Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!
Do any of your settings become characters in your stories?
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I think, to some degree, settings are very much characters in stories. The extent to which this applies varies. Sometimes it’s really quite obvious. The Shining is a prime example. The Overlook Hotel is a spectacular example. It has a personality all of its own, as if it lives and breathes. Much as Jack Torrance, his wife and son Danny, are important to the story, the hotel itself is at the heart of everything that goes on.
Even when it’s more subtle, a book’s setting can be key. Sometimes the story lives and dies by the location it takes place in. The atmosphere and the events of a story can be heavily influenced by the location. It might not speak, or live in the same way that a traditional character might, but locations are still characters. I like the idea that they are as important to the story, if not more so, than traditional characters.
Steven Smith 
Yes, if Jack hadn’t stayed at the Overlook, then he wouldn’t have lost his mind. I’m still not sure how he got into that 1920s photo at the end!
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That, for me, was where the original Kubrick film fell down a bit. Nicholson’s version of Jack was borderline mad from the beginning, and felt like it softened a lot of the impact of the hotel. In the novel he’s a relatively normal guy, with his demons for sure, but it made it feel more like the hotel preyed on those demons and amplified them. The film just felt like him descending more into his madness.
I love both the overt and subtle ways a setting is a character. Misery is another that springs to mind – Annie Wilkes’ house being the only space we truly get to know, with its claustrophobic, imprisoning feeling.
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Very often, the plot is driven by the setting, purely by the way it makes people react.
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Very often, the plot is driven by the setting, purely by the way it makes people react.
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Very often, the plot is driven by the setting, purely by the way it makes people react.
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The Stanley Hotel (the hotel the Overland was based on) was a beautiful hotel but not my favorite in Estes Park.
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overlook is a great example! The house in poltergeist, likewise.
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