As writers, we often underestimate the power of setting. Who didn’t want to visit the Hundred-Acre Wood? How much of our Bilbo-love is wrapped up in Hobbiton, my precious? And whatever you might think of the Twilight series, the ho-hum town of Forks became a little more interesting because it was the perfect home for Meyer’s vampires. In every genre, the right setting, well-written, is an invaluable piece of the falling-in-love-with-a-book puzzle. To explore this a bit more, I’m introducing a series on Creating Unforgettable Settings. Today’s tip:
CHOOSING THE RIGHT SETTING
In college I had a button that said Waiting for Mr. ‘He’ll Do’. I pinned it to my bedroom bulletin board because, despite the chuckles it gave me, I was a little embarrassed to wear it. (enter Non-Lawyer Spokesperson stating that my husband is babe-a-licious and in no way did I settle when I picked him). When it comes to writing, we jump through all kinds of hoops to draw our characters perfectly, to make sure our plotlines are flawless with no holes or inconsistencies. The setting, on the other hand, is often an afterthought. No more Mr. He’ll Do, people. Here are some tips for strengthening your story by choosing just the right setting.
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2. Make sure your setting comes fully-stocked with challenges, because…let’s be honest: the perfect world actually sounds pretty boring. Characters need problems to overcome, and the setting is a natural vehicle for conflict. Look at Middle Earth. Black, chasm-ridden mines. Midge-filled marshes. The Paths of the Dead. When deciding on a setting, choose one that makes sense for your characters but one that also makes things difficult in some way—specifically difficult for your hero, if possible. Is he afraid of heights? Throw some skyscrapers or narrow mountain passes in there. Does he suffer from seasonal allergies? Set the story in spring. Specifically design your setting to complicate your hero’s life, and it won’t fall flat.
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Describe your setting through the point of view of your character—its beauty or ugliness, prosperity or poverty, desirability or loathsomeness. Show how the main character is emotionally-connected to the setting and your reader will share that connection as well!
Read on for more help with settings:
Part 2: Describing The Setting
Part 3: Maximizing The Setting
Part 4: World Building
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.
Good post. I have say setting (description) is not my strong point. But this has given me some great ideas for my novel and how to use my setting, a colony ship in space, to great effect.
I love your site. Could you put a email subscription for feedburner? Good post, I agree the character needs an obstacle or the story will be boring.
I love writing about settings! I don’t know why, but it’s just this thing about me. I have to be careful not to write too much about it. These are such great tips, thanks!
These are really helpful pointers! Thanks for posting. =)
I agree! The perfect setting grows out of the character. For me, you can’t sit them just anywhere, they need a place to call home, somewhere to cherish, and fight for.
Depends on the story. Some settings demand to be likened to a characters and others need to be background. It’s important to know for your story, which it is. Great post!
You are so right! Setting is sooo important. I carry a travel journal with me when I travel so that I can jot down details. I also take a camera with me. It’s a great way to record details…
I agree that setting isn’t one of my biggest strengths either. It’s often an afterthought–more distinctly–good minute descriptions of setting are not my strong suit.
Really want to work on that-thanks!
Thanks for the reminder–I’m working on setting at the moment, so great timing!
This is so helpful. Thanks!
This is great! I think that you’ve made a *really* important point re: the setting doesn’t have to be completely made up or exotic–Laura Ingalls Wilder was a great example.
Great post! I especially like the part about the characters emotional attachment to the setting. Great point.
Setting is definitely not one of my strengths. And if it weren’t for this blog, I’d be doomed. 😉
Great advice, as always.
I’m so glad this is resonating with more than a handful of people, lol. The setting is usually one of the first things that come to me with a new story, but I know it’s not high on the priority list for a lot of people. Shannon Hale and Shannon Shinn are masters at creating vivid settings, imo. Thank you, Deb, for pointing out another author whose name isn’t Shannon…
Thanks for these tips on setting!
This is such a helpful post!! Thank you. You put into words things that have been swimming around in my head.
Setting is so important. These are great tips here.
Great tips!!
Fantastic post! I struggle with finding the right balance between too much and too little setting. This tips will be really helpful!
World building is one of my most favored parts of the writing process.
This is in my top five Bookshelf Muse favorites – love it!! Sooooooo helpful. Thank you! 🙂
This is awesome! I’m kind of odd. My stories usually develop out of a setting so it becomes integral to the story, almost like another character.
Great post and thanks for sharing! I’ve always considered the setting, particularly in speculative fiction, to be a character in and of itself. In the spec fic genre, it’s always important (unless you are writing a romance, which can underplay the world to a large degree).
Great reminder that our perfect wherever needs to have problems too.
This is great. I fully believe that the setting should eb a character within itself and should add something special to the story, but at the same time, it is not something you really have to overthink.
AubrieAnne @ http://whosyoureditor.blogspot.com/
IMO, one of your biggest writing strengths is your ability to craft vivid, compelling settings and worlds. Thanks so much for sharing all this with us.
Angela
Oooh, I love setting. To me it’s as important as my other characters, because it *is* a character. Setting helps set mood, and it adds a delicious later of realism to the pie. I also use it to show a lot about my characters — how they view their setting changes as they change.
Thanks for this! Great insight and you’re so right. Setting can never be taken lightly.
Thanks for this! I just read NEVERMORE by Kelly Creagh. She had/has setting down in spades.
Oh, well put Becca!
Thank you for the reminder. I may have forgotten to have my setting antagonize my main character the last couple chapters. Time to throw in some swamps, exploding flowers, and bees.
Funny Stuff I Write
I love this post. Probably because the setting was the entire inspiration for my novel, and I hope that I’ve done as well as I can at making into a character of it’s own.
Great advice- I’m definitely copying this to my writing folder. 🙂
I must say that I wholeheartedly agree on not complicating the setting if it could be set anywhere- and from my reading experience, I think this also applies to your character’s background in some ways. For example, (non British) people seem to frequently set their books in/have characters from the UK, which is often quite irrelevant- especially when they don’t even speak in an authentic way! It’s done beautifully in some recent books (such as Anna and the French Kiss) but actually made me dislike others.
Great tips. Thanks for posting them.
🙂