This scene I finished outlining today is the first that occurs outside the castle and takes my hero and her best friend through several parts of the capital city, so I’m having to do quite a bit of planning for that city before I get into writing.
Even though this scene will only take my characters to a series of three markets – progressing from upscale to positively common, part of my setting creation includes understanding what the setting’s role is in the story, and then making sure the setting matches it.
The capital city is where all of my heroes start out thinking that they are home (more or less), but at the same time, I want it to represent how they don’t belong. Each has their own perspective on the city and what it means to them, but they are forcing the city to meet their perspective (by ignoring the parts that don’t agree, assigning meaning, etc.).
For now, I do not know how much of that will appear in this particular scene – though my hero will certainly be introduced to parts of the city she didn’t know about in her sheltered existence – but the next several scenes are going to be set here, too, so I am going into more detail than is probably necessary.