Three Key Points for Bringing a Setting to Life

Much of the novel I’m working on takes place outdoors, so lately I’m thinking a lot about setting. I’ve heard some writers talk about treating setting as another character. But what exactly does that mean?

To me, it means settings need to come to life for the reader. They should evoke feelings and moods. It’s not enough to include a few descriptive details about the location or weather. Every setting needs to be integrated into the story and given careful thought and attention, just the way a character would.

Some questions to think about: Why did you choose that setting? What is special about it? What does your character think about it? How does the setting make them feel?

The time you spend on the setting in your story depends on its importance. Like characters, different settings in the story are going to have different levels of importance for the reader. The hideout where the runaway kids hangout for several chapters has a different level of significance for the story than the coffee shop a teen ducks into for a single scene. (Why doesn’t she go back there again? How did she feel in that setting?)

Three key points to remember about the setting:

Settings are multi-sensory. This is a point that comes up over and over again in talking about descriptions, but it’s worth thinking about specifically in relation to setting. What does your character notice about the setting? Does it have specific smells? Tastes? Since I write middle grade fiction, I try to include one or two evocative descriptions, rather than whole paragraphs.

Settings are dynamic. Some elements of the setting can change over time. Sometimes I find that once I’ve described the setting, I kind of forget about it. But the characters are still there, interacting in it like a real place. Some things are going to change. Does the character feel as comfortable in the setting when it’s dark? How does the weather affect the setting? Are there mosquitoes out there?

Whether the character notices these changes or not, and what they think about the changes can help to create a stronger setting (and character). If setting is like a character, than the complete picture of a major setting will continue to develop as the story progresses.

Characters interact with the setting. This is related to the dynamic nature of the setting. I try not to think of the setting as just a backdrop for the action. Instead, I consider how it can shape the way characters act and think. Characters react to the setting. Setting can also create conflict, when a character comes up against an obstacle (e.g. gets caught in a storm, has be in a place they don’t want to be). Think about places where you feel comfortable or uneasy. What is it about the place and atmosphere that makes you feel that way? How does that change your behaviour?

Do you have any tips to help with creating a believable and authentic setting?

 

Links:

My critique partner, Christina Farley, has a great post about Creating Unique Details in Your Setting, with tips on getting inspiration from your own experiences.

Over at Project Mayhem, Dawn Lairamore draws attention to the weather with  How is the Weather in Your Middle Grade?

The BookShelf Muse has a comprehensive 4-part series on Creating Unforgettable Settings.

Jody Hedlund gives 5 Tips for Writing Better Settings and talks about genre expectations for settings and how the right setting details can help build suspense.

 

How Much Detail Does the Setting Need?

Since I've been thinking a lot about setting lately, I was thrilled to discover this great article on the importance of setting at Cynsations. Here's a quote that lingered with me (also included on my Cool Blog Quotes):

"You chose that setting for a reason, mine it so that readers can feel that sense of place for themselves. For your audience, a rich setting is the difference between watching characters and being there with them."

Deborah Halverson, guest post at Cynsations, June 18, 2010

For me, one of the tricky things about building settings for MG is knowing how much detail to include. We know MG readers don't want to get bogged down in a lot of detail that isn't relevant to the story. When deciding about how much detail to include for a setting here are some things I think about:

1. Is the detail necessary to give the reader a clearer picture of what is happening or where the scene is taking place?

2. Does the detail help to strengthen a feeling or impression about the mood of the story?

3. Sometimes, it's helpful to stop and think about what the reader might already know about the setting. For example, there are things about a school setting or home setting that the reader will take for granted, from their own experience. As writers, we can use that and only include the unusual or interesting to build another layer on what the reader already knows.

How do you make sure you aren't overwhelming the reader with too much setting detail?

Author P.C Wrede has a great post on details vs. clutter.

What is Important About Your Character's Home Setting?

Very early this morning (around 1 a.m.), my family arrived back home after a couple of weeks away. Despite the mess still cluttering the front hall, the heaps of laundry waiting to be cleaned, and the piles of mail to sort, it's a wonderful feeling to be home. It's interesting, too, how everyone in the family makes contact with what is important to them. My younger daughter was barely in the door before she ran to check on her hermit crab; I snuck a peek outside at my garden with a booklight in the dark before I collapsed into bed.

It makes me think about story characters and how details about their home settings can add authenticity to a story. The details work to create the feeling or mood that you want to convey. Familiar and personal objects help project that feeling of comfort that comes when you are in your own place. But you could create a spooky or tense mood by including details that surprise your character or make them feel out of place -- a box that wasn't there before, lights that don't work, a mysterious puddle of water on the floor.

