Since many of you will be joining us for the WU Un-conference in Salem this next week, and because I’ll be co-teaching a seminar called “Place as Character” with Liz Michalski, I thought I’d share the character chart for Salem that I created for my upcoming novel.
Salem, where I’m fortunate enough to live, has been a major character in all three of my novels, but the city’s character chart has changed from book to book. The first chart bears little resemblance to this new one. Either I’ve gotten to know the place better in the almost twenty years I’ve been back, or it has grown and changed as any character should. In a city where history casts such a long shadow, it’s refreshing to see change. I’ve watched Salem grow from aging historical/industrial, to tourist mecca, to real estate goldmine for escaping young Bostonians.
Before I begin a new novel, I write detailed biographies for my main characters, sometimes up to 30 pages. But in my first book, beyond mentioning that one character had red hair, the physical descriptions of characters were almost non- existent. This was due, in part, to the first person POV, the protagonist was so deeply burdened by her past that she barely noticed the world around her and spent little time interacting with other people, much less noticing how they looked. For that book, evading physical descriptions made sense. What was interesting in retrospect was that my readers weren’t aware of the omission. I visited a number of book clubs with that first book, and, since everyone knew that the film rights had been optioned, the clubs always got around to casting the movie. Arguments ensued, with physical descriptions that were so wildly opposing that it was difficult to believe the club members were all reading the same book. This repeated experience taught me a great deal about the collaborative process between writer and reader, and just how big a role the imagination of the reader can play.
For this third book, which takes place in three distinct time periods, not only was backstory extremely important, but so was physical description. My editor helped me put together a new chart, which, as you can see, still has some blank spaces I haven’t been able to fill. Most of the details in the chart do not appear in the novel, but they are still important for me to understand. The three most important questions are the final ones. I’ve asked them of each book, and, though I am writing about the same place, they always elicit different answers. This surprises me every time, but it shouldn’t. If place really is character, then that character should change and arc the same way any other would.
For those of you coming to Salem next week, let this serve as a quirky travel guide. For the rest, here’s my introduction to:
SALEM AS CHARACTER
Born: 1626. Named after Jerusalem, meaning “perfect peace.” Settled by the British, though much earlier by the Naumkeag tribe. Naumkeag means “the fishing place.”
Parents: Mother England and city founder Roger Conant who left a failed settlement at Gloucester, moving all the settlers south to Salem where there was a protected bay and a milder climate. Conant was peacefully replaced by Governor Endicott just a few years later but received 200 acres of land in compensation for not making a fuss.
Sex: In my novels, Salem is definitely female, not so much because of the witch trials which were decidedly anti-female, but for the history that followed. Salem’s shipping industry made her the richest port in the new world, and, because of this, the men were often at sea. The women left on their own were strong and independent: abolitionists, suffragettes, and (as with the Peabody sisters) the early champions of accessible education for all.
Physical Description: Salem varies greatly by neighborhood, with four distinct historic districts and one of largest groups of Federal houses in America. Mansions stand next to museums, witch kitsch shops, and haunted houses.
Early Childhood: Great Migration of Puritans 1620-30. Fear-based witch trials of 1692. Incredibly harsh winter leading up to the hysteria. Fear that the devil had been raised in Salem. Could be in the form of witches. Could also be Native Americans, Catholics, or Quakers.
Adolescence: The first blood of the Revolution was shed in Salem. During Leslie’s Retreat, Salemites drove the British troops back to Boston.
Maturity: Privateers and tax evasion. Pepper trade made Salem the richest port in the new world. Then the British embargo and the War of 1812 killed the riches, leaving ships docked and rotting at the town wharves. Eventually turned toward manufacturing. Mills were down by the harbor and leather factories on Boston Street in a district that was once a rendering area during Salem’s earlier whaling days. It was here that the Great Salem fire started in 1914. Burned 253 acres, 1,376 buildings, and left 20,000 of the 48,000 population homeless.
Old Age: Tourism rules. The Halloween Capital of the World. Every October, the city of 45,000 grows by 300,000. Another Great Migration, this time Pagan. There were no witches in Salem in 1692, but they thrive here in great numbers now.
Favorite pastime: ?
Favorite food: Not lobster, fried clams, or “chowdah.” For a long time, it was roast beef sandwiches, which are still popular. Contemporary Salem has more sophisticated tastes. It’s a foodie city, with numerous restaurants winning best of Boston and North Shore awards.
Drink: Coffee, tea, rum, any brown whiskey. Bourbon is very popular in the historic districts.
Candy: That’s easy. The Gibraltar. The first candy store in America was in Salem, and their famous candy, the Gibraltar, made from molasses, was ballast on the ships that went out from Salem. So popular it was used as a bribe in foreign ports to receive best trading position.
Firsts in America: First candy store, first millionaire, first brick home, first (drunken) elephant. (If you come to the Un-conference, I’ll tell you that story).
Sport: ?
