In the previous lesson, I mentioned that you—as the author—need to have a clear and complete picture of the spaces your characters will inhabit. That does not mean that all of your knowledge about those spaces will end up on the page.

For instance, in the ballroom example, you would not need to explain the purpose of a ballroom in general, or even say anything about its size or furnishings—unless those factors are important to your story or unusual in its context. Even in a Regency romance, you needn’t know exactly how many couples a ballroom might hold (i.e. size) unless it’s something that matters in a scene.

Instances where you might find yourself having to provide more basic information about a space include historical settings, science fiction, fantasy, or any story that involves specific technical or geographical knowledge.

To give an outdoor example, you don’t need to tell the reader what a mountain landscape looks like unless there’s something specific about it that matters to the experience of your characters. It’s all about familiarity.

Basically, don’t make the mistake of educating your readers about something they already know. Situating your characters and readers in a place is an exercise in being able to distinguish the necessary from the unnecessary.

Exercise: Find the minimum

I know I recommend focusing on a single scene for most of the exercises in this course. But just for now, I’d like you to go through all the important scenes you listed and see if you can pare down the physical characteristics you enumerated to only the ones ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to give a clear idea of each space.

Then play a game with someone willing: give them those characteristics and see if they can correctly guess the nature of the place.

For instance, let’s use the ballroom. I might think the visual characteristics that would reveal the kind of space it is might be:

• Lit by huge chandeliers
• Almost no furniture
• A dais in the corner

Then use only the characteristics related to the other senses, hearing for example:

• Feet pounding on the floor in rhythm
• A violin playing a tune
• Subdued voices

Don’t spend too much time on this; the point is to see what’s actually necessary in an absolute sense.

Go deeper: evoke atmosphere

Although we’ll be digging into this facet of your spaces in the third module (Articulate), see if you can enlarge on the minimum characteristics you just enumerated in a manner that gives a sense of the atmosphere or mood of the space. The ballroom example again:

• Dimly lit, huge space
• Dilapidated furniture shoved aside
• Desultory, listless conversations

You get the general idea. Have some fun with this.

A cheeky challenge

Have a go at describing the space in the image at the top of this lesson using only three characteristics. Then do the “go deeper” part of the exercise for the same space.