I was recently in New England, visiting family, and I was finally able to articulate something that bothers me about the Midwest, where I currently live.

I reluctantly live in a subdivision, and have done so in the past four states, ever since I moved away from my family’s rural home- seven acres of land- in a smallish town- about 12,000 people.

So, contrary to popular expectations, my experience of New England is consistently more countrified and self-sufficient than my experience in the Midwest. There’s more space between the houses in my admittedly rural corner of New England, because the land isn’t as buildable, and a higher proportion of people have little homesteads and backyard chickens. More people cut their own firewood and run their business from their backyard. Even in the subdivisions, most houses have a line of trees between them. There are rocky outcrops and little brooks and wet lands that make certain portions of the land unsuitable for building, so they’re left wild.

The land has been settled for longer, so most of the places that are buildable already have a building on them. There’s occasional new development, and of course, existing houses get facelifts and additions, but it’s on a very ad hoc basis. Houses feel like they were built by people, for people.

This leads to more quirky individuality in the buildings and their layouts. Houses aren’t always at right angles to the road, outbuildings are scattered around in places a stranger wouldn’t expect- but are perfectly reasonable to the inhabitants and the way they live. A lot of them were built in the days before zoning laws, too, so you get houses in weird places that wouldn’t be allowed nowadays.

The Midwest, by contrast, is more recently settled, and the land itself is easier to build on. This leads to massive subdivisions and planned neighborhoods, where all the houses are in a line, close together, and of the same style. There’s no mountains in the way, less need to consider the shape of the landscape when designing the neighborhood, so developers don’t bother. The houses are built by a corporation as an investment, stuffing as many identical houses as possible onto that piece of land so they can break even or make a profit on their investment.

I have nothing against people making money- they’re obviously filling a need and should be compensated accordingly. But this particular way of building leads to a sameness and openness that I dislike. It’s also more crowded, and people drive more aggressively, because they can; the roads are straighter and flatter, and there are fewer trees and hills in the way when you’re looking for oncoming traffic. And don’t tell me that it’ll look less barren as time goes on. You’re not precisely wrong, but this subdivision is about 20 years old, judging by the size of the trees. Hardly new construction, and it still looks bleak and depressing. In my opinion, of course. A house and neighborhood like this probably represents financial and social success to a lot of people. I value different things- space, privacy, the ability to dig a well and cut firewood so I’m more self-sufficient in case a disaster hits.

To each, his own.

So, what’s the point of all this?

Well, I mostly wanted an excuse to ramble about geography and landscape. I might be a nerd. Possibly.

But there’s some world building merit in the contrast I’ve drawn. If you’re building a world from scratch, think about the technology available to your characters, the history of settlement, the shape of the land- all of those things will influence how your characters live and think about their surroundings. Where do they get their water?- how do they deal with wastewater?- where does their heat and light come from? Are their houses oriented according to the path of the road, or do they care more about providing a comfortable work area that’s protected from the winter winds and the summer sun? Are they the kind of person who cares about these things?- some people don’t, and some stories don’t need them to care as much. Some will be happy with one type of surroundings; others subtly unhappy.

And it might take them years to articulate what’s making them unhappy about the way they live.

Oh, wait, that’s just me, and I’m not a character in a story, believe it or not.

Happy second day of Thanksgiving, ladies and gents. Or happy Friday, if you’re not American.