Rival: Beverly (across the bridge) Once part of Salem as were most of the local towns: Marblehead, Beverly, Ipswich, Danvers (the final outpost bordering what was still wilderness and known as Salem Village during the Witch Trials).
Environmental Influence: The sea. Then: mostly water, with several rivers merging to create a waterway leading to the harbor and the shipping wharves. Salem was a bigger port than Boston until larger-hulled ships required deeper waters. Now: Salem is redoing the harbor, reclaiming the big ships. First cruise ship arrived last weekend.
Vice: Too many to name.
Quirk: Being quirky might be the favorite pastime. Anything goes in Salem.
Religion: Puritan roots still influence, but all are welcome.
Secret: Sewing circles. Women were not allowed to gather in groups after the witch trials. Today, several groups still meet in secret.
First love: Mother England.
Lasting Love: Independence.
Love/Hate: Halloween
Culture: Salem is the cultural center of Boston’s North Shore. Libraries and world class museums.
Sense of humor: Very strong. You have to have a sense of humor to live here, especially in October. My Chinese translator once asked why people here were so sarcastic. If you are polite to Salemites, they will be polite in return. But when they really like you, they begin to tease you unmercifully. That’s how you know you’ve made it.
Cats or Dogs: Both, now. But back in Puritan times, both dogs and cats were feared as familiars. Local shelter will not bring black cats to Salem for adoption during October.
What is Salem’s biggest fear? History repeating.
What does Salem want? Forgiveness for the hysteria, the sin passed down through the generations.
What’s keeping her from getting it: The execution of 19 innocent people still fuels the tourist economy.
As I mentioned earlier, these last three questions are the most important for me to understand before starting a new story. But the others are helpful, too.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject of place as character. Are places characters to you? What questions do you ask of your characters?
About Brunonia Barry
Brunonia Barry is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Lace Reader, The Map of True Places, and The Fifth Petal, chosen #1 of Strand Magazine’s Top 25 Books of 2017. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages and has been an Amazon Best of the Month and a People Magazine Pick. Barry was the first American author to win the International Women’s Fiction Festival’s Baccante Award and was a past recipient of Ragdale Artists’ Colony’s Strnad Invitational Fellowship as well as the winner of New England Book Festival’s award for Best Fiction. Her reviews and articles on writing have appeared in The London Times, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. Brunonia served as chairperson of the Salem Athenaeum’s Writers’ Committee, as Executive Director of the Salem Literary Festival, and as a member of Grub Street’s Development Committee. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her husband, Gary Ward, and their dog, Angel.
Brunonia–
Thank you for the history lesson. Your list of attributes for Salem makes me feel I now know your town. My home town is a suburb, but I associate myself with the big city to the south, Detroit. The trouble is, the D as we call it has been treated so well by others (thank you Elmore Leonard, Loren Estleman, et al) that in my writing I tend to avoid it. But travel sharpens my observation, and this has led me to use those experiences to create the settings for my novels. Currently, I am drawing on the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, the least visited of our national parks. My central character, a young woman journalist has never visited the area, so the reader experiences it through her eyes.
The trick is to avoid overdoing it. I’ve been to the Boundary Waters to fish, as do my characters. But I have to guard against letting my own visitor’s enthusiasm lead to too much detail, too much preoccupation with setting at the expense of story.
Thanks again for a very informative post. I am really sorry to be missing the conference.
Good point, Barry, about revealing too much enthusiastic detail at the expense of story. I feel as if it’s good to know all of this detail (and your own POV about it) so that you have a reference point. But for me, very little of what’s on the chart actually ends up in the manuscript with the exception of those last three questions which have to be present in every chapter. And I’m with you about having trouble writing about a place that so many writers have tackled. Salem is similar in that way, which is why I always write from the POV of an outsider. That way, the impressions of the place are not necessarily accurate, they’re very personal. Hopefully, the personal sometimes connects with truth, but I don’t count on it. Boundary Waters as setting sounds intriguing. I can’t wait to read the story. Sorry we’re going to miss you next week.
Brunonia-
I was especially struck by these points about Salem:
What is Salem’s biggest fear? History repeating.
What does Salem want? Forgiveness for the hysteria, the sin passed down through the generations.
What’s keeping her from getting it: The execution of 19 innocent people still fuels the tourist economy.
This place has powerful needs, and equally powerful inner conflict. Turn those elements into characters and you have a story.
Very much looking forward to next week. BTW, what’s “this third book”? When do we get to read it?
Thanks, Donald. Those last three are the most important for me. They have to be present in every chapter, which is why this latest book has taken so long. It’s tentatively called “The Goddess Murders” and has a present day story that mirrors Salem’s past. I’m working on polishing right now, so I don’t have a pub date yet. This story is the one I’ve been wrestling with for years, and it has refused to respond to deadlines. But it’s finally there. Can’t wait to meet you next week and take your workshop.
Did I hear a third book??!! Oh I can’t wait!
