In The Cast-Iron Owl, the story features a roadtrip in which the mother, Jane, and her daughter, Mary, drive across the country to Colorado. When determining all the stops for their roadtrip, including what states they’ll pass through, it was something that took a considerable amount of time and research to figure out.
Even after I had determined what states they’ll stop at, I had to figure out which cities/counties/towns they’d find a motel in, and what the geographic landscape of those states were like. I would imagine it’s similar to filmmakers scouting locations for a film, figuring out the logistics of getting there, not to mention what the conditions and the environments are like. It’s one of those things that seems easy and straightforward on the surface, but actually takes a lot of planning and research.
In addition to the figuring out the locations, I had to plan out how long the drive would be from one place to the next. Given that the story is set during winter, I knew that snow or rain could be a factor (not to mention the cold), so I had to look into the climate as well.
If the story had taken place during the summer, it’d be a lot easier to plan out, since I needn’t worry about the cold weather or the potential for snow. But given that it does take place in the winter, I had to factor that in, including how often it snowed or rained in those places, when I planned out the roadtrip.
The nice thing about writing roadtrips is that it gives the characters plenty of opportunities to have long conservations as they travel, as well as the chance to visit new places. It’s similar to a story where characters are traversing across different countries or landscapes where they face unseen obstacles. The fun thing about writing roadtrips is that it lends itself to the unexpected and to startling encounters. On a roadtrip, even though it can be perfectly planned, there’s no guarantee that it will go as expected.
Fallton Havenstonne 