Characters interact with the setting as much as they do with the plot and other characters. In fact, setting can be used as another character, one that is implacable and without reason. Like a character, the setting can have scars, weaknesses, moods, even a personality.
The setting should be integral to the story. It needs to be more than a backdrop for or an introduction to the events. A static description adds nothing to the story's purpose. The setting should not be any old place, but a unique place that has meaning for the character. Setting can work for or against the character, but either way, it must be dynamic, otherwise it's filling space.
Setting can create a mood. It can suggest the character's motives. It can predestine character in the same way we are all creatures of our environment. A person who grew up in the shadow of mountains is different from someone born by the sea. A child living in a mansion is different from a child of the streets.
Setting can help move plot along. Whenever things slow down, the introduction of a real or perceived change in the setting can deepen the character's conflicts. Maybe the character sees things he never noticed before; maybe those familiar things now seem menacing. Or perhaps the weather can take a disastrous turn.
Every description of a place should have a memorable quality that hints at the story's meaning. In Story, Robert McKee wrote, "The irony of setting vs. story is this: the larger the world, the more diluted the knowledge of the writer, therefore the fewer his creative choices and the more clichéd the story. The smaller the world, the more complete the knowledge of the writer, therefore the greater his creative choices. Result: an original story without clichés."
Do you think setting is important?
How do you set your stage?
How does your setting affect your character and your character's actions?
How do your characters perceive the setting?
Does anything about your setting suggest the character's inner conflicts and desires?
Do you make your setting an integral part of your story?
Does your setting predestine your characters?
Does your setting have a personality? Scars? Weaknesses? Moods? Emotional impact?
The group No Whine, Just Champagne will try to answer these questions during our Live Chat on Thursday, June 19 at 9:00pm ET. Hope to see you there!
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 132
Seems I'm always out doing something on Thursday, but then I'm 3 hours behind.
Thanks for posting about this important topic.
For me, setting is crucial. I believe it is important for the reader to "see" where the character lives/works/is lurking before we get too far into each scene.
One of my books takes place in Denver during an massive epidemic. I wanted a different backdrop for the story of my character's growth.
My MS is a gothic romance. One of the important aspects of that kind of novel is that the house, the setting, almost becomes another character in the story. It's introduced right in the opening paragraphs, this way:
"How could this castle bear the prosaic name of Tremayne Hall? Even in the dark, its immense size loomed, perched on the edge of the cliff like a bird of prey. At least four stories rose above her, and stretched out to her left and right from the central portion. Rounded towers punctuated the wings at either end, topped with crenellations biting like a giant's teeth into the night sky. A single light glimmered in a window, high in the tower to her left. A small bit of light shone through the stained glass panes framing the massive door before her. Otherwise, the house was dark. "
I wanted to set the mood for the reader right up front. Even the house's name, Tremayne, is an "in" joke. It's Cornish for "house of stone". It's also the hero's name, an oblique reference to his cold, hard heart.
I do overall setting better than setting a scene since I don't like long descriptions. Also I'm better at mood than setting because I don't see pictures in my mind. But I'm learning!
I also like the idea of setting as character. Most of my characters have to fight the environment as well as human villains and themselves.
But your idea is great. It would also work if you reversed the colors, such as only bad things happening in a yellow room.
For one of my books, I invented another county in Colorado and invented a town for that county, and I used it in a second book. The city and county have the same name. How's that for originality?
I just finished reading a book that talked about how we all have a self-concept, and a novel is written about a character whose self-concept is altered and has to redefine himself.
This is what I try to do: throw horrendous circumstances at my characters, and see how they go about redefining themselves. So although I don't write horror novels, I set the stage as if they were.
But you're right. The characters tell us what they need, if we listen to them.
Do you think setting is important?
How do you set your stage?
How does your setting affect your character and your character's actions?
How do your characters perceive the setting?
Does anything about your setting suggest the character's inner conflicts and desires?
Do you make your setting an integral part of your story?
Does your setting predestine your characters?
Does your setting have a personality? Scars? Weaknesses? Moods? Emotional impact?
Is it possible to "transplant" your characters into other setting? I like time-travels on occassions, which toss characters into totally (for them) settings, and then let them cope with what they find in the new setting.
"...everywhere, there were signs of neglect. The paving stones had shifted and cracked, making the walkways treacherous. The fountain was dry and filled with leaves. Weeds nearly choked out the other blooming plants. It was if the lack of love and care in Dash and Lily's relationship had spread itself over the house, cloaking everything in a miasma of decay."
What about you? How would you answer them?
If, however the setting is integral to the scene, I like to take the time to make it come alive. If it is a dark back alley, I want to set the scene. I like covering all the senses, hearing, seeing, odor, taste even, if I can get it in and some tactile details, like cobble stone walkway, rough texture of the wooden door.
Do you think setting is important? ~ Yes
How do you set your stage? ~ Carefully
How does your setting affect your character and your character's actions? ~ The setting is significant and important to the development of the character. The Character's actions are for the most part determined by their environment.
How do your characters perceive the setting? ~ As part of their make-up; their choices in life.
Does anything about your setting suggest the character's inner conflicts and desires? ~ The setting suggests everything about the character's inner conflicts and desires it helps to tell the story ~ it reflects the depth of the charcters: their thoughts, their path, their choices . . .
