The key to writing a good setting is making it the base of the story. Setting is as important to your writing as plot, character and emotion. It is a part of all those things.

Creating the perfect setting for your novel is not as hard as you might think if you take the time to consider who is going to be living in it. The characters, action, and ultimately the solution to your novel will determine the perfect setting for any novel. With some consideration to these important elements, your setting will often create itself.

Setting is one of the easier things to create when writing a novel, if for no other reason than half the creating is already done when you get to it. You already have the characters, so you have a framework to build the setting around.

Check out these first three of ten tips for creating an inspiring setting:

1. Get To Know Your Setting – Whether your story is set in a university, London, or a posh restaurant, an interesting setting is critical to good storytelling. And there’s no better way to make it compelling than to know it inside and out. Spend some time checking out your setting, including the nooks and crannies and the history. To learn more about your setting ask it questions like: “How old are you?” “What kind of people come here?” “What are your biggest secrets?” If you want to use a location in your novel that you have never visited, there are ways of collecting enough research to make it plausible. These include the internet, tour guides, like the Lonely Planet or Rough Guide, brochures, travel clubs and interviewing people who have visited the locations you want to use. This may sound like cheating, but it is actually how many would-be authors find out about the destinations they use in their novels and there is nothing wrong with this practice as long as the information is accurate.

2. Let Your Characters Explore The Setting – If you’re concerned that your book’s characters will get bored of hanging out in just one setting, give them a secondary location. It’s up to you to decide what places your characters hang out in and deserve the most attention. If you’re unable to visit a secondary setting, research the location online, or at the local library. If the setting is fictional, dream up the look and feel of it in your mind; bring it to life in the same way as you do with your characters. This is where good research comes into the equation! You must establish the time period, the location, the customs, hardware, construction, instruments, and so on. After you have thoroughly investigated your setting(s), you can then decide how your characters fit into this setting? Most readers need enough details about the setting to know where the characters are, in what time period the story takes place and what the place looks like. If it takes place in a hairdressers, that’s important for a reader to know. But unless the hairdressers has some unusual decorations, or it is in an unusual location, it’s not necessary for the author to describe it. After all, hairdressers all look basically the same.

3. Use The Five Senses – There are more ways to get across a book’s setting than by describing what everything looks like. Your reader has five senses, so it’s important to engage them all.

4. Make Logical Decisions

Does your setting make sense? Readers won’t buy into a book where the characters are in a world that is dangerous to humans, but where they are able to move around freely without protective suits.

5. Be Creative

Let your imagination run riot and explore the surroundings in your story as you write. Make them as vivid and as real as you can.

6. Keep Your Ears And Eyes Open

Observe the world around you. Some of the best ideas you’ll get for setting could be across the street, or something that you discover on your way to work.

7. Include Details But Not TOO Many

The writer’s job is to flesh out details, but to a point. Give readers just enough information so that they’re able to fill in some details on their own.

8. Use the 4 W’s

Use the four W questions: Who, What, Where, When?

9. Think About Context

Context also has an impact on setting. A beautiful sunny day by itself will seem unordinary, but after leaving a haunted castle, a beautiful day will be like paradise and a character will lap it up! To give a setting a big impact, precede or follow it with a contrasting setting.

10. Consider Your Characters

To create the perfect setting ask yourself about your characters. Are they Southern folk, or Northerners? Do they live in a small flat, or a multimillion dollar mansion? These questions effect setting and you need to pay them some attention.

If you change locations and settings you must update the reader about the new location without it feeling forced. Do it through actions when possible, rather than through overly descriptive prose. Try to bring in the setting details through what the character is doing.

Too much description of setting can kill the reader’s interest. The key is to sprinkle descriptions throughout your story from the characters point of view.

Active & Passive Settings

Will your setting play an active or a passive role in your novel? An example of an active setting would be a novel set during a political upheaval, a war-zone, a natural disaster – whereby in each case, the setting will drive the plot in a massive way. You could not write a political novel without involving the setting to a large degree. The setting and the plot are entwined. 

A passive setting does not interrupt the plot. It merely compliments or enhances it. Choosing to write a novel in a city, next to the ocean, or in a rural retreat all serve to showcase the story, but they don’t drive it.

In the case of sci fi and fantasy, setting is of even more importance. You can be as imaginative as you wish and it’s often this depth of imagination which inspires the reader. With historical fiction, the emphasis is on accuracy of detail.

Big Picture Or Detail

A useful way of thinking about your setting is to think big picture and then detail. 

Big picture setting is the broad brush-strokes. It’s the first question to ask.

Another way of looking at the big picture would be to ask yourself – where is this book set and why? 

For example, you choose to write your book in New York because your character has recently moved there because she’s got a new job. Or you choose a place in the middle of nowhere because your character has just been widowed and wants to left alone to grieve. Or you choose a beach resort because your story starts with a couple on honeymoon.

