Re: another question from Stephen (not on fast writing)

Khiem wrote:

> If you mean quality or originality of ideas, then I don't really have
> any way to increase it. Maybe exposure to different books and
> cultures.


I noticed something rather disturbing when I was on holiday in Spain
last year. I spent two days driving through the hinterland of Barcelona
and noticed how alien the landscape was - and how used my brain had
become to a middle-europear green fields, trees, hills, type of default.
Much like the landscape in my immediate vincinity. The scrub-covered
harshness of the Burren; the orange groves and steep, barren hillsides
of Spain, the scorshed barrenness of olive groves in the Alentejo; the
wildflower carpet of Western Australia - none of them were floating to
the top of my brain where they could be skimmed off for fictional
settings.

Catja