Sense of Place

Choose a point of view

Establish an occasion

Emphasize a dominant impression

Select concrete details

Personal visit

Photographs

Newspaper clippings

Contemporary periodicals

Maps

Geographic dictionaries

Encyclopedia articles

History books

Comparable historical sites

Historical archives

Internet sites

Interviews

Chamber of Commerce

Use your imagination

Arrange in coherent pattern

Setting

q Places affect our lives as much as people do. We are all shaped by our surroundings.

q Establish a point of view. Do not remain static. Walk, view the scene from a car, an airplane, a hill looking down, a valley looking up. Or if you are stationary, have what you are viewing be in motion, such as a busy street or a kitchen on Thanksgiving morning. You could also let your imagination move in chronological time.

Remember: if you walk, you see things in great detail, but if you are in a car, you will see things more impressionistically.

q Establish an occasion for the description of setting. Why are you describing the place? Are you returning after many years? Has some event changed the nature of the place completely? Are you trying to show how the place has an impact on your family's life or your own? Does the place teach a moral lesson?

q Establish a dominant impression. Often it will contrast or complement the character or event being described.

q Select concrete details that typify the place and reinforce your dominant impression. Be selective. Good descriptive writing demands restraint and discrimination. It thrives on sharp details and vivid, unusual description. Feel free to explore your own reactions to places, objects, or situations.

q Again, photographs can come to the rescue to help you accurately describe a scene.

q If possible, visit the scene to get a feeling for the sense of place.

q Arrange your details in a pattern that is easy to follow and fits the subject. Normally, a description of a place is arranged spatially (foreground to background, sky to earth, panoramic to detail) or chronologically (seasonal changes, walk at certain hours of a day, return to past).

q Use your imagination and/or research to fill in the gaps. "What is reminiscence, after all, but memory mixed with imagination?" (Rainer). Don't be afraid to generalize and say, "I imagine," "perhaps," "typically," or "often."