COSTA Award winning author Jasbinder Bilan tells us about how she builds a story ground up from the settings.
Every author I know has a slightly different way their story finds them. Some see a character pop into their head and just won’t go away while others might get a voice which keeps going on and on until the writer has no choice but to tell their story.
Each time I write a new book, the first thing I see is the place.
It’s always such a vivid setting that I almost feel able to reach out and touch it. When I was thinking about my debut, Asha and the Spirit Bird, I was enrolled on the MA creative writing course at Bath Spa and I knew the place of my story before I knew anything else about it.
The image I had was bright and full of colour, a hot country where a girl was playing in the red earth, pouring cool water from a brass container. Behind her were incredible snow-capped mountains and the air was filled with far-off sounds of spiralling birds of prey.
Once I knew where my story would take place, I could begin imagining what might happen in my setting.
At this point I look deep into the landscape and ask myself who is there and what is the worst thing that could happen in this setting and what is the best. And so I began imagining a story of lost family treasure, creditors and a father away in the city working.
Each time I begin a new book the process is slightly different but the thing that remains consistent is the way the setting comes for me. In Tamarind and the Star of Ishta, it was Tamarind’s ancestral home, a crumbling ancient house called Alakapuri, set high in the wilderness of the Himalaya and surrounded by magical gardens that called to me.
Listen to Jasbinder introduce this beautiful book.
In Book three, Aarti and the Blue Gods, which publishes in September 2021, my setting was inspired by my love for the Scottish islands. On the island I saw eleven year old Aarti in a place of breathtaking beauty, an isolated place on the edge of the world, a setting steeped in wilderness where nature loves and cares for Aarti and helps her find out who she really is.
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