This week I’ll be revising my book and I have a list of 3 to-dos to accomplish. The are several ways I could tackle one of my items, but I’m considering setting as the tool to make certain inaccessible parts more enlightened.
This weekend I re-read Victoria Schwab’s The Near Witch as a craft study. If you haven’t read this book yet, it’s one of the most lyrical I’ve read in years. The trick is not getting swept into the story during the revisit, so I focused on one aspect of craft – setting – and skimmed to only setting related lines. One thing I voiced was the lack of color – lots of greys and shadows and a moor – a backdrop of bleakness for this little town called Near.
The moor, in particular, could have been portrayed many ways. There could have been color in the wildflowers known to grow only in the moor. There could have been the dashes of color from the birds and other wildlife that would live in the quiet sanctuary of this off-limits piece of land. But as the story begins, there isn’t and this allows the setting to evoke a mood, layers the story in a way paragraphs of showing or telling never could. I could go on and on but don’t want to post anything spoiler-ish. Just know this book is incredible and a great craft tool for more than just setting and mood!
What books have you read lately that are great tools for studying craft?
