storytelling

Most people look at a photograph like this and think, How pretty. I look at it and think, Why? Fort Bourtange is a stunning star-shaped fortress in the Netherlands, but what fascinates me isn’t its appearance. It’s the sheer amount of labour, planning and expense that went into building it in the late sixteenth century. What sort of world made such a massive defensive project seem necessary? And what would it have been like to actually live inside its walls? One aerial photograph opens the door to questions about history, war, economics, daily life—and why setting matters so much to fiction writers.