Arts & Entertainment, Writing
Choosing Locations
Lesson time 04:27 min
Learn how to use location to create interest, generate suspense, and build the structure of your book.
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Topics include: Think of Location as a Character • Look to Location for Inspiration
Teaches Writing Thrillers
In his first-ever online class, best-selling author Dan Brown teaches you his step-by-step process for turning ideas into page-turning novels.
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When I sit down and write a book, I think of location as a character. I think that if I choose the right location, it's going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for me. I can write a conversation that takes place in a Denny's Restaurant. If I set that same conversation, and put it in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in the shadow of a 30-foot tall black widow spider, suddenly, that conversation feels more interesting. The information itself may not literally be more interesting. But the effect on your reader is that this entire scene is more interesting. And I would encourage you, as you try to figure out where am I going to set my novels, what are the locations, choose places that excite you personally. And the fun thing about that is that you can go there, or you can go online and research the place. And so when you sit down to write the scene, there's some inherent enthusiasm about what you're writing. And that's going to come through to your reader. Location not only functions as a character in that it has a personality. It can function as the pillars of your structure, in that you can use location to start to frame your book. You say, I'm not really sure what the action is, but in the case of "Origin," for example, I know I want it to take place at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Casa Mila in Barcelona, Sagrada Familia, the Supercomputing Center. So I've picked these locations that I say, I know I want something to happen there. I don't know what it is yet. But I'm going to put them in an order that kind of makes sense. Maybe geographically, it makes more sense to move in this direction. Or maybe thematically, it makes more sense to move from the world of art toward the world of technology, the Supercomputing Center at the end. Location is going to be an enormous tool for you as a writer to build suspense, build interest, but also build the structure of your book. One other thing that location can do for you is it can inspire you. It can actually tell you, this is a plot point that you need. When I had researched Sagrada Familia, I'd been there three times. I had actually written a scene at the end of "Origin." The scene was done. And I went back a fourth time to sort of check something, and I found a stairwell-- a very steep, spiral staircase that I'd never seen. And a light went off, and I said, oh, no. Somebody has got to die in there. And the funny thing about that moment is, I'd been having trouble with the end of the book. I had too many secrets to tell, too many promises to keep. And the big finale at the Supercomputing Center was going to include the death of Luis Avila, who'd been tracking Langdon. It was too much for the end. And I said, you know what? I need to kill Avila earlier. I need to make that promise, tie up that loose end so I can move on, and focus on the ending, which was a little unusual. Usually the killer doesn't die quite that early in most stories. But I saw that stairwell, and I thou...
About the Instructor
Packed with secret symbols and high-stakes suspense, Dan Brown’s thrillers have sold more than 250 million copies and include one of the world’s best-selling novels, The Da Vinci Code. In his writing class, Dan unveils his step-by-step process for turning ideas into gripping narratives. Learn his methods for researching like a pro, crafting characters, and sustaining suspense all the way to a dramatic surprise ending.
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Dan Brown
In his first-ever online class, best-selling author Dan Brown teaches you his step-by-step process for turning ideas into page-turning novels.
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