This is the first blog of a series on setting—an essential part of any novel.
Characters cannot live outside of time or place. Story demands setting to anchor characters in the world around them. You do this by using specific details. Anchoring requires specific details to firmly establish the what, where and when. But setting goes beyond that basic information. It also helps ground story in mood, texture and sense. It lets a writer reveal how a character feels about place, time and items around them. It also contributes to tension and pacing.
Setting is not passive. It must be an active part of a writer’s skill set.
As someone who has written a lot for the video and film industry, I struggled with setting. Somehow EXT. DAY didn’t quite cut it in novel form. Nor did the bare bones descriptions screenplays contain. Sure I knew how to visualize the scene and camera angle, but I wasn’t sure how to translate that into usable setting in a novel. It sounded clumsy and awkward in my first attempts. I felt like I had grown so rusty, I would never regain what I had learned from my studies. Instead I wrote like a scriptwriter.
Here’s an example from a recent script:
INT. NIGHT—JOE’S BEDROOM
Light pools in the corners. Only the bed is illuminated by light where Joe is sitting holding a book but not reading it.
1st draft example for a novel setting:
Joe sat on his bed pretending to read in a pool of light that foreshadowed what little he knew.
This example gives the facts from the screenplay format, but it lacks…well, everything. It tells rather than shows and does so badly.
Let’s try again:
2nd draft example:
Joe sat on his bed holding a book he wasn’t going to read.
This is better. It gives you more elements that show you the setting, but not what is happening. Instead of being a good example of setting, It is closer to what you might find in a Sear’s Roebuck catalog for what you could expect from a new dishwasher. The problem is you wouldn’t care about a catalog description, unless your hands are cracked and bleeding from washing too many dishes and you long for a dishwasher to end the torture; but then the meaning comes from your backstory that you brought to the description and not from the description itself or the setting provided. The scene needs more than that.
The point of setting and description is to show emotion. It should reveal how your character feels about a place or a person. You can use it to create conflict or emphasize a theme. Done well, setting can draw the reader in and let her see your world and know your character better.
Here’s the final version of poor Joe:
Third draft:
The wall held more appeal than the chemistry textbook in Joe’s hand, and made more sense. The light was falling away with the night, taking with it any hope of him passing the test. He might as well sleep on his bed than continue this charade of studying.
This setting takes you deeper into Joe’s character. You find out about his situation and how he feels about sitting on his bed in the dark. You also learn that he is not going to pass his chemistry test no matter how long he sits on his bed holding his book.
Setting showed the truth of Joe’s situation and the time of day he finally realized he was never going to understand chemistry, at least not in time to pass his test.
Setting can be passive or active. It can grab your reader and guide them deeper into your scene or stall the pace. It can increase tension, reveal backstory and so much more.
If you struggle with setting, I highly recommend reading A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting: How to Enhance Your Fiction with More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings by Mary Buckham. It does a great job of showing how to use setting as an asset. I know it helped me transition from screenplay format to fiction. Her examples are clearly laid out and show how to write deeper.
In my next blog, I will share the top 15 tips for improving how you use setting in your fiction.