Setting is an essential element in any story. It provides context and a space for your characters. When wielded properly, it can do more than simply list what your characters can see. It can support every other aspect of your writing.
The last blog covered the basics of setting. Now it’s time to explore ways to use setting to its best advantage.
Setting Should:
Anchor Your Reader in Time and Place
Setting is how your reader navigates the world you have created. Your description helps them picture the world in their mind and provides context for your character. Setting not only shows where your character is, but when too. Be specific so your reader isn’t confused as to where or when she is.
The sky takes on a late afternoon quality that warns it’s time to go. I check the time and see to my horror that my internal clock has not kept pace with my watch.
The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne
This passage not only tells your reader what time it is, but reveals something about the character.
Offer a Visual Snapshot to Your Reader
Setting should be that iconic image in your reader’s mind of where your character is. It’s Middle Earth. Hogwarts. Dickensian London. Your setting descriptions should be the verbal equivalent of an Instagram version of your vacation. Vivid. Meaningful. Deep. Clear. They also have to suit your location. You wouldn’t describe a house in New Orleans the same way you would one in New England. The atmosphere, weather, aesthetic and tone are different. Just look at these two examples of houses found in The Witching Hour by Anne Rice and Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. Both homes are inhabited by witches and have some shared features, but the descriptions are distinct and tied to their location.
But the decay here troubled him nevertheless. Spiders wove their tiny intricate webs over the iron lace roses. In places the iron had so rusted that it fell away to powder at the touch. And here and there near the railings, the wood of the porches was rotted right through.
…
Once he had wandered into the library and taken a book down from the shelf. Tiny black beetles scurried out of the crevice. Alarmed he had put the book back.
If there had been air-conditioning in the place it might have been different. But the old house was too big for that–or so they had said back then. The ceilings soared fourteen feet overhead. And the sluggish breeze carried with it the scent of mold.
The Witching Hour, Anne Rice
As opposed to:
Inside the house there were no clocks and no mirrors and three locks on each and every door. Mice lived under the floorboards and in the walls and often could be found in the dresser drawers, where they ate the embroidered tablecloths, as well as the lacy edges of the linen placemats. Fifteen different sorts of wood had been used for the window seats and the mantels, including golden oak, silver ash, and a peculiarly fragrant cherrywood that gave off the scent of ripe fruit even in the dead of winter, when every tree outside was nothing more than a leafless black stick. No matter how dusty the rest of the house might be, none of the woodwork ever needed polishing. If you squinted, you could see your reflection right there in the wainscoting in the dining room or the banister you held on to as you ran up the stairs. It was dark in every room, even at noon, and cool all through the heat of July. Anyone who dared to stand on the porch, where the ivy grew wild, could try for hours to look through the windows and never see a thing. It was the same looking out; the green-tinted window glass was so old and so thick that everything on the other side seemed like a dream, including the sky and the trees.
Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman
Underscore Theme
The way you describe your setting in the beginning and at location changes can support your theme. If your story is based on revenge, then choose words that reflect that. Describe the world as weak, guilt-ridden, heavy or the opposite to create contrast to your theme. Setting can work to your advantage. The example below is from a book about a serial killer. Look at how the author has described his prey like one would describe an antelope being stalked by a lion. This reinforces character, plot and theme of ruthless obsession and ambition. And death.
I had been walking for an hour or more in the vicinity with one purpose: to find someone to kill. Then I saw him, outside the entrance to the Bank, amongst a huddle of pedestrians waiting for the crossing-sweeper to do his work. Somehow he seemed to stand out from the crowd of identically dressed clerks and City men streaming forth from the premises. He stood regarding the milling scene around him, as if turning something over in his mind. I thought for a moment that he was about to retrace his steps; instead, he pulled on his gloves, moved away from the crossing point, and set off briskly.
The Meaning of Night, Michael Cox
Convey Emotion
The way your character sees a place informs your reader to how she feels. If she is in an unhappy place, she will describe it differently than she would if she were happy. Emotion comes through the details and the words you choose to describe the setting and details.
Deepen Character
Every description from a character’s point of view should reveal their inner beliefs and emotion. Setting should be more than a travelogue of details. This isn’t HGTV. You are not trying to sell the property. You are creating a world for your character. It should reflect him, his obstacles, his triumphs and his core.
In the winter, there were ice storms. In the summer, there were grass fires. At all times, people she knew went bankrupt, lost their homes, their ranches, their jobs. Or, they died just when you least expected them to. A person could, for instance, belong to a nice family living an ordinary life in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and on some innocent Saturday night, violent men could drop in like those tornadoes and turn those nice people into the dead stars of a Truman Capote book. Such things happened. That wasn’t paranoia. It was a terrible fact that Jody knew better than anybody–or at least better than anybody whose father had not been murdered when she was three years old and whose mother had not disappeared the same night.
The Scent of Rain and Lightning, Nancy Pickard
Heighten Conflict & Tension
When the setting is opposite of everything else—character, theme, plot, emotion—then it can heighten the tension and conflict in the story. It is far more jarring to read about an abusive parent against a perfect background than it is one with obvious struggles attached. There is a deeper sense of evil that something abhorrent could happen in a place of beauty, though it happens there as often as anywhere else. But juxtaposition of setting with story will affect your reader in a bigger way. It’s why twists work. No one expects it to happen. Use setting to heighten the tension in your story.
Create Subtext
Subtext is the message that is implied, not stated. Your reader picks it up from the writing. It is not overt, but it is present in the details. Setting is the best way to convey subtext. The way you describe the world and all within it will alert your reader they need to pay attention and look beneath the face of the story to the hidden meaning beneath it all.
Foreshadow
Some setting can offer a glimpse into what is to come—a dark wood, a creepy alley, a dim hallway. Choosing your setting to foreshadow what your character is facing is a great way to keep them turning pages.
Conclusion
Make sure you are clear on your intention when adding setting to your work. What do you hope to show or convey beyond the words? How does the setting affect your character? Will it repel them or make them feel safe? Does it hold memories or hopes for the future? Is it filled with fear or laughter? Is your character headed for triumph or failure? Heartache or happily ever after? Setting needs to answer questions integral to the story and character. Be sure to analyze why setting is important in each scene and add it only when it enhances character or story.
Setting is important, but objects matter too. In the next blog, we’ll cover objects and how to handle them for maximum effect.