A writer needs to create a world for the reader. Whether it is a contemporary, historical or futuristic, fantasy or paranormal we need to create a world to draw the reader in. If you're writing a novel set in 2011 you've still got to build a world around the character, city or country . . . house . . . car . . . job . . . friends. . . . All of these need to be described.
The hero and heroine can both see the same thing and have two different opinions about what they see. Sometimes it takes the character to tell the writer what they see, what is important to them. In my historical novel, Innocence, my character Sara talks about her house. . . .
Missouri 1867
Nothing in this house is ours except our clothes. I was happy to learn the house my husband Willis rented had two bedrooms. My son Taylor would have his own room finally. Perhaps he would have a chance at a normal childhood. His rope bed is a small single bed with a corn shuck mattress, too small for a grown man or else one of Willis's friends would have taken it away from him. The two windows give some ventilation, important in the hot Missouri summers.
Taylor's bed is only two feet high, perfect for him but not me when I want to clean under it. Sometimes he hides under it when he is afraid. He keeps his treasure box there. It holds a blue Robin's egg, a rock that has silver glitter in it and a Blue Jay's feather. Those are the things I know of. There are other things too, but I will let Taylor tell me about them when he is ready. The two drawers of his small dresser hold a pair of socks, extra long-johns and . . . frogs sometimes. I always check to make sure there are none of the surprises he has been known to hide in those drawers. Three pegs in the wall serve to hang his clothes.
Those walls are sturdy logs plastered on the inside and whitewashed. No air can blow through. This house is no Kansas Soddy. It will be a good house for the winter. I am happy we are here even if it is two miles from town.
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