Go through your story’s settings and list the five senses
Hmmmm.
Well, this one is interesting. I’m going to think about it and read the provided article to hone in on this one a little. Once I start writing, I will keep writing for 20 minutes or until I’ve completed at least two pages of content!
So the article I read suggested the following list as an exercise. Once all of these can be answered in my mind, the scene can play out as it may. I will be placing my current short story series. Hill Valley Falls.
- Architecture: German old town, the houses are mostly remodels and transplants. There is a bank. A cafe called Joe’s Place. A bar called Everyone’s Tavern bar and grill. There is a post office and a school that houses the towns children as well as the surrounding area farm kids. There are three families that own basically everything, they or family are also on all the school boards. Event planning boards. Commitee’s you name it. They are the founding fathers of the towns children.
- The TAVERN: Is a dreamy space. There is an outdoor garden and patio extention that VIP guests are allowed access too. There is a roof top patio as well with rentable garden boxes. The main floor of the space is very woody and open. The tables and booths are deep stand with maroon cushions. The ceiling is gutted, you can see the piping and vents which adds an old timey feel. The bar is modern. The lights behind the bottles shift over the spectrum in a dreamy way and the mirrors lining the walls and shelves throughout the space make it feel magical and larger than life. There is a staircase along the back wall that leads to the second floor and the roof access above that. Called lovers lane by locals.
- The Dug out sports grill is right next door. Both places are owned by a pair of brothers. the sheriff station is right next to that and the town enter is on the opposite side of the street along with an antique store. At the far end bathed in neon lights was the diner. Classic fifties style, only thing missing is the puddle skirts and rollerskates. Local kids weren’t interested in dress up.
- Churches: There are three, a lutheran, a catholic, and a methodist esablishment. There is also an abandoned old church that might have been baptist at one point in time. It looks run down, most local kids avoid the block it’s on after dark because of ghost stories surrounding it.
- There is a library tucked away to the side of the gymnasium, and next to that in the row of two story slender brick buildings was the town printing press and the post office.
- Three gas stations, one connected to the local cafe where the farmers meet at four each morning. And their wives once a week for book club on Wednesday.
- A train track runs through the town. A massive grain silo and loading station for semi trucks is located on the edge of town separating the town track and field from the rest of the main drag. There are trees lining the town. Legand has it they had been planted during the dust bowl. There are whispers and rumors that Jonny Appleseed himself drifted through the area and planted the grove of apple trees standing at the front end of the park entrance.
- Interior Design: I am picturing the design of a town lost in time. There are some places that appear more modern in the interior. All the latest gadgets and gizmos. These generally belong to the wealthier farmer and founding families. Other places like the antique store or the diner have polished and refined qualities but their contents are pieces from lost eras. The trim in the antique store is hand chisled decorative pieces. The person who’d lived in the upstairs had a work shop. They were a wittler and his wife was an artist. The entire building was alive with their work. The person who’d bought the space after they’d passed away hadn’t changed anything, the building had been recognized as a historic space in the town. Had a plaque and everything. The items have personality. The new owner is mysterious and never available.
- there is no definite theme outside of the timelessness of herelooms passed down, be they houses, decorations, businesses verses the modern expansion and briskness of progress.
- Technology: The families in power have far greater access to newest technological stuff. Once the town starts to go a little crazy and the fema camp is established with quarintene zones more otherworldly technology shows up.
- Historical Period: Hill Valley is timeless, it is an expression of generations of cold pressed interwoven families building their empires in the sky.
- Timeline: There are six to seven characters the story follows. Each one is an outsider to this closeknit community. Each one has valid reason to dislike the townfolk, each one has experienced a hard lesson in fending for themselves in a small fishing pot at the hands of one of the main families of the town. Each of the six or seven characters is unharmed as if immune to the infestation the town faces. Officials don’t know how to find them, or if they are still alive or exist once the outbreak occurs. So they are hiding from those consumed by the outbreak as well as the agents sent to sweep the town and surrounding area.
- Government: Local government is run by a board of farmers with similar interests. Three main families speak for the town. Once crisis explodes town is overtaken by big government officials and military.
- Politics: Shady business and town secrets hide under every door mat. In a small town it’s only a matter of time until enough little fires combine into the big one.
- Job Environment: Clicky, anyone shunned by the town socialites or important families generally is black sheeped. Most turn to other towns for jobs due to rising tensions.
- Home Environment: Each main character is different. Each is back in town for their various reasons. Some received letters others felt like life had closed every door but he road to home. All were compelled to circle back to the place they’d grown up. As the story evolves the dynamics in each home shift. Some consumed by the town plague, others devolve slowly over time others rise to the occassion and receive a lesson in coming together in a pinch. This story is dynamic and so exciting to me!
- SMELL: It smells like a typical small town. Like secrets and hay fields. Like a homecooked meal and fresh meadow air. In the springtime when the cherry and apple blossoms are coming to life there is a sweetness in the air that made people just a little sweeter. A little kinder to anyone they cared for.
- TASTE: The air sometimes felt thick in the summer heat and heavy in the winter cold. Like it was on the brink of a rainstorm it felt like the wind was alive. One of the main characters wouldn’t go out after dark as a child. Still has night terrors about being left in the trees and them coming to life. Reading the hobbit made her life more magical. Hobbits reminded her of different towns people. Their bullying and being awful to her bothered her less when she imagined them as hairy footed little stuck in their way hobbits. Their air always had a hint of gossip laced into it.
- TOUCH: The town has a cold spirit to outsiders. A warm shell toward passerbys and business partners. And tangable tensions between key figures.
- SIGHT: People have a tendency to stare. Have mastered the art of staring politely. Appearance is everything here.
- SOUND: The year everything starts getting rocky there are more firebugs and crickets than ever before. It’s as if nature was yawning back into being, bringing all of her most mesmerizing features out of the woodworks for one last grand symphony to send Hill Valley off the brink of sanity.
- The only characters who are left standing in the end are those who can see themselves and others clearly. People who have fed into the gossip monsterousity all become extentions of the experiment being conducted. To spread malicious lies is to silently contract on to be a part of the recallibration project the town was sold to be a part of due to overwhelming county debt. The coordinators were given cozy payouts and information that would in theory lead to them coming out on top. But the shadow company behind the scheme hadn’t planned on nature taking part in the scene playing out. You can only control to a certain degree what as existed for much longer than human beings.