Travel is a favorite hobby of mine, along with photography. The places I’ve traveled to influence my writing, like my camping trip to Cape Disappointment that resulted in a novel.
This picture is one that I took in the English Lake District on Derwentwater lake near Keswick in England. Lucky for me, the light was perfect and it wasn’t raining. What a special place to visit!
Setting is a key factor of any writing piece, influenced heavily by the characters point of view. How one character looks at the same setting compared to another helps us understand their interests and goals.
For example, in ‘The Magic of Cape Disappointment,’ the protagonist, Kay, looks at her return to small town life as temporary and a sign that her life is suddenly going in the completely wrong direction. Her love interest, Sam, however, sees his move to the same location as a great adventure and a step closer toward his destiny. Eventually, Kay starts to see Cape Disappointment more like Sam does and that’s just one part of her happy ending.
I think that applies to regular life as well, in terms of how we think about where we are. In our own stories, the setting is where we live and the places we travel. We are the heroes of our own stories, and I very much hope that you find your happy endings exactly within your own setting.
Happy endings may not be in vogue, but I fall into Jane Austen’s camp about them. Jane Austen said, “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.”
I hope that you look around your own setting with new eyes to find your own happy endings.
Julie Manthey 