Good morning beautiful people,
I am so sorry for not being around lately, but I am trying something new and I have been very busy with work. A coworker took a lot of vacation time so I picked up a lot of extra shifts last month and this month, plus I was participating in NaNoWriMo last month as well. No, I didn’t reach the 50K, but I was also very busy with work among other things, I made it close though. I hit 43K, and the draft is nearly complete, so I will call that a win!
Now, for today’s topic. I’ve chosen it because I have seen a few writers struggling with this in their books. Having little or no setting makes a book difficult to read as your characters should be interacting with their environment, items, objects, the weather, others around them maybe not be part of the immediate conversation or actions happening. These all play a significant part in how the story is received and whether or not it FEELS REAL. And as writers, we, of course, want our book to feel real, that is the whole point in trying to accomplish the feat we’re striving for.
Adding a setting is not at all difficult unless you have no ideas on where your story is to be set or happening, it just takes consideration which sometimes is not given. We need to be sure we give consideration as to the setting and whether there is a setting at all. I recently took a small course offering advice on how to fill out a setting and I found it extraordinarily useful. It is a course on Reedsey. And it is worth checking out.
This knowledge can be applied during the beginning of your drafting phase or can be added on as part of your beginning edit phase. In my experience either works well. Now, we want to make sure our characters aren’t floating around in an unending void (unless that pertains specifically to your story and the “void” is described in such a way as for it to be an actual setting where something occurs.
What I like to do to begin easing into incorporating a setting is to think about what my character is currently doing and what they need to be doing next or what they are supposed to be doing (or supposed to do) to advance the story or their own arc. Then I build a setting around that, one that is connected to what they’re doing or what they need to do or accomplish. This is an easy way to incorporate settings without trying too hard.
Another easy way to incorporate setting is to start off small, don’t give us the whole complete setting in the first two sentences or first paragraph as that will disengage the reader and not make your opening lines catch them. Instead, begin simple. Let’s say the setting is in a high school, begin there first with a bell ringing before or after class, that immediately gives the reader the image of being in a school or classroom setting without giving any additional information. And it isn’t difficult to do.
Next, try adding onto and expanding the setting slowly as the scene goes on. For example, if there is some event happening at the school on this day or the days to come, describe the decorations as your character leaves class or begins heading for class. This gives us a more fleshed out picture without even describing much at all and certainly not over-explaining the setting in hard to digest chunks.
If you’re struggling to add a time or date, you could just incorporate what technologies the characters are using, do they have a smartphone? Have them pull up a game they are currently playing. Do they use dial-up internet? Have them wait forever for the web page as they struggle to research for an upcoming assignment. These give a time frame without saying the date outright. As for time, the character could just be arriving at their first class of the day or pondering what their dinner will be or their evening plans in their last class of the day.
These are all simple tricks to help establish some form of setting, so your characters arent’ floating in a non-existent world. Remember, your setting doesn't need to be overly complicated, it just needs to be some place where something happens to your character or where they do or accomplish something.
Thank you so much for being here today!!! And for your patience with me through this very busy time in my life. I promise, more content is coming. I may be creating a new page too or some of my own smaller written works, but we’ll see! Have a great rest of your day and week all! I hope to see you next week with another tip, trick, piece of advice, or a write with me session! Take care of yourselves and have fun with your reading and writing! Love you all. See you soon
Celine Rose Marie