This is the final installment in my three-part series on Setting. It’s time to share some great examples of setting in novels for inspiration.
Some authors excel at setting. You read them and can feel the wind on your face or get goose bumps from fear. These masters know how to use setting to increase tension, mood, characterization, anchoring and texture.
Setting is an essential part of any fictional work. It anchors your character in time and place, and allows your reader to see, hear, smell and touch the world you have created. This is not an easy task. It takes careful consideration and a deft touch.
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.