WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

Helping writers become bestselling authors

Setting Thesaurus Entry: Alley

Published: by

For a reader to relate to the current action, they need a physical anchor to tie the characters to. It can be difficult, finding the right words to convey a sense of place. 

Settings come alive through description, and the right details can evoke emotion, drawing readers in. The following entry contains samples of the sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and textures associated with this location so you can weave them into your storytelling, thereby deepening the reader’s sensory experience.

Alley

SIGHTS: Crates, garbage, garbage bins, empty liquor bottles, broken glass, plastic, oil spills, puddles, dirt, grime, grease, ratty blankets, cardboard, homeless people, rats, cockroaches, spiders, ants, bird that eat refuse (magpies, pigeons, etc), street cats or dogs, mice, employees on smoke breaks, broken & discarded furniture…

SOUNDS: Wind shuffling trash into corners, dogs rooting through garbage, cats meowing, people coughing/talking in low voices or snoring if the alley is inhabited, music from clubs with back entrances, the clink of bottles, a trash bin lid slamming down, the crinkle of a trash bag as it’s emptied into a bin, garbage lids being knocked to the ground…

SMELLS: Rotting garbage, body odor, animal and human waste, motor oil, cooking smells drifting from open windows or restaurants, wet cardboard, mildew, vomit…

TASTES: Bagged lunch from shelters, leftovers from restaurant bins, alcohol…

TOUCH: The rough bricks beneath the hand, using the wall to steady one’s walk, falling in a pile of garbage from drunkenness, grime sticking to the shoes, litter crunching underfoot, the cold metal of a garbage bin lid, forcing a heavy garbage bin open, rattling a discarded bottle to see if it has any alcohol in it…

Helpful Hints

The words you choose can convey atmosphere and mood.

Example 1: The wind was howling like a pack of arctic wolves, but hunkered down under his newspaper-and-scraps blanket, Alfred could barely feel it. The bricks at his back were warm from the ovens on the other side. He took a deep breath, smelling the fresh-baked scent and hardly any dumpster at all. Pulling his rough cap down over his eyes, he burrowed into his warm corner with a smile.

Similes and metaphors create strong imagery when used sparingly.

Example 1: (Simile) The smell in the alley was overwhelming, like a thousand cats had come to this specific place to do their business.

Other Setting Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Think beyond what a character sees, and provide a sensory feast for readers

The Setting Thesaurus Duo

This sample, along with the rest of the setting entries, has been expanded into a 2-book set. Together, the bestselling URBAN SETTING THESAURUS and RURAL SETTING THESAURUS volumes contain over 200 settings for you to choose from when creating memorable, compelling characters.

Each entry contains multi-sensory cues associated with the location, conflict options commonly found in the environment, instructive information on how to avoid setting-related infodumps, and examples of well-written descriptions that can reinforce emotion, characterize, foreshadow future events, and more.

For more information on this bestselling set of books and where they can be found, please visit our bookstore.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joseph Katz says

    I like the blog post about alleys, as you have some nice words to choose from.

    However, I couldn’t imagine and alley from example 1. I think because the description could fit a lot of places.

    This could be easily fixed by adding a few words to the first clause.

    Example 1: The wind was howling like a pack of arctic wolves in the tight alley,

    grimey alley, dark alley, etc.

    Now everything else said after this, places me deeper in that alley.

    Thanks for taking the time to blog. I have actually been working on something similar for some time now.

  2. Angela says

    Gutsy, good luck in the workshop–I bet it’ll be great!

    Browneyedgirl, see us writers are strange. But at the same time, if we write that an alley smells like vomit, as a reader, you’ll have a instant recognition, right?

    Thanks Mary. It’s a good point to make that alleys differ in different countries. You might also see balconies with chairs, tables, Barb-b-ques, potted gardens…all kinds of stuff. 🙂 Location research is important.

  3. Mary Witzl says

    Laundry strung from building to building is something you often see in Asian alleys. (Not where I’d fancy airing my pantyhose either, but when space is limited, you have to stretch it, I guess).

  5. GutsyWriter says

    Thank you so much. I’ve used all your guidance in my revisions. Taking a Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Any comments from anyone are appreciated regarding experience with online classes.

  7. Angela says

    Thanks, every one! I think alley’s tend to feature in a lot of ‘darker’ writing…it’s a natural location for shady dealings. 🙂

  9. Emily Cross says

    i found this so helpful – thank you so much, my MC is actually blind so you’d be amazed by how much i have to learn in not relying on ‘sight’ descriptions but touch, smell etc.

    Anyhoo i’m sorry if this is a bit out of the blue and ‘pluggish by nature’, but i’ve started a writer’s forum http://thewriterschronicle.forumotion.net/index.htm
    where aspiring authors etc. can come and chat and discuss topics and ideas and basically help each other.

    I love blogging but it can be both hard to get a readership and connect with them so i thought a community forum would be a great way to network.

    The forum is only starting out but i’m hoping it will grow,

    I’d really appreciate it if you could take the time and have a look around.

    thanks emily.

Trackbacks