I write many coastal tales. Not so much for the beauty and power of the ocean, but because of the kinds of characters that forge lives on and near the sea. From small and sleepy fishing towns to picturesque holiday escapes, the ocean attracts the most intriguining people and for me, it is what makes the setting so diverse. My favourite coast-story to date is The Lunar Coast (Winner of the Queensland Young Writers Award 2009, published in The Griffith REVIEW Edition 28: Still the lucky country?) set in an imagined town in the north of Western Australia.
What is a setting from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this setting to and why are they similar?
I drew inspiration from J.G. Ballard’s dystopian short story The Cage of Sand (1962) when considering a familiar landscape made alien by a change in the weather. In The lunar coast, the tide goes out and does not come back in. Ballard’s short fiction is full of ordinary settings made surreal and he helped me imagine my world without water.
How would you describe the way you introduced this setting to readers of your story?
In short fiction, I believe it is important to set up a believable world in the first instance. To paint a coastal fishing town that has long been barren I did this with the first line, “I was seventeen when the tide went out.”
How would you describe the integration of characters and setting in this story?
In both Ballard’s story and mine, it is the harshness of the setting that drives the characters to act the way they do. In The lunar coast the two central characters respond to the changed landscape in their own way, but it is this comparison of opinion and their opposing actions that drive the narrative.
How would you describe the interaction of story and setting in this story?
Despite the dystopian nature of this story, the setting is ultimately a fishing town with a disrupted dynamic. The conflict in this story arises from the characters coming to terms with their futures and friendships in response to the setting.
How much research did you do for the setting of this story, and what did that involve?
My experiences growing up on an island in south east Queensland forms much of the research for my coastal fiction. But I rarely write about the island. For The lunar coast, I developed the idea when travelling around Australia. I was sea kayaking in Broome when I came across a rock formation that disappears under the ocean during high tide. That region has some of the biggest daily tides in the world, and the way the landscape can change in as 12 hours was part of the inspiration for The lunar coast.
To what extent would you describe the setting of this story typical or atypical of the settings in your fiction stories?
Small towns and coastal towns will be a constant in my fiction. From experience they are full of characters with quirk, locations that inspire and most importantly; secrets.
How do you usually decide on or develop a setting for your fiction stories?
My settings are generally constructed from a handful of known places. Towns I’ve driven through, houses I’ve been in. I tend to move things around to suit the story and I avoid being too specific. I would never set a story in a real place. I like my fiction to be fictitious.
To what extent do the settings of novels you read have an impact on why you read them, and why?
I dislike narratives that rely on specific street names and read like stage-directions (I left the hotel and went west on Broadway, for example). But I rarely judge a book specifically on setting. However, the settings I love are highway towns, remote properties, Alaskan villages and of course, stories on the coast.
Author website: www.megansfictions.blogspot.com
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