Writing Great Fiction

o At the end of the novel, the Irish Republican Army burns

the hotel to the ground, not only destroying the hotel but

metaphorically destroying the dominance of the Protestants

and British in Ireland. On the last page, a gentle and befuddled

retired British army major surveys the ruins, including the

skeletons of the hundreds of cats that lived in the hotel.

o Even readers who don’t know anything about the history of

the Irish Revolution understand that the major is surveying the

ruins of an empire, not just a burned-down hotel.

z Note that the descriptions of foggy, dirty London in %OHDN+RXVH and
the Majestic Hotel in 7URXEOHV are also full of vivid sensory details that
draw readers into the scene, putting them in the moment even if they
don’t consciously pick up on the metaphor. Even when a setting is used
for a metaphorical purpose, it should be visceral and vivid, allowing us
to experience that imaginary world as if we were characters in the story.

Setting to Evoke Mood
z Setting can also be used to evoke mood, especially when the point is to
evoke a strong vicarious emotion, such as the feeling of fear readers get
from a horror story or the feeling of suspense they get from a thriller.

z Consider part of the description of a haunted house from the early pages
of Judith Hawkes’s marvelously creepy novel -XOLDQ¶V+RXVH:

Inside the gate a silence falls. Leaves stir and are still. At the

foot of the porch steps the silence deepens, wrapped around

with the fragrance of the shallow pink roses that twine the

uprights and shadow the wide boards with their leaves. And

yet it is more than a silence, as the leaves stir and again are

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moving leaves this silence seems to murmur in its sleep—of

too many closed doors, keys turning smoothly in well-oiled

locks, glances exchanged without words. (p. 12)