At the very beginning of a story, when it's still just a seedling of an idea, I often think long and hard about place setting. Place and time are crucial elements to story--and they are often overlooked in favor of plot and character. Which isn't to say plot and character aren't important, they are essential. But where those characters walk around, where their story happens, is also crucial.
This is my very round about way of getting to the visit my husband Jim and I took this weekend to The Canterbury Shaker Village.
Tucked into a quiet corner of New Hampshire (only an hour from my house, as it turns out), is the kind of rolling farmland that makes my inner photographer say ah! Even in cloudy weather, it's a beautiful ride up a curvy road that leads to a long stone fence and old buildings clustered together as a reminder of another time.
There are, everywhere on this property, the remnants of who lived here five or six generations back. You can nearly see the farmer standing behind his plow horses, nearly smell the apple pie baking in the ancient kitchen.
Add to this a somewhat peculiar sect of Christianity, a communal people who wanted to live in simple way that honored their God in everything they did, who vowed to remain celibate (in some cases dissolving their marriages to join), and you have what is commonly known in writer's circles as a plot bunny. Well, not a plot bunny, exactly, but I can feel in my writer's bones that there's a story in there somewhere.
This is my very round about way of getting to the visit my husband Jim and I took this weekend to The Canterbury Shaker Village.
Tucked into a quiet corner of New Hampshire (only an hour from my house, as it turns out), is the kind of rolling farmland that makes my inner photographer say ah! Even in cloudy weather, it's a beautiful ride up a curvy road that leads to a long stone fence and old buildings clustered together as a reminder of another time.
There are, everywhere on this property, the remnants of who lived here five or six generations back. You can nearly see the farmer standing behind his plow horses, nearly smell the apple pie baking in the ancient kitchen.
Add to this a somewhat peculiar sect of Christianity, a communal people who wanted to live in simple way that honored their God in everything they did, who vowed to remain celibate (in some cases dissolving their marriages to join), and you have what is commonly known in writer's circles as a plot bunny. Well, not a plot bunny, exactly, but I can feel in my writer's bones that there's a story in there somewhere.
My writer's bones say story. My photography bones say great photo spot.
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