There’s a place, light years away, that speaks to me.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the link to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

Do any of your settings become characters in your stories?

I’ve always believed that a setting is more than just a place where things happen.

People often say, “If only a place could talk, what tales would it tell?” My job, as a writer, is to grab that concept and wring everything from it that I can.

And the setting never needs to talk. All it has to do is be.

If you’ve ever been to a beautiful or awe-inspiring part of the countryside, or been caught up in wild weather, then you’ll be aware of the power that nature has to create emotions. Joy, love, trepidation, a place can make you feel all this, and more. It can make you feel like the master of all you survey, or an insignificant speck in the infinite universe.

Perhaps a setting can be best used to prompt fear. Fear in the presence of the power of nature, or of forces that can’t be controlled or understood. The cold fear that can be felt in a haunted house, in the midst of a raging thunderstorm, or while walking through a misty churchyard in gloomy darkness.

Machinery can do the same thing; the sound of a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine (as found in the Spitfire fighter aircraft) gives me goosebumps whenever I hear it.

Similarly, the mere existence of a place can influence behaviour, for example, people tend to whisper in churches or shout with excitement at a music festival or sports match.

As a creator of worlds, I want to harness the innate power of the inanimate by making my settings into characters.

I want people to be shaken by alien landscapes, the sight of stars and planets through a spaceship’s porthole. I want them to feel awe (and get goosebumps) at the sight of giant steampunk machinery, a robot, or their first glimpse of a new world.

Because the great thing about a place is this. You don’t need to write any dialogue for it to influence the human (or alien) players in your tale. It can make them behave in any number of ways, without saying a word.

All you have to do is tell the reader what it looks like, how it feels for the characters to be there and show them the effect it has on people.

What do you think about this week’s subject?

Let me know by leaving me a comment.

While you’re here, please click the InLinkz link to check out what my fellow writers have to say about this week’s topic.

I’ll be back with another post on Thursday. See you then. Meanwhile, have a great week.

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