Writing Settings in Fiction
Writer's Guide to Creating Settings for Great Stories
Where It Begins: Place and Time
In fact, setting is most often part of the original idea for a story. It’s one of the first things established when the curtain goes up on a play or a movie begins – because it’s the frame of reference and viewers need that information. The same goes for fiction.
Settings are Characters
Settings should be alive, fluid rather than static, and full of detail, depth and dimension – like the human characters. You don’t live in a vacuum. Your environment is constantly in flux. And you react to that same environment – or setting – as you move through it, by the minute, hour, day, and so on. So it’s important that fiction settings are realistic, alive, and evocative.
Making It Feel Like Home
In fiction, settings are primarily visual. To recreate them, writers need good eyes to “see” as much detail as possible, whether the setting is real or imagined The goal is to become immersed in the setting to the point of complete familiarity.
Researching Settings
Research using books and newspapers are essential to understanding the depth and dimensions of settings, especially if they’re historical. Books give the broad view, the newspapers and other kinds of journals the day-to-day life. There’s also no substitute for a visit to the locale.
A setting should be researched fully, even if its home turf. Because most readers will not be native to the location. The same detailed knowledge is important for imaginary settings, too.
Describing Settings
Being immersed in a setting is only half the battle. The description needs to be crafted so as to evoke it in the reader's mind. The first key to creating an evocative setting is to paint a picture by way of the senses, in this general order:
- Sight
- Sound
- Smell
- Touch
- Taste
We first want t to create a visual image in the reader’s mind that she or he can navigate along with the characters. Aural cues are also important; these are the sounds of a setting, from city street to deep forest. Next comes the olfactory; that is, smells, which happen to have the best “memory” of all the senses. Touch and taste are used rarely. Touch for the feeling of the wind, for example, and taste for industrial scenarios with foul air.
Setting Pitfalls
In fiction, we want to do as much as we can with as little as we can. This means not bombarding the reader with every bit of detail collected in the research. That information is for the writer to use sparingly.
The printed word what Marshall McLuhan called a “cold” medium.” Which means the reader fills in most of the sensory information, seeing the story play out in his or her head. The writer’s job is to provide just enough to get that process in motion and then get on with the narrative.
Like every other componennt of fiction writing, the setting serves the story, and never the other way around.
What Makes a Great Setting
A great setting for a story is unique, evocative, and memorable. If the setting is researched, understood, and then described with skill, it will stay with the reader throughout the length of the book or story.
Remember, creating and describing and great setting can be a great asset in capturing the reader’s imagination - and that’s the primary goal of good fiction.
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