CADEN’S CORRIDOR
December 2018
Where Do You Live?
I recently researched how Christmas was celebrated in Devonshire, England in 1898; in another, how it was celebrated in Greece. How is it celebrated where you live? Where your characters live? What kind of impact does family play in your story?
Without children around, Christmas has lost much of its magic for me, and I find myself resenting the commercialization more and more. Grown children just want the money. And everyone wants electronics. So, what would happen to life as we know it if we were to lose all electricity? In my 1898 novel, people are just getting electricity, telephones, and the automobile. What impact do things have on the characters who people your book? What did we possibly do before cell phones, post-it notes, and ziploc bags? In your last story, did losing a cell-phone signal affect the outcome of the story? Do you sometime wish you could write something important backwards on a post-it note and stick it on your forehead – so you’d see it in the morning when you looked in the mirror?
Does your character make his/her own Christmas cards and sign them with ink and a quill pen? Or do they text a Santa emoji to a friend? Do you live in the past or the future? When the table is set for dinner, are there paper plates and plastic cups or china and crystal, or something in-between? Where your characters move and have their being is vital to involving your reader in their lives. Don’t forget the details.
Wishing you a Magical Christmas this year, wherever you live.
Thanks for walking through the corridor with me.
cadenstclaire.com 