For me, story always
begins with setting. It’s rarely a person, it’s rarely a ‘what if’, it’s
usually a strong sense of place. It can be a place I’ve read about, it can be a
place I’ve imagined, but, best of all, it can be a place I’ve visited. And it’s
not usually in the present day. No, I don’t time travel, although that would be
so useful, but instead, buildings and settings hold onto their history, their
stories, and if you’re quiet and careful, you can hear them.
As a child I remember
going to the Tower of London for the first time and really being able to
imagine what life was like in the White Tower. The walls seemed to be alive
with the memories of the people who’d lived there. I went back there recently and
still got that feeling.
I’m lucky to live in
London – lucky for the stories I write – in that there are so many buildings,
streets, alleys that are just as they were when they were built. And if that’s
not enough, we have fantastic museums that recreate whole worlds for you. TheMuseum of London has the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, as well as a whole gallery
of Victorian shops. You can see a cell from Newgate Gaol too. Their Docklands
museum has a wonderful model of the original London Bridge, as well as Sailor
Town, a reconstruction of Victorian Wapping. You’re instantly transported to
the heart of your story, and if you wait there long enough, your characters
will come to you.
The Museum of London has a wonderful app based on Dickens' London - a series of interactive graphic novels. The first episode is free and is well worth a look.
My current novel was
inspired by a visit to a Victorian mortuary in Rotherhithe. The building is now
used by the local community so there is very little of the mortuary to be seen.
I was quite taken, though, with the steel beam in the post mortem room from
which they would hang bodies from the river to drip dry! But as I listened to
the guide telling us how the building had been used, I could re-create that
original mortuary, and its people, as I walked from room to room.
So, my world comes
first and then, as it gets richer and richer, the characters start to come.
Sometimes they just drift by, sometimes they flood in, but if I let my setting
become real, they will definitely come and live in it.
