Writing about my home town-Just Add MAGIC

Let me start out by saying my Alabama home town has always been magical to me. Though I've not had a Double Springs address for over 20 years now I've never strayed too far from its boundaries. The people that live along those quite streets are nothing short of superheros, always going out of their way to help a neighbor even when they are tired bone deep from their own day's work. A stranger who finds his self stranded on the side of the road will quickly see two or three cars pulling over to offer help and yes, one of those people will likely be called "Bubba" but he'll be better help than any person road-side assistance will send to your rescue. The joy of giving your time to someone who's in need is a magic that a lot of towns have lost yet the little town I call home still manages to keep that spirit alive.

This small town also allowed me few distractions as a child and plenty of land to explore. A person who has grown up in a large city may label this kind of living as boring but it gave me the freedom to spend days visiting a dragon that I imagined lived under the bluff behind my home or the fairies I was convinced lived in the enormous oak tree in my front yard. I remember clamoring to my smiling mom to tell her that I caught a glimpse of a tiny, winged lady peaking down at me while I was stretched across a tree limb reading a book.  So when it came time for me to place Nicole into her fictional town it was very easy for me to see magical places fitting into my little two red-light town.

Why did I write about my home town instead of creating a new one? "Write what you know" is the first bit of advice that stuck with me as I started the Blood Burden Series and, though this may not be how all writers interpreted those words of wisdom, that's what I did. I used a version of my home town where I mixed its modern day layout with the layout of how it was when I was a child, added a few locations that were needed for my story's flow, left out any business names (for legal issues) or called them by nick names so that some of the locals might be able to say "Hey, I know exactly where that's at!", and before I knew it I had created a town in which to grow my story around.  This way of world building has stayed with me with all the stories I've created since my first.

Now Nichole didn't stick around in that little town the whole story but by writing what I knew I had a great jumping point for when I needed to write about a location in Ireland or a airport hundreds of miles away. Being this was my first stab a writing a novel I was able to learn what details needed to be included for people to really feel, smell, and taste what it was like in Nichole's town and this allowed me to do better research when it came to locations I'd never been to.  I learned from building the first location what small and big details were important to make the world believable and magical at the same time so the new locations flowed out a lot easier.

What am I hoping you get out of this post? Well, I guess that all depends on why you clicked onto my blog in the first place.  Are you a fellow Winston County resident who was curious if that place in the book was supposed to look like that old store in Double Springs? Then I hope I've satisfied your curiosity and that you are proud of how the town looked with a little magic thrown in. Are you a writer who was looking for a bit of help with world building? If so please do let the "Write what you know" advice guide you.  You will not struggle near as much with the flow if the place, subject, or focal matter of your story is something you know the ins-and-outs about. Or are you a reader of my works hoping for a little behind-the-scenes info about the series? Well, I think I helped you the loyal reader out too. But if you have more questions be sure to leave them in the comments section and I'll do my best to fill you in.

Happy reading!