Writing SETTING - What Do You Think?
- Gail Stelter
- Mar 15
- 6 min read
Author Haley Newling said, “One of the biggest mistakes writers make in developing their story is neglecting the importance of setting.”
Author Stephen King said, “It’s also important to remember it’s not about the setting, anyway – it’s about the story, and it’s always about the story.”
What Do You Think?
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Hello Gates Open Friends:)
Welcome to writers and everyone interested in improving, growing and feeling good about writing your story settings.
I don’t feel I do enough with settings, and I want my settings to grow so that they become or at least enhance, my characters and plot.
I used to like to read stories and novels that were action-oriented and full of dialogue. I tended to overlook the setting. I still like action and dialogue, but I now have a whole new appreciation for the power of setting in novels and in my own writing. I want to know everything I can about using setting in my short stories and my cozy novel. I turned as I always do, to the experts. I was pleased to find an article on the internet called -
The Power of Place: A Round-up of Advice from Annie Proulx to Stephen King. Here is the link
As you read through the advice from these authors, what speaks to you about your writing?
After you read and consider this advice, you can see where I have reprinted the points/ comments that give me pause and have the potential to affect growth in my own writing.
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“It’s place that interests me—and the social and economic situation in a place—how people live, how they make their living, the culture—but the story comes from place.”
“Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else… Fiction depends for its life on place. In other words, if you could set your story anywhere else, you haven’t given your story a strong enough sense of place.”
“Places are never just places in a piece of writing. If they are, the author has failed. Setting is not inert. It is activated by point of view.”
“If you use the sense of sight exclusively to describe things—which is what many authors do—you will have a one-dimensional, flat atmosphere. But if you put three or four senses into a setting by taking the sense of sight for granted and using others, such as smell and touch, you will, by adding those elements, have a multidimensional setting. It sounds so obvious, but I see it all the time in published books—authors using only the sense of sight in their settings.”
“I always strive to create a setting that leaves the readers’ imagination room to roam. That way, every reader sees the story through their own eyes.”
“When ideas evaporate, when shapes fade and forms lose their integrity, our imagination can create an outlandish setting and convert everything into a hazy, misty Turner landscape.”
“In the detective story, as in its mirror image, the Quest for the Grail, maps (the ritual of space) and timetables (the ritual of time) are desirable. Nature should reflect its human inhabitants, i.e., it should be the Great Good Place; for the more Eden-like it is, the greater the contradiction of murder. The country is preferable to the town, a well-to-do neighbourhood (but not too well-to-do, or there will be a suspicion of ill-gotten gains), better than a slum. The corpse must shock not only because it is a corpse but also because, even for a corpse, it is shockingly out of place, as when a dog makes a mess on a drawing room carpet.”
“As a writer, I’m driven by settings. Others are driven by characters or predicaments, but with me, settings come first.”
“I think of setting as almost a character of its own, influencing the other characters in ways they’re not even aware of. So much of the success of a good ghost story rides on creating a creepy atmosphere; details of the landscape itself can help create a sense of dread.”
“One of the biggest mistakes writers make in developing their story is neglecting the importance of setting. Character, plot, and dialogue are all essential to story progression; however, so is setting. It serves a purpose far beyond a backdrop for the action. Setting can frame mood, meaning, and thematic connotations.”
“Rule Number One: Write about settings you’re familiar with.”
“When I worked with kids who had never been downtown [Chicago], they weren’t terribly impressed by the big buildings or Christmas lights when we took them there. The details they saw through children’s eyes were drunks passed out on rooftops or wildlife running along the elevated train tracks. I learned from them that what makes a scene come alive is close-up detail, and that’s found its way into my books.”
“If I wanted to invent a universe, I’d be Frank Herbert writing Dune. But I’m too lazy to invent a universe, so I set my books in familiar places. When my characters are travelling a highway, when they’re facing a summer monsoon, or anything else, I have those familiar settings in my mind, which allows me to focus on what the characters are doing or thinking.”
“It’s also important to remember it’s not about the setting, anyway – it’s about the story, and it’s always about the story.”
Here is the advice that speaks to me:
If you use the sense of sight exclusively to describe things—which is what many authors do—you will have a one-dimensional, flat atmosphere. But if you put three or four senses into a setting by taking the sense of sight for granted and using others, such as smell and touch, you will, by adding those elements, have a multidimensional setting. ― David Morrell
I love this. It speaks to me, and I cannot help but wonder if I have done justice to the settings in my collection of short stories by limiting them to the sense of sight and perhaps one other sense. I can do better. I will do better.
I have set my cozy mystery in a small rural lakeside town in Ontario’s cottage country. After thinking about this advice, I wonder what I have included that separates my town from any and every other lakeside rural town.
Character, plot, and dialogue are all essential to story progression; however, so is setting. It serves a purpose far beyond a backdrop for the action. Setting can frame mood, meaning, and thematic connotations.” ― Haley Newlin
Well, well, did I do this? Did I use a setting to frame the mood? I am sure I can do this, but I don’t think I did….going back to review the first several chapters of my cozy novel to explore this.
I learned from them that what makes a scene come alive is close-up detail, and that’s found its way into my books.”― Sara Paretsky
- close up detail in your setting… nice;
I set my books in familiar places. ..I have those familiar settings in my mind, which allows me to focus on what the characters are doing or thinking.”― J. A. Jance
I added this one because it is something I always do, and it’s nice to find something on an advice list that I am already doing. lol
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Leaving the article, I want to explore one more important idea before I leave this exploration of the setting:
Show, don’t tell your setting. Show your setting through the actions of your characters and through your plot. In one of my stories, I describe the setting of the ferry boat ride across the Ottawa River with the main character mentioning her “breeze-blown long brown hair”. This is a show. If I said “It was a windy day for the crossing,” I would be telling. I try to use this approach more consistently and appropriately in creating settings.
An assignment for one of my writing courses was to explain why “One dark and stormy night” is a terrible example of a first line for a story and also of setting. It is a “tell”. You can look this up on the internet for a better explanation.
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Next Time:
- I will tell you all about my book launch and then move on to an exploration of Character.
Happy Writing!
And, oh yes, it is snowing in Haliburton, but I do trust that spring will come … soon!
Gail
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