Most of my books are set
in my native Yorkshire, and knowing the landscape intimately, means I can
describe it with the love I have for it as well as the knowledge of its hills,
dales and coastline.
I use it as another
character in my books, not only through my lens as the narrator, but also
through my characters’ emotions and the action. I think it’s fair to say that place
holds a strong central position in most of my novels.
But as we’re Time
Tunnellers here, I’m going to talk about my Jiddy Vardy Historical Fiction
Trilogy which is set in Robin Hood’s Bay on the Yorkshire Coast.
So, I’ve been through
each book in the trilogy and tried to pick out how I use place in the story.
First though, a little
context:
Jiddy Vardy was a real-life
female smuggler in 1700’s Robin Hood’s Bay, Yorkshire. Her mother was from
Naples and her father, an English aristocrat. Jiddy arrived in the Bay, as it’s
called locally, parentless, to be brought up by an elderly, childless couple.
The inspiration for this real-life
character came from a few pages about her in a local history book about
smuggling called A Rum Do! by local author, Patricia Labistour.
Jiddy is described as tall, dark, beautiful, brave, strong and loyal. I thought she sounded like a great character for a story and I was surprised practically no-one had heard about her. I set out to rectify that. It’s my on-going mission! So please, help spread the word!
So, armed with a great central
character, and a stunning location, and with all the researched smuggling
stories, I had the makings of some excellent material for the books.
The story is full of
action – smuggling – and the whys and development of this illicit trade opens
up discussions about the definition of crime, what leads some people to break
the law, and then questions about who should make laws, especially when those
who make them know nothing of local community needs and its people. It is also
a coming-of-age story, first love, women’s rights and choices and identity. So
many discussion topics!
However, it is also about
place. And that is what I want to talk about here.
Jiddy Vardy grows up in a
remote village with cottages higgledy piggledy clustered on a hill leading down
to the North Sea and its dangerous tides. Moorland and marshland cut it off
from much of the world and roads at this time were atrocious!
Perfect for clandestine activity.
Robin Hood’s Bay bursts
into life as a character, not only because it is so fascinating and I love it,
but because for the story, it is a must.
I bring the place alive
as another character by various methods:
1)
The narrator’s descriptions. That’s me! My
voice.
2)
Through the eyes of different characters,
in particular Jiddy.
3)
Linking the descriptions to what is going
on in the action.
4)
Jiddy’s emotions. How the descriptions of
her environment mirror her mood. (A bit like Thomas Hardy does with the weather
in novels such as Tess of the D’Urbervilles)
5)
How the landscape affects characters and
how it forms them. (If they lived somewhere else, would they be different
people?)
I also use personification
in my descriptions through adjectives and verbs. This brings the landscape
alive by giving it human or animal attributes.
Using verbs for example
from book 1:
a)
The causeway lolled empty.
(The causeway is an
extension of the road reaching out onto the beach)
Lolled suggests
a place where no action is happening, it’s without purpose, an area at rest
which is what I wanted in this scene. At other times, it is full of activity.
b)
The cliff meandering green and
brown.
We
think of people meandering as they walk, weaving a path, so the image is of a
cliff not in a straight line, taking a stroll.
c)
Waves roar, they trip
over themselves, a scurry of waves.
These
show the sea with a personality, behaving like a human.
d)
The silver sky shivered cold.
Again, the sky taking on human actions.
Looking
at a place through a character’s eyes, for example Jiddy, when she looks at the
village, the adjectives show her mood as she views it. She is unsettled by an
event that has just happened and she looks at the place she knows well with
that unsettled eye:
(Photograph Ruth Estevez)
Out
in the ginnels and lanes, buildings hemmed her in, bairns whined,
dogs yelped, nets tangled, beating, slapping, the suffocating
stench of fish and mould and the sight of pinched eyes and red, flaking
knuckles.
All
the adjectives and verbs are unpleasant. Verbs like whining, yelping, beating,
slapping, they are all threatening, and Jiddy feels the buildings are holding
her in. This passage is taken from book 3, Full Sail and shows her state of
mind as she views her surroundings.
The voice of the narrator
(me!) is also used. Here, we can talk about including the senses in description
as well. If we used it all the time though, I think we’d put the reader on
overload! So, it’s choosing where to use it and which sense at a certain time.
Certainly not all at once.
I tend to use the senses
in places that are alien to my characters to show they are on higher alert than
usual. For example, when Jiddy arrives in an opulent department store, I use
sounds, sight and smell.
Marble counters bounced
back sound. A clock ticked…the scent of animal pelts, rose water and musk
mingled…fabrics fell in folds, frills and tucks. The room exploded with dresses,
ornaments, shining objects.,,the wealth grew heavier. Lights shone brighter.
Glass gleamed sharper. (Book 3, Full Sail.)
It’s dazzling,
overwhelming. Ominous in the ‘heavier’ and ‘sharper.’ And I don’t feel
description has to be realistic either, I like it used to give a sense of a
place and atmosphere, rather than it always being logical. But that comes down
to personal style as well. A writer just needs to be consistent in this and
that it suits the story.
Description can also be
used to make comparisons between places: the new versus the familiar.
For example, when Jiddy
arrives in York (in book 3), she compares the size of the Minster (the huge
church in the centre of the city) to the height of the cliffs she knows at
Ravenscar. She can only describe something new through something familiar.
So, there are many ways
to make a place a character in your writing and I hope these examples
illustrate the way I use it and perhaps, you may want try these out as well.
My challenge is for you to describe a place in one or a mixture of these methods. You can personify a building or a forest, or the sea, for example. Use adjectives and verbs to personify the place. Or compare somewhere new through familiar buildings and landscape. Show us the mood of the onlooker through the verbs and adjectives you use. Above all, have fun!
Thanks to the Time
Tunnellers team for inviting me onto the blog today. Happy writing!
Ruth Estevez is the author of six novels, including the Jiddy Vardy trilogy, which is inspired by a real-life female smuggler from Robin Hood’s Bay, Yorkshire. She is a semi-finalist in the BBNYA Awards 2023 and was the Guest Speaker in the Cheshire Prize for Literature 2023.
Ruth has previously worked as a scriptwriter on the children’s TV series Bob the Builder and worked in theatre and TV from Opera North, Harrogate Theatre-in-Education Company, Pitlochry Festival Theatre to ITV’s Emmerdale. She has taught scriptwriting on the Contemporary BA Film and Television Degree Course at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Ruth is also Project Coordinator for the Portico Sadie Massey awards for Young Readers and Writers, based at The Portico Library in Manchester.
Instagram: @ruthestevezwriter
X: @RuthEstevez2
Facebook: @RuthEstevezM
Website: www.artgoesglobal.wordpress.com
You can buy the Jiddy Vardy Trilogy here: Wave of Nostalgia
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