The Importance of Setting the Scene in Your Writing, Part 1

-
Setting, the place or places where your story occurs, is as important as character development.  My writing group hones in on this quickly when someone fails to show us the setting. This happens more than you realize because writers often start a scene with two people interacting but fail to establish where they are.

What is Setting?

Setting describes the room or place where the story occurs.  One question it must answer is whether the characters are indoors or outdoors.

If the character is outdoors, some of the basic things the reader needs to know quickly are:

  • Day or night
  • Climate
  • Landscape

If the characters are indoors, the reader wants to know where they are. They could be in:

  • A house - which room?
  • A store - what kind?
  • A church - what faith?
  • An office or manufacturing floor?
  • Etc.

Within the first few sentences of your scene we should get a feel for where we are. Depending on the location, we might need to know a bit more.  For example:

  • Is there any furniture?  What kind? Fancy? Old? Beat up?
  • What colors dominate the room?
  • Is it comfy or sterile?

Why is this important?

Readers picture your character somewhere when the scene begins. If you don't provide a few clues, they will unconsciously visualize a place. Then, when your character sits down in a chair, they might be confused because there were no chairs in the room they imagined or they assumed your character was already seated. You don't want your reader to stop reading and say, "Wait. Where are we?"

Setting prevents them being pulled out of the story.

Next week, I'll share a few examples of setting the scene and how to achieve it without being obvious.

Meanwhile, I would love the hear what you're reading and how the author sets the scene.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Skin Tone: Describing Your Characters

-
Image
When you write about character's of different races, how do you describe their skin tone? If you've never thought about this, then consider this question: How do the authors you read described persons of color? A few months ago, I attended a webinar about writing diverse characters. The guest was Eliana West of Writers for Diversity . The information she shared felt fresh and valuable, especially related to describing a character's skin tone. I get really tired of seeing African-descended characters described in terms of the goods that drove, and still drive the slave trade--coffee, chocolate, brown sugar. There's some weird psychosocial baggage attached to that.    -- N. K. Jemisin As this quote from author, N. K . Jemisin , indicates, historically, writers have described people of color using food-related descriptors. Many people of color find this offensive. This surprised me, at first, but she has a point, especially when you view it through the quote above. My fir
Read more

Character Development: Using the Johari Window

-
Image
In my last post, Character Development: the Johari Window , I introduced the Johari Window as a tool for developing your characters. It's important that your character not know everything about their situation. These unknowns can lead to an intriguing story and create possibilities for conflict within the story. How do you use the Johari Window? In this post, I thought I'd provide a simple example of the Johari Window with a character most people know:  Harry Potter. Below, I have filled out the Johari Window as it might appear within the first few pages of book 1, Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone . The Johari Window based on Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone Three of the quadrants in this window reveal what Harry doesn't know about who he truly is and what happened to his parents. I could add a lot to the quadrants representing what he doesn't know, but I hope this gives you an idea on how a Johari Window might be used. What do you d
Read more

Should Christians Watch The Hunger Games?

-
The question stunned me.  I had never looked at The Hunger Games as a threat to our society, so the email asking why I, as a Christian, could promote a movie/book where children kill children caught me off guard.  My friend admitted, she had not read the books or seen the movie, so her opinion was based on plot information found online, but all I could think is that's not really what The Hunger Games is about.  It does not glorify children killing children.  Sure, there is the arena - which is a large wilderness - where twenty-four children are launched into the game of kill or be killed, but that's only looking at this story from the surface. Even so, I realized my friend gave me a rare opportunity. Rather than blast me, she told me her concerns and asked if I could explain why many Christians support and rave about this story.  I thanked her and asked for a few days to gather my thoughts.  I even re-read the first book in the series with her concern foremost in my mind. 
Read more