This is fabulous, Brunonia. I look forward to taking your class at the Writer Unboxed Conference next week.
Since my forthcoming novel is about the Hawthornes, Salem is special to me.
Thanks, Erika. Let’s try to carve out some time to talk about your new book. I’m fascinated by all things Hawthorne.
Love this, Brunonia! Setting as a place, and its backstory, are a big part of my writing journey. I’ve written before about how my love of historical story began at Mackinac Island as a visiting child. Mackinac was founded just eight years after Salem, claimed for France by Jean Nicolet in 1634 (not too long before the founding of Barry’s Big D). It’s been a major hub of history, and a political football, through much of history. Sacred to the Ojibwa and Odawa Indians, its position guarding the straits between Lakes Huron and Michigan made it vital to trade.
The very first book I remember reading on my own, and being totally immersed in, was The Young Voyageur, by Dirk Gringhuis – a middle grade tale about an English boy captured and traveling with French Voyageurs in the Eighteenth Century. I picked out the book in the Fort Mackinaw Souvenir Shop at age eight or nine. I’ve been enthralled with imagining myself in historical settings ever since.
Really looking forward to immersing myself in your course and in Salem’s lush history. Being in such places never fails to inspire me! Thanks for sharing your character chart!
Vaughn, it’s fascinating to learn how long you’ve been interested in Mackinac Island. I have the same deep interest in Salem, in great part because history has so influenced our sense of place. It’s rich soil for growing story, don’t you think? I’m really looking forward to next week, to finally meeting this great group.
Great post, Brunonia –
I’m a Salem native so it’s interesting to read this character sketch (which is pretty accurate!) and muse on the implications. I look forward to meeting you next week and learning a lot in your workshop! All the best, Bob
So glad you’re coming back to town, Bob. I’m very interested in talking to you about the POV of growing up here. I was born in Salem hospital but grew up across the harbor in Marblehead (but on the Salem harbor side). Moved here in 1998 after coming back from the West Coast. So my perspective will always be that of an outsider while yours will probably be just the opposite. Could make for an interesting discussion. See you next week.
Wow, Brunonia, I was excited about the conference, but now you’ve got me buzzed about Salem! Can’t wait to meet her.
Denise Willson
Author of A Keeper’s Truth and GOT
She’s a great little city, Denise, though a tad strange today. I look forward to meeting you next week.
Thank you so much for this post.
Setting is a character in my WIP–New York’s Lower Eastside. Specifically the neighborhoods where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg lived. I’m taking both your sessions and can’t wait to meet you and explore Salem.
This is going to be a great week, Rebeca. I look forward to meeting you and hearing more about your WIP. I’m intrigued.
Hi Brunonia!
Thanks for sharing this great character sketch of Salem! I’ve always had the feeling that Salem is an independent character in both of your novels, although I also loved how the town’s character is reflected in your protagonists, e.g. the secretive side in Towner or the literary history that is so important for Zee’s family.
Although I’m not a writer myself but working in the field of literary analysis, I always enjoy paying close attention to the depiction of place and the role it plays for the development of the story and its atmosphere as it can be immensely revealing.
I’m very much looking forward to your third book and to seeing how the character of Salem has developed on the one hand throughout the three time periods that you mentioned and also how Salem’s depiction might differ from “The Lace Reader” and “The Map of True Places”.
I wish I could attend the seminar and the Festival!
Best regards from Germany and all the best for your projects!
Clara
Hi Clara,
I wish you could attend the festival, or that I could get over to Germany to finally meet you and your class. Your literary analysis is so accurate, I almost wish you were a fiction writer. I’d definitely read your books. Salem has changed a great deal in this latest book. Can’t wait to get your opinion. Bru.
I grew up in Marblehead, so I’m very familiar with Salem. I think you nailed it. Great job! I love thinking of place as character. It’s not always easy, though.
Thanks, Sue. To hear you say I nailed it means a lot. Salem might be easier to portray as character than many other places. History is ever present and mistakes are clear. I’m not sure it’s as easy to see with other places. I grew up in Marblehead as well, as did many generations on my dad’s side of our family. The history is as vast but maybe a bit less public. But the present day town has a distinct and complex personality. Don’t know if you write about Marblehead, but it would be interesting to chart.
This was delightful. I’ve recently read several other articles on cities or other inanimate objects being a character, but yours explained it the best.
I don’t plan to use Salem in any of my novels, but this will also help in developing the history of people character.
Thank you.
Thanks, Connie. I’m glad you find this helpful. I use the same chart for all my characters, but I think it’s most interesting when it comes to place. It’s strange to think of location this way, but it helps me discover details I might otherwise ignore.
This is so interesting. I’m going to save it for future reference.
Brunonia, I read your novel, “The Lace Reader” while vacationing in Salem last summer, which was a perfect combination. I loved Salem and really wish I could be there right now for the conference. Hope you all have a great time!