Notes In The Margin #6: Location Scouting Can Be Fun! (And Sometimes Useful...)

Today, I'm busy packing for a trip to the West Highlands of Scotland (I may have mentioned this elsewhere on The Annotate-Id).

This will be the third time I'll have been to Kentallen in as many years and it's safe to say that I've fallen utterly in love with the place.  I have my best mate to thank for talking me into going in the first place.  I chose Kentallen as the setting for 360 several years ago after I'd completed the first draft and felt unhappy with the vague description of the fictitious location in which I'd set it.

The view of Loch Linnhe from Kentallen on a very sunny day!
[Photo: Jack Gilbert]

Like a character without a decent backstory, the anonymous place felt unsatisfying and shallow.  So, I made a list of the criteria the location would need to fulfill and started trawling Google Maps for suitable places around the Scottish coast.

Many happy hours of searching later Kentallen rose to the top of the list of places I'd virtually surveyed.  And so the second draft of novel saw it find its home in a fictional castle built on the shores of Loch Linnhe in Kentallen.  The novel went to my beta readers and still no-one was any the wiser that I'd made up all the descriptions of the Kentallen.

While 360 was being read, I hauled The Wickedest War from development hell and began work on a new draft of that.  Most of the action takes place in central London, a place with which I am very familiar and visit often.  Getting the details about places that I knew so well wrong was not an option. Some scenes, especially one chase along the South Bank and the nearby streets, relied on getting the geography and timing right.  I walked the route, noted the landmarks and the time it took to get between them. I also visited the other places in London that featured in the novel on fact finding visits too.

The remaining action takes place in the West Highlands.  I needed somewhere remote again - although not too remote - and the Highlands fitted the bill.  Thanks again to our friendly online map providers it didn't take long to identify a suitable location.

Then my mate asked if I planned to go to Scotland and visit those places too, just as I had with the London locations.  I made excuses and said it was too far.

We had the conversation several times over the next few months and each time I made excuses until it was suggested that we include them as part of a whistle-stop tour around Scotland.  Suddenly it seemed a really good idea!

I could happily walk for hours along this glen.
[Photo: Jack Gilbert] 

I'm really glad I agreed.  Not only did it give me a chance to correct the wildly inaccurate descriptions of the area in the earlier draft of 360, but I also got to know a lovely part of Scotland and hike through some awesome scenery, including the glen that features in The Wickedest War (seriously, the photo doesn't do it justice).

To see it on a map is one thing.  Looking up at the mountains rising either side of the river in the valley floor is a whole different matter. I've stood where my characters have stood and seen what they've seen.  I've sat on the shores of Loch Linnhe and watched the sun go down.  I've shared that experience and that moment with my characters. Hopefully, because of that my readers will share that experience too.

It's always worth checking your facts.  I can be satisfied that I did my best to get them right.  It won't always be possible, but where I can I will try to stand in my characters' shoes and see what they see.

And besides...why should the imaginary characters have all the fun?  Sometimes it's good for the writers to have adventures too!