Daily Challenge: Raise the Stakes with Location

Put your characters in strange places.

It seems characters are always talking and discussing things in restaurants.  This is true in real life of course too. But for the most part it’s fairly boring scene setting, at least when it’s done over and over again.  And by putting your characters somewhere mundane and expected, you lose a big opportunity.  What if for example, your characters are in a critical conversation on a Ferris wheel?  Perhaps a long day of arguing at a fair has culminated in a confrontation.  It just so happens they are in the air at the time, high above the fairgrounds.  What if your characters are at a costume party, in costume?  Maybe it’s Halloween.  The amazing Lorrie Moore story, You’re Ugly Too, is partially set at a Halloween party.  At the party, the main character is forced to make small talk with a man wearing a woman costume with fake breasts.  The scene is funny, and yet there’s an underlying feeling of sadness.  All night she’s been trying unsuccessfully to connect with people and failing.  And as she stands trying to have a normal conversation with a man wearing breasts, we’re reminded just how alone she actually is.

So your challenge:

Find a conversation in your novel or story between two people that happens somewhere rather mundane -maybe the kitchen, or a restaurant or coffee shop.  Try and find a scene you are stuck with; a scene where something important is being discussed.

• Change the location.  It doesn’t need to be ridiculous, though it can be.  But challenge your characters and your dialogue. You’ll be using the setting to raise the stakes and the tension.
• Don’t get too bogged down describing the setting just yet. Just jump into the conversation they are having and make it obvious where they are, both through dialogue and what is happening around them.
• If you already have an idea, go for it.  If not here are six places to put your characters.

1. amusement park
2. in a car stuck in a snowbank.
3. lost on a hiking trail
4. in a tent
5. in a hot air balloon
6. on an airplane