How do you channel the strange, living quality of some real-life places into fictional settings? How do you go about turning the setting almost into a character in its own right? I saw you visited the part of Ireland I’m from recently; maybe it’s because I’m biased, but I’ve always thought there was some bleakly ancient quality to Donegal and I wondered how you recreate that sort of tangible personality which some places have in your fictional settings – ie the island in Scorpio Races? TY!!

maggie-stiefvater:

Dear smellvins,

For me, writing a very atmospheric novel is a subtractive process.

What do I mean by that? You have the real world, with everything in it. Donegal, for instance, where I just was. You have every person who lives there doing every thing — the plumbers and the doctors, the cashiers and the bums. You have all sorts of buildings — cottages and clinics, grocery stores and knick knack shops. You have all sorts of days — misty one and sunny ones, hot ones and cool ones. All sorts of people — folks into the Kardashians and folks into knitting and folks into sheepdogs and folks into boats and folks into football.

Creating mood means taking away everything that doesn’t support your thesis — your desired atmosphere. So if you’re trying to lean on the ancient quality of Donegal, you pull out the pop culture references, you pull out the grocery stores with the florescent lights. You pull out the sunny, hot days. You narrow the lens until all the things you point at agree with your mood.

You can add things back in, of course, if you’re trying to balance a contemporary fantasy — you put things back in to ground you and remind the reader when it really takes place. But I add them in judiciously, and when I do, I try to lean on the same language I’d use to describe the ancient and evocative stuff. It makes it feel of a piece.

urs,

Stiefvater