Las Vegas was such a teeny, tiny place.
Any setting can potentially acquire this vividness. It slowly arrives during the period of research, until it is as immediate to me as my own real surroundings.
I don't believe in writing anything that I don't know about or haven't researched about personally. I like to transport the reader to places, and in order to do that I have to do the research.
On my passage thither, I discovered nothing remarkable in the features of the country.
There's a great joy in writing about a place you know very well, but there's also a lot of responsibility in trying to be accurate. It's a lot like writing about a relative: you can see both their strengths and their shortcomings, and even as you want to be honest, you want people to see the good that's there as well.
I like to know the places I write about. I feel like it helps me ground the novel. My novels are 'realistic novels,' but they can also be fantastical, so it's nice to have a setting that grounds them a little bit.
If this were the time or the place to uphold a paradox, I am half inclined to state that Norfolk is one of the most beautiful of counties.
If my characters travel somewhere, I generally write about a place I know to give the scenes more authenticity.
You have to be very specific with the suggestions of how you want to show things, not just with dialogue but also place and mood. I write all of that as very vivid guidelines so directors can come in and do what they will with them.
Seedy wasn't a fair description for the place, because seeds imply eventual regrowth and renewal.
I think by writing about a place with great specificity, you manage to make it universal.
With most of my books, I'll actually go out and look at the setting. If you describe things carefully, it kind of makes the scene pop.
If you set your story in Rome, Ireland or Sheboygan, for that matter, go there. If you're broke, set it in the town where you live, or where you grew up.
There are two places that are hard to write about. A place like Britain, England in particular, which has been written about by everybody, and then the place that's never been written about.
You can write better about a place you've seen for yourself. You don't have to have been there - I've sure written about places I've never seen - but it does help.
It's really important to visit a site you are writing about. Even if you know it well, even if you have lived there, it's important to take a fresh look in terms of your characters and your story.
I doubt whether I ever read any description of scenery which gave me an idea of the place described.
I'm a very senses-oriented person, and I want to bring readers in on the level of the senses, so they can experience another culture and another place.
When I write about places in L.A. - like where the best taco truck is or something - it's not about L.A. To me, it's about Harry Bosch, because he's the guy that does these things and has this experience.
Manchester, one of the greatest, if not really the greatest mere village in England.
A bulger of a place it is. The number of the ships beat me all hollow, and looked for all the world like a big clearing in the West, with the dead trees all standing.