The detail comes in with the smaller brush strokes. Let’s go with the New York example. Does she live in Manhattan or the Bronx? Does she live in an apartment on the third floor or the thirty-third floor? Is the apartment small or large? Is it clean or dirty? Does she share or live alone? What colour is the paint on the wall? Does she have a double bed or a single?  You can get to such a level of specificity here.

Landscapes And Weather

Another important feature of any location is the landscape. How many books have you read which feature a beautiful, break-taking sunset?  Or they feature mountains, deserts, oceans. We have all visited places no doubt where there are stunning landscapes and panoramic views and it is our role as the author to represent these pictures in words.

Weather is important too; try reading a novel and picking out how many times the weather is mentioned, particularly storms! Weather is atmospheric in its own right and as an author you can use the weather to help tell the story and also set the tone for a chapter or set-piece. Choose the season to set your book because it will influence the action.

Cultures And Traditions

Many authors who write about places they have visited, or indeed researched, find that it is a good idea to briefly touch upon the cultures and traditions. This has the effect of adding authenticity and a dash of foreign flavour. You don’t have to go into tonnes of detail. Just enough to embellish both description and narrative.

Landmarks

Landmarks are also something that can be used to good effect whilst writing. Take, for example, The White House in Washington, or Big Ben in London; using either of these landmarks is perfectly acceptable and is not infringing any laws as these are landmarks and in the public domain. Also these are landmarks that many people are familiar with so setting a scene against the backdrop of a well-known landmark allows the reader to draw their own mental picture, while enabling the author to use less description and concentrate on the plot and its characters.

Finally a note on how to go about mixing your locations: when plotting your novel it is an idea to note down the segments of your story and where they might be located. Allocate a location to each event in your story, or concentrate on one location throughout. Either way it can be fun to help the story along using places and landmarks as literary scenery.

To Conclude

The setting and location of your novel are just as important as the characters. Research the general setting, as well as sub-settings along the way.

-- From the Word Queen (and Court)

 

 

by Rob Parnell

 

When it comes to writing fiction, there are numerous advantages to creating a make-believe setting - whether it be a house, a street, a town or even a whole country. Not only do you not need to worry about the little things like train and bus schedules, what time the sun sets, what kinds of flowers bloom where etc., you've also got free rein on all the buildings, the streets, the municipal systems, even the type of government.

 

Good writers spend lots of time checking police procedures, technology and how real places look, feel and operate. When you make everything up - you save on all that research.

 

Okay, you still need to use you mind to imagine everything but no-one can ever turn round to you and say you got something wrong - because it just can't be wrong! Unless you're writing fantasy or science fiction, you don't need to go so far as to invent everything. Many writers choose to invent just the town (and the people in it) and leave the country and state and its political system intact. This is good way to create veracity without being a slave to the truth. One major disadvantage is that readers have gotten used to modern fiction being set in real places - they expect it.

 

Therefore, if you present a fictional town, some readers will baulk and cry: well, if that's not real, how can I begin to believe anything else this author tells me! Some readers may feel cheated that you, as the author, are playing God and consequently can shape the 'rules' in your world. This may hinder their willing suspension of disbelief. Plus, there's the need to identify. People like things to hold on to - things that feel real. Sometimes one of the advantages of setting your story in New York, Paris or London can be the reader is filling in the details for you.

 

Place a reader in a nebulous, unfamiliar environment and they'll feel lost unless you describe the place fully - which may in turn hinder your ability to pace the action. Stephen King's Castle Rock is a very familiar place - he uses it in many of his novels. What many people don't realize is that this place is completely imaginary. Sure, it's based on several places in Maine but it's designed to be a credible backdrop - rather than a real place. Kathy Reichs uses real Canadian cities as the backdrops to her novels - describing them with a freshness that makes them very real - especially to readers who may never have experienced them first hand. JK Rowling uses a combination of real English places like London and Oxford and imaginary locations like Hogwarts to root her reality in real life but also give her the latitude to take her readers on a magical adventure.

 

There's no right or wrong way to do these things. Only one rule is important. Whether your location is real or imaginary, it must be believable. So - if you're tempted to invent a city, where do you start? Make a map. Start small - with just one street and move outward from there. Most of my stories (three novels and about a dozen short stories) are set in a fictional town - loosely based on the place I grew up in - called West Ridge. I have a map - it's just a sheet of A4 I have taped near my desk.

 

Sometimes I will add to it if I decide I want one of my characters to take a walk round a park or drive over a bridge, or whatever. The best part is that it's organic - it grows larger and more complex with every story. It has bars, clubs, shops, roads, hills, rivers, housing estates, statues, parks, fountains and - best of all, it's as real to me as the keys on this laptop! Invent your own city if you like.

 

It can be a lot of fun. Best regards and keep writing!