Advice to Authors, being passed on

Advice for authors that I received and am passing on.

One of the best pieces I ever received was simple, a setting is not a plot.

It sounds odd, but it is true, you get an idea for a place, you detail it exquisitely, but people do not (generally) come out of the theatre quoting the scenery….

Yes knowing your background is important, knowing how a school is set up matters for a story set in a school, but unless you are very good, very weird or just odd (like me) the school is not the story, just the scenery.

You can transpose the plot of Romeo & Juliet to 50’s New York and have it work stupendously, but 16thC Venice remains where it was without the story.

I am not saying do not use all these fabulous settings you have conjured. I am saying, store them until you have the story to play out in front of them.