It seems most people are setting their stories on a route - either walking from one place to another, or on public transport, or using a bike or even the ferry.
I'm still interested in the train. I want to write about the sinking feeling I get as I take the escalator down from Lime Street station to get to the Wirral Line. It feels like I'm going into another world.
I'm always interested in people going places. When people are between places, what are they thinking about - the place they've just been, or where they are going to? Or a bit of both?
Or are they, like me, feeling a little bit travel sick and wondering if they're going to be late?
It came up on one of the workshops and it's made me think - it's the mysteries in life, the things we don't know about other people, that get my imagination going and are one of the inspirations for inventing stories.
I think on transport people become more introspective but at the same time get a heightened consciousness of the wider world (combination of boredom, unsettlement, views from window etc). I think it's a really interesting place to set stories. I know writers that think describing these experiences is just an easy way of setting up a landscape, but I really think characters can go to an interesting corner of their brains in transport situations.
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