Character at home vs. Fish out of water
Sometimes a writer situates a character at home, in a place they know well. Other times, writers toss their character into an unfamiliar place so they’re a fish out of water. Both choices present some challenges for the writer. I recently read C.J. Sansom’s Dark Fire and John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society, one right after the other. They’re very different books in a lot of ways. Dark Fire is set in Tudor London, displayed in all its political intrigue,…
