I’m not very good at setting scenes or describing places, and yet they are so clear in my mind. I can really see where my characters are but too often I am so busy concentrating on what they are doing or what is happening to the that I forget to describe their surroundings. Yet… and yet, sometimes I see somewhere, maybe only glimpse somewhere as I pass by on a train maybe, or out driving, and that fleeting image remains, tucked away ready to be used. I once saw a house among some woodlands, quite far from where I was, and it was only visible because it was autumn and the leaves had fallen from the trees; there had been a fire and the house looked ruined… I only snatched a view of it and then it was gone, leaving me with this image of a house in a wood, a house which had been burnt. I’ve not used this yet… it’s still there waiting!
I nearly always carry my camera now, and as a back up I have my phone in case I’ve forgotten it. We were in Cheddar the other day and I saw a house across the river, across the road, set into the side of a hill; it actually is a shop, a Christmas shop, but in the gloomy afternoon it looked so cheerful and welcoming with the lights blazing although it wasn’t dark. I took a photo… one day this house might be the home of some of my characters, without the shop though, but with the friendly lights on an autumn afternoon.
Lois Elsden 