{"id":1645,"date":"2011-02-27T19:36:07","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T00:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2011-02-27T19:36:07","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T00:36:07","slug":"a-town-called-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=1645","title":{"rendered":"A town called… something"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m building a town. Not a real town you understand \u2013 but the town where my next three books are going to be set.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My map of Western Queensland - with additions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s a mining town in the Australian outback \u2013 and it’s going to be as much a character in these books as some of the people who live in it. The books are about people \u2013 but they will tell the story of the town as well.<\/p>\n

For a book to seem real \u2013 the characters have to seem real. They need depth. So to does the setting. If I use a real town, I have to stay faithful to reality with its history, locations and character. I wanted the freedom to fit my town to the stories I want to tell (and I don’t want to get sued) so I am building a fictional town.<\/p>\n

Like any other other character in a novel, the town needs a physical description and a history \u2013 a backstory.<\/p>\n

I knew my town was in outback Queensland,\u00a0but I had to knew exactly where\u00a0so I’d know how long it took to travel there and back again. On a map,\u00a0I found a spot that was roughly where I wanted my town. Towns usually grow up near transport routes,\u00a0so I\u00a0needed roads. But there has to be a reason for those roads. They have to lead from somewhere to somewhere \u2013or else they would never be built.<\/p>\n

Then I saw the national park. A park would have visitors and they would need roads to get there. Visitors would need supplies,\u00a0which they’d buy in\u2026 my town! I put in three roads \u2013 one from the north and one from the east on which these visitors might arrive. I also added a road south-west towards the desert. I have a plot strand that will take some of my characters that way. So now I had a crossroads \u2013 always a good place for a town! \u00a0<\/p>\n

The next step was water. In the dry interior of the outback, this is particularly important. So I had to have a river or a creek. It didn’t matter that for much of the year the creek would be dry, it’s existence proves there would be underground water as well \u2013 enough to support a settlement.<\/p>\n

Thus my town was born. It started its life with a petrol station, a store, a pub and a handful of houses. There was no reason for anything more. No reason for people to live there.<\/p>\n

Then a mining company did some exploration \u2013 and found a huge mineral deposit.\u00a0So they built a mine.<\/p>\n

To support the mine and the people needed\u00a0to work it, the town grew. The mining company laid in a railway line for supplies. They built houses for their workers. Some shops were built to supply household goods. Most of the mine workers are single men, but some have families, so a school is needed. By now we have a over a thousand people,\u00a0 so we need a police station and doctors \u2013 perhaps the mining company will contribute to building a small hospital.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The town - with post-its to remind me what happened in certain places<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have to position all these things in the town \u2013 in a logical, believable way. And I have to remember where I put them! So, I am drawing a map. I need the map for consistency, so I know if my characters have to turn left or right to get from their home to the main street. How long will it take to get an injured worker from the mine to the hospital? Can the publican see the road to the airport from the front bar?<\/p>\n

I did a map of the town of Farwell Creek when I wrote The Bachelor and Spinster Ball<\/em>. You can see it here<\/a>. That was a town of fewer than 100 people, and I changed it and moved things around several times before the final version was reached.<\/p>\n

It’s going to be a lot harder for this new town, because it’s so much bigger. I’ve got a large piece of poster card stuck on the wall next to my desk. It started with just three lines on it \u2013 the roads. Then I put in the river. I needed a reason for the river to curve the way it did, so I put a rocky ridge in there. That gave me an idea for some scenes from the book \u2013 because surely adventurous kids would go climbing there. I’ve drawn in the mine, the airstrip and the hospital. I forgot the railway line at first \u2013 so I had to move some mine workers homes to put that in.<\/p>\n

I’m now a few thousand words into the book, and the characters are starting to tell me more about the town. I didn\u2019t really think about a town square \u2013 until the Mayor told me he wanted one. I put it in. I’m drawing the map in pencil because there are going to be many changes. I’ll need to add things as more of the characters walk onto the pages of the book and need places to live and work and play \u2013 which will mean more of those tasteful fluorescent post-it notes on the map. I’ve also got some coloured makers but I’m going to be working in pencil for a little longer before I trust myself with the markers.<\/p>\n

This is only version one of the map. I have three sheets of card\u2026 that\u2019s six sides to draw on\u2026\u00a0 And I’m writing three books.<\/p>\n

Hhhmmm\u2026..\u00a0 I may need more poster card.<\/p>\n

The other thing I need is a name for this town. I think that will come when I’ve spent a bit more time there.<\/p>\n

This may seem a lot of trouble to go to,\u00a0but what I know about the town tells me a lot about the people who live there, and how strangers will react when they arrive. Now\u00a0the town is real in my head.\u00a0I hope that one day you’ll read the books, and the town will seem real to you too. That’s what makes all this work worthwhile – well, that and all the fun I have with coloured post-its and marker pens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m building a town. Not a real town you understand \u2013 but the town where my next three books are going to be set. It’s a mining town in the Australian outback…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-qx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}