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Location, location, location!
Jun. 11th, 2009 10:09 pmWhether in a cultural sense or simply in the day-to-day demands of coping with a region's weather, we're all influenced by where we come from or where we live now.
Where does your character live? How have their geographical surroundings influenced them? It could be something as minor as having given them a taste for seafood if they grew up in a port city, to as complex as a world traveler having a broad global perspective on everything from race to religion. Show us the city, region, or planet they call home, and what influence it has had on them!
Dalton's Corner, Maine
She grew up in this tiny, tiny town in Maine, near the coast and of course there was lobster and other shellfish. Her mother even once worked at the docks, sorting seafood, banding claws and doing other smelly, damp tasks. Cold weather, long winters, lots of ice and snow. She learned to dress in layers and to stay warm by keeping active--fortunate that she danced from a young age, working up a sweat in below zero temperatures was a joy.
As a little girl, the close knit community felt like an extended family to her and was a comfort Waverly enjoyed. They supported her endeavors and gladly joined in to fund raise so she could attend that coveted school in New York. They were there for her mother when, at eight, she left home to live at the school. They were there too, to welcome her home between terms and to send her care packages while she was away.
NYC, NY
As a child she attended the School of American Ballet. Starting there at age eight, Waverly refused to let herself feel homesick or cry often, after all there were six year olds there. Kindergarten babies that could do this so she could too. It gave her a sense of independence that differed from the one she found in dance itself.
By the time she was twelve, Waverly had a firm mind of where she wanted to dance professionally. The American Ballet Theater. She wanted this over Joffrey or any other company so she begged and pleaded, worked and weaseled until her mother agreed to help navigate the paperwork nightmare and audition process with her. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School fed (and still feeds) into the post-secondary dance program at ABT and then into the company itself. So young and already with that competitor's fierce determination to get what she wanted.
She didn't see much of the city during her years as a student, her focus was on her feet. Her career. The sights and the tourist traps would always be there. Ballet was ruthless enough to have a time frame and a small window of opportunity. Of course this meant she experienced little that the city had to offer even once she did join the Corps de Ballet. What she did find and take from the city that never sleeps was the sense of being alone in a crowd and fending for herself, in that sense, the city itself reminded her of a ballerina. Trust no one (except your partner) and stay alert.
Dalton's Corner, Maine
Coming back home, her dream career effectively over, Waverly found (still finds) the small, close-knit town smothering and its inhabitants nosy. They no longer provided a sense of comfort but rather raised her hackles against intrusion and lack of privacy. She preferred her extended family to consist of the small circle of friends she'd managed to keep over the years--more effort on their parts than hers, she'd admit.
More than anything, Dalton's Corner serves to remind Waverly of all the tings she misses about NYC, a city she thought she knew very little about. It's too quiet in Maine. No one is ever busy enough and sleepy towns just don't feel alive or urgent. The only thing she didn't feel in Maine was the constant pressure to perform. There wasn't anyone to impress and those that were? It took relatively little on her part.
Besides, toddlers in tutus are hardly the likes of Irina Dvorovenko.
Where does your character live? How have their geographical surroundings influenced them? It could be something as minor as having given them a taste for seafood if they grew up in a port city, to as complex as a world traveler having a broad global perspective on everything from race to religion. Show us the city, region, or planet they call home, and what influence it has had on them!
Dalton's Corner, Maine
She grew up in this tiny, tiny town in Maine, near the coast and of course there was lobster and other shellfish. Her mother even once worked at the docks, sorting seafood, banding claws and doing other smelly, damp tasks. Cold weather, long winters, lots of ice and snow. She learned to dress in layers and to stay warm by keeping active--fortunate that she danced from a young age, working up a sweat in below zero temperatures was a joy.
As a little girl, the close knit community felt like an extended family to her and was a comfort Waverly enjoyed. They supported her endeavors and gladly joined in to fund raise so she could attend that coveted school in New York. They were there for her mother when, at eight, she left home to live at the school. They were there too, to welcome her home between terms and to send her care packages while she was away.
NYC, NY
As a child she attended the School of American Ballet. Starting there at age eight, Waverly refused to let herself feel homesick or cry often, after all there were six year olds there. Kindergarten babies that could do this so she could too. It gave her a sense of independence that differed from the one she found in dance itself.
By the time she was twelve, Waverly had a firm mind of where she wanted to dance professionally. The American Ballet Theater. She wanted this over Joffrey or any other company so she begged and pleaded, worked and weaseled until her mother agreed to help navigate the paperwork nightmare and audition process with her. The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School fed (and still feeds) into the post-secondary dance program at ABT and then into the company itself. So young and already with that competitor's fierce determination to get what she wanted.
She didn't see much of the city during her years as a student, her focus was on her feet. Her career. The sights and the tourist traps would always be there. Ballet was ruthless enough to have a time frame and a small window of opportunity. Of course this meant she experienced little that the city had to offer even once she did join the Corps de Ballet. What she did find and take from the city that never sleeps was the sense of being alone in a crowd and fending for herself, in that sense, the city itself reminded her of a ballerina. Trust no one (except your partner) and stay alert.
Dalton's Corner, Maine
Coming back home, her dream career effectively over, Waverly found (still finds) the small, close-knit town smothering and its inhabitants nosy. They no longer provided a sense of comfort but rather raised her hackles against intrusion and lack of privacy. She preferred her extended family to consist of the small circle of friends she'd managed to keep over the years--more effort on their parts than hers, she'd admit.
More than anything, Dalton's Corner serves to remind Waverly of all the tings she misses about NYC, a city she thought she knew very little about. It's too quiet in Maine. No one is ever busy enough and sleepy towns just don't feel alive or urgent. The only thing she didn't feel in Maine was the constant pressure to perform. There wasn't anyone to impress and those that were? It took relatively little on her part.
Besides, toddlers in tutus are hardly the likes of Irina Dvorovenko.
