Places are extremely important when writing a long story because place shapes a character.
Writing is always a restorative process. It's like paddling a kayak. When you're writing, you can't do anything else. You're in the space you're in. So, in that way, it's enormously centering and restorative.
In literature, the ghost is almost always a metaphor for the weight of the past. I don't believe in them in the traditional sense.
