely on defaults for some aspect of your writing? Is there a part of your writing that you have overlooked until something snagged your attention and pointed it out? Be it plot, character, theme, worldbuilding, magic systems, themes—which ones haven’t you considered pushing further, making your story yours?

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