Often a story’s need dictates setting, but think of your setting as a
character as much as any of the beings that populate the story. Setting
can be more than just choosing a place and time. Setting creates
atmosphere and the writer can use it obviously or in contrast, or even
to tell the reader something about the characters within the story
world.
Consider a spooky old house.
Straightaway, this conjures up images of darkness, bats flapping around
the attic, spiders hanging from their webs and something menacing hiding
out of sight around the corner. A house may bring to mind specific
films or characters from the movies. In Psycho, the physical setting in
which Norman Bates lives represents looming danger and his twisted mind,
although the film sets out to mislead us. His home speaks of isolation,
abuse. We feel sympathy for Bates, believing him to be a victim (which
he is as much as those he kills). However, placing unusual happenings
against a more mundane backdrop can have an equal or greater impact.
Or
use a haunted house setting to tell a completely different story. Write
a comedy, and deliberately use the unlikely setting as part of the
joke. Whatever the story concerns, remember the atmosphere. There’s no
need to be overly descriptive to build a story world, either, although
sometimes writing the perfect, concise description takes longer than a
meandering passage, but it’s worth practicing.
Often,
the reader only needs to know the exact colour of a room or the pattern
on the wallpaper if it has a direct bearing on the story or a
character. That said, the way a character sees his or her room after
returning from an absence of many years can give the reader a clear idea
of the type of childhood this person has had. If the room is unchanged,
kept as a shrine, this could tell the reader much about the character’s
parents, or it could turn the story upside down and provide another
unexpected and surprising reason for the room remaining untouched.
Either way, the room itself becomes a tool to give us insight and
therefore provide atmosphere. The room becomes as much a part of the
story as the people the writer places in that world.
So,
although it’s unnecessary to do this meticulously for every scene, when
building the world around characters, consider settings carefully.
Don’t simply erect a house with four featureless walls. The type of home
the character lives in says much about him or her as much as the more
obvious details do. Conversely, a character might live in rented
accommodation where the roof constantly leaks and the walls are so thin
arguments next door may as well be going on in the same room. If the
character has a personal reason to be miserable, the accommodation can
reflect their emotional state, cause it, or be the reason they’re forced
to interact with others.
In one
book of mine, I specifically choose to place several scenes in a garage
where my MC (main character) works. At first glance, it’s easy to think
my character simply needed a job, but the career I chose has always had a
masculine persona, and this reflected his personality. The first
evidence of his feelings comes to light in the garage, when the other
men are trying to joke around. My other character’s sister confronts him
in the garage more than once, and ultimately, something nasty happens
there to make him face his feelings. There’s plenty of other action that
takes place elsewhere in the book, but I deliberately set several
pivotal moments in this setting because this is ‘his space’. It’s where
he feels most comfortable, doing the thing he loves (taking care of
cars), and where he feels most secure. In the garage, he’s a bloke’s
bloke, and in charge. Suddenly, he’s insecure in the one place where he
should feel safe. The sister’s wrath is an attack and his emotional
state can find no solace in the one place where he’s always felt
confident. He’s lost his sanctuary. His self-assurance takes another
blow. He’s unanchored, insecure, and unable to find a moment’s peace
from his emotions, even when working.
As
with all writing, choose words carefully and deliberately, but this is
especially true with setting. Light that glints ‘wickedly from the sharp
edge of a blade’ leaves a distinct impression as opposed to a ‘soft
amber glow of the sunset, made the knife gleam’ even though the second
option may be as deadly — For example, this option also makes me think
of two people preparing dinner about to have an explosive argument where
the sharpest weapon will be words.
Don’t
overdo adjectives and don’t forget to include more than one sense.
People don’t just see; they touch, taste, smell, and hear, too.
Apparently, smell can be one of the strongest things to invoke memory,
so use it well. Likewise, music can create memory-recall more vividly
than a photograph. Note: when using things like music, don’t simply use a
favourite song. The story isn’t about you (the writer) — unless it
actually is — it’s about the character and in this a writer has to
consider age, context, history. If it’s a song she remembers from a time
when she knew someone she’s never stopped loving, what age would she
have been, and how long ago was it? What year? What played that year, in
that month? Why did it resonate with her then and why now? Choose
something historically accurate. Do the homework.
Such
things also spark tension. If calling on a fastidious neighbour, and
the putrid smell coming from the bin rankles your MC’s nose, the reader
will surmise right away that something is wrong. An outside bin not
pushed to the curb for collection can do this as effectively as an
indoor bin a neighbour accesses with the use of a spare key when
dropping off a regular shop, an errand run out of neighbourly goodness.
In both cases, if this naturally clean neighbour hasn’t emptied the bin,
then there must be a reason. Is the neighbour ill? Dead? Murdered? Does
the rank smell coming from the bin herald the conditions in which
they will find this person?
You can
also use setting to place your story in time, but if writing a period
piece, especially do your homework. Readers will know a writer has just
made it up and guessed. It’s one thing to make a mistake, but quite
another not to try at all.
And don’t
be lazy. Don’t simply tell a reader that it was a
rainy/sunny/cold/windy day. Describe the day and use it to bring
something your character is doing, or feels, vividly to life. Is the
weather that day in tune with your MC’s feelings, or irritating in
contrast? Use setting to establish the scene or even to misdirect.