 If your main character was away from home for a while, what would they do first when they got back? What kind of home does your main character have? Do you spend a lot of time thinking about your character's home?

Still Thinking About Setting

One of the things I do when I'm travelling is to keep a journal. I include the events of the day to help me remember later when I see my photos. But I also try to capture smaller things, like the food we ate, those funny little things that happen that you sometimes forget later, and a few details about what each place is like.

I know I will use some of these things later, in the scrapbooks I'm hoping to one day finish (like my novel, they are barely started). But I also think that someday, they will find their way into a novel or story.

This week I'm in Florida, and it's so different from where I live in Canada. The sun seems extra bright, the ocean water is so warm, there are lizards everywhere we go --- so many details that make it unique.  Those details that I find when I travel are the kinds of details that need to go into a story to make it seem real. When I create the world of my story, I like to imagine that I'm walking through it, seeing what my character might see. It wouldn't be a bad idea to take a "mental vacation" to the story world.

What strategies do you have for creating an interesting story world?

Using Settings from Real Life

I`ve been thinking about setting a lot lately. Most of the settings I create in my writing have some basis in places I've seen or visited. When I'm thinking about a setting in my story, I often choose a place I know fairly well, and conjure up those details in my mind. I've used the inside of a friend's house (they've since moved away), my own backyard, the elementary school my kids went to, and the woods outside a summer cottage we had when I was a kid.

I'm not sure anyone would recognize any of these places in my novels. My setting details create an atmosphere, but they are not specific enough for anyone to pin down a particular place. For the middle grade stories I write, my readers don't need to know a specific city or address. What they need is to feel the simple elements of a place -- its smell, the space it has for running around, whether there are butterflies sunning themselves on the porch, how the big tree in the yard is perfect for climbing, etc. |The details need to bring the story world alive for children.

How do you use details to create setting -- could other people identify your settings or not? Do you think readers need to be able to identify a specific place?

Reading Middle Grade: Two Great Examples

Last year, I noticed that my 100 book challenge was weighted more towards YA than MG, even though I write MG. So this year, I'm making more of an effort to read middle grade books. And I love it. (I also think it's helping me strengthen my writing, but that's a topic for another post).  I recently read two books that strike me as really great examples of MG.

Drizzle by Kathleen Van Cleve delighted me from the beginning. What kid wouldn't love to live on a farm with jewels in the garden, talking bugs and a treehouse-like room? Eleven-year-old Polly is friends with a plant and has a mystery to solve about her family farm. This is truly a story for children, not a teenaged story masquerading as one for kids. I'd describe it as magical (and not just because there is magic in the story).

Belly Up by Stuart Gibbs hooked me and I just had to keep reading. Again, it seemed like a kid's dream come true. Who wouldn't want to live at a zoo adventure park? Having a hippo at the centre of a mystery was unique. I also loved the fact that the main character's parents were in the story and actually part of solving the mystery at times, instead of too busy to notice what their son was up to (or dead).

Reading these books made me think about:

1)  how the setting can really become part of the story and help to bring it alive

2) the importance of having a really good story

Of course, good writing is important, but it was really the story that first captured my attention for both of these books. The authors made me curious about what would happen in the story, and what life was like for characters living in these settings.

Revisions: Enhancing the Setting

I'm surprised about how much rearranging happens during the revision process. I thought events were pretty much in the right order, but once I started cutting and condensing, the structure became a lot clearer in my mind. Sections needed to be moved. Some needed total rewrites to make new transitions.

But....I managed to cut about 5,000 words! Even though I got rid of some writing I was proud of, the novel is much tighter and more coherent for having done it.

My next step is to think about details - details that show my characters personalities and details that show the setting. For settings, I've made a scene by scene list of the settings in my novel. This gives me an overall picture of whether there is variety in my settings (because some of the scenes I cut had interesting ones). My plan is to brainstorm sensory details that go with each setting. Then I'll look for places in the novel where I can bring in a few additional details to enhance the setting.

Setting: Using Real Life

Something that helps me to create a strong sense of place in my novels is to use details from places I've been. That way, I can imagine the setting in my head as my characters interact with it -- how the hallway looks, what the restaurant smells like, where the best climbing trees are in the playground.

The downside of doing this is that sometimes, I don't include enough detail. I'm seeing it through my eyes, not a stranger's eyes. I may leave out a key detail because I've seen it so many times before. It almost makes me think I should choose an unfamiliar setting I could visit. Then I'd actually take the time to absorb all the sensory details I need to really bring it alive. Do you use real-life settings in your novels? How do you avoid the problem of being too familiar with them?

If you don't know it, a great resource for getting the right descriptive details is the Setting Thesaurus over at The Bookshelf Muse.