Florida’s beaches and backroads hold more than beauty—they hold stories. And for writers, these stories bubble up from the land itself. Abandoned hotels, drowned towns, pirate legends, roadside tabernacles, and oyster shell mounds—it’s all here, just waiting to be turned into fiction.
Every rusted sign and weather-beaten boardwalk has a memory baked into it.
There are whispers in the mangroves, names carved into dock pilings, and paths that lead to nowhere—except maybe the past.
You don’t just walk through Florida. You stumble across it.
A place this strange never lies still—it shifts, like the tide, like truth.
Even the silence here has texture.
What looks like decay is often just a doorway.
And sometimes, the best stories don’t come from what’s still standing—but from what’s been swallowed whole.
Forgotten Places Feel Haunted (Even If They Aren’t)
Florida has layers—some bright, some buried. Think of the sun-bleached sign for a long-closed motel, the creaking dock to nowhere, or a shuttered roadside attraction swallowed by vines. These aren’t just settings. They’re characters. Each of them dares you to imagine what happened here—and why it was left behind.
The Real Florida Is Weirder (and Better) Than Fiction
Forget the pastel caricatures. The Florida I write is wild, storm-lashed, mysterious—and brimming with contradictions. Just ask the gator sunning itself beside a canal, or the heron standing statue-still in a ditch. Even the quiet places hum with possibility.
Eerie Details Are the Best Kind of Breadcrumb
A rusty anchor wedged in the mangroves. A hurricane-battered front porch, still strung with wind chimes. A Calusa shell mound rising like a bone from the earth. These things aren’t just props. They shape the people who live near them—and they shape the stories I write.
Want to Write Florida Right?
Here are some great books for writers hoping to tap into setting as story:
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The Writer’s Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long – for elevating your sensory details and lyrical prose.
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The Geography of Emotion in Fiction by Donald Maass – about using place to deepen emotional resonance.
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The Art of the Personal Essay edited by Phillip Lopate – for voice and reflective nature writing.
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Why Florida Is Weird (and Why That’s Good) – okay, this one doesn’t exist, but maybe it should.
Have a favorite Florida memory, story, or ghost town? I’d love to hear it. Drop me an email.
Stay curious, stay wild,
~ L.S.