Do you make your setting an integral part of your story? ~ Yes
Does your setting predestine your characters? ~ No. It tells the story of where they are at the moment -- in the NOW. It does not determine their future.
Does your setting have a personality? Scars? Weaknesses? Moods? Emotional impact? ~ Yes to all.
One thing I like to do in my books is work against preconceived notions. Especially when the reverse is true. For example, when I first moved to this area, the people were genteel, cultured, well-dressed, well-spoken, and now the people are like low class big city people. The first set were ranchers who left the area when the second set of city people moved.
See? No discussion of any part of writing can be separated from character.
Her present setting is clear as she's in a hospital.
Since I can't say the place I tend to work on other setting details like her memory of a room back home and her relationship with her Father. Together I hope these build the necessary details without the specific place.
Here's an brief scene from the novel in process:
<1>Without Father in the cabin, I could examine the wall covered up by newspaper clippings. Captions said things like: forest fires, buildings burned and tales of things gone up in smoke: combustible, flammable, explosive; all those words I remembered, not the places.
I didn't dare tell the nurse this or that Father's newspaper collection grew larger and larger the days preceding the bombing at the Institute. Not sure what they'd do to Father or me if they knew the truth.
Instead I stared at the ceiling and pointed at a brown speck in the light and said, "It's there. It's there, daddy-long-legs. Can't you see the spider?"
"Yes, I see him."
The nurse called a janitor as I thought more about Father. When I asked him one day about those newspaper clippings that he kept on the wall he said they're nothing and to mind my own business. But they were everything. I saw it by the way his mustache twitched as he spoke and the way his eye lids blinked in fast succession.
Rene, what kind of scars do you use in your setting?
Being the only son of one of the most powerful Dukes of the realm could be awfully tedious at times Brandon decided as he stared distractedly into his freshly poured brandy from the side board of his father's library.
This had been his third glass in over an hour after realizing he would need all the liquid fortification he could stand in order to be able to continue to listen as his father the Duke of Wesley droned on about his duty of producing an heir for about the thousandth instance in his lifetime.
While his lordship remained safely ensconced in his throne on the opposite side of the room from him and doled out his usual demands, Brandon became so bored that his mind drifted to his closest friend Gregory Hughes the son of the Earl of Rochester who would be at this time waiting patiently for him to play a round of cards at White's.
Gregory with his deep brown hair and silvery gray eyes always sparkling with mirth exuded so much charm that every lady of his acquaintance chased him with the equal fervor that caused them to cling to the hope that the prince regent himself would garner them one ounce of his own favor.
But to the chagrin of his Gregory's long suffering aunt Agatha his friend refused to be caught in any debutante's matrimonial web. In that respect, he and Gregory were of like minds.
Rene, even if a comment isn't addressed to you, feel free to comment. The names are mostly so everyone can follow the different threads.
Good question Pat . . .
I use interior scars of the characters.
Angela, interesting story, but if I can only offer a few critiques it would be these. Each of your paragraphs contains one long sentence. Each is about the same length. Break them up and vary sentence/paragraph lengths. Learn to love the comma.
Blessings ~
Rene
Thanks so much. I'm back from a six month break on this novel. It's the twelve draft and I keep finding little things to fix, which is good in that before I ran out of answers and had to take a break.
This character in this story has such a challenging world. I keep rustling with whether the lack of locale matters or not as long as I have other setting details.
I'm not big on naming towns and such. This girl grew up in a small fictional town in Idaho. My other novels have kind of have some aspect of being a beach town sometimes more generic than other times.
Julie
It is possible to fake it to some extent, but it is easy to get caught with that. I remember reading a book by Harry Turtledove. One of the scenes was set during World War II in Ashton Illinois in the Mills Petrie Community center. At the time I was working in Ashton and went over to Mills Petrie at lunch to lift weights and play volleyball. At the time I was a member of an Alternate History discussion group that he was in, so I asked him if he had ever been to Ashton. It's hard to convey cringing via e-mail, but I could tell he was just hoping he hadn't gotten anything obvious wrong. He hadn't. The reference was vague enough that there wasn't much to get caught on. He had never been there though. Got the info from some research method.
Feedback for Angela:
I agree with the suggestion to make the sentences shorter. What seems needed the most is to bring the Duke more alive. Instead of telling us he's droning on about wanting an heir. Give us some choice bits of dialogue. Also, droning implies boring. Again if the Duke is very verbose and hesitant to get to the point, then show that with dialogue. Let the reader figure this out themselves.
Also, instead of saying that he gave demands show us some of these.
Now about Gregory. Instead of telling us he oozes charm show this. Why not show a scene where he's flirting with a courtesan, one that surprise even Gregory by going for it. Or something like that.
Julie
Hi, Dale! Glad you stopped by. One scene in a book I wrote took place in Thailand. Never been there, so I felt a little silly writing it, but I studied travelogues, guide books, videos, and found a few little bits that helped set the scene without going into massive detail, like the geckoes on the ceiling. Not something I will try again (at least I don't plan to) but the guy hadn't lived in the states for most of his adult life, and I had to put him somewhere!
Deborah, that's where we came in! Our first discussion was about such bits of serendipity, which one writer called gifts of the library gods. I had a hard time finding interesting extinct animals for my WIP, but when I first started writing it, I used to find all sorts of articles about them. Like a pterodactyl the size of a sparrow. And a frog with teeth the size of a bowling ball. And a seven-foot-tall turkey. All part of my setting now.