Writers Thinking About Settings

If you don’t think much about it and just sort of throw settings in as you need there, just for color and background, then maybe you need to pause and think about that again…..

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Okay, done thinking? Hope you’ve come to some good conclusions, namely just how important settings can be to novel or script. In fact, setting can become so central to a story that it’s almost another character. Think about it – Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Martian series – he created his own Mars.  Settings and characters to go with it. There were precise and detailed settings full of color and life on  their own. And when the movie was made all that detail became real on the screen. And, the director didn’t need to have pages and pages of written instruction to get there. 

He also didn’t need a lot of those pages when he has at his fingertips the ability to project lots and lots of images for the ‘reader/watcher’ to absorb.

Novelists are at a disadvantage when compared with their counterparts of movie world. It’s true, novelists must create the setting with words, passion and emotion that scatter across the written page. Screenwriters however, have a different disadvantage in that they must learn to put the same across on the page in very short passages.

However it’s done, by whoever is writing, setting dictates the need for detailed and precise descriptions of locals. And that means the writer must have a good grip on possibly a police station, a morgue or a rough city street for mysteries.  If it’s a thriller being written it might call for a more confining setting like an airplane, a small down, a haunted house or an island.  

A setting immediately takes the reader where the writer needs him to be. Without that immediately grounding in surroundings the reader loses his center and that’s definitely a negative for the writer.

So think about your settings and make it easier on yourself by realizing there are types of setting. Some are definitive in that the action MUST be set in a certain local. By that I mean if your book or script has a historical setting and something well-known that happens there then THERE can only be one specific setting.  The Gunfight at the OK Corral can’t be set in modern day New York City. So the writer is going to have to bone up on Tombstone Arizona in the 1800’s and get the details right.

On the other hand some scenes don’t necessarily need a specific setting. A guy asking a girl to marry him can be pretty much anywhere the writer wants to put it if it’s current history; whatever fits the story, or takes it in a new direction.

So what I’m saying is sometimes a scene is deeply rooted in the story and MUST contain a number of pre-determined elements. Other times, when you create a scene and that scene is not inherent many opportunities open up. There are possibilities to add an unexpected setting. You could use that to add tension and perhaps allow angles to emerge that help you create story additions you hadn’t thought of.

Play with your settings, even ones that may seem relatively minor. You might be able to add a whole new angle to your story.

For Writers The Devil Is In The Details

Details, details, details.  As writers we need them, and are told time and again not to overdo them.  Both admonitions are correct.

But, we can be come such masters of our own written work, such orchestrators of our stories that things happen.  Oh, don't get me wrong, many times it's very good things, but there can be others as well, things that simply aren't expected.

As an example, have you written a story where the descriptions of your characters are non-existent or the setting one that simply disappears?  I have. When I was just beginning I wrote a story.  My then helpful Godmother/acting editor pointed out she loved the story.  Had to read it a couple of times in fact to figure out what was wrong.  Turns out she had no idea what my characters looked like.  I'd totally written the story but left out little details like short, tall, fat, skinny, long hair, short, you know, the things that let us identify with characters. 

That same thing can happen with setting. You're telling a story.  The setting is crystal clear in your mind. You, as the writer, see everything perfectly, so perfectly in fact that you forget your reader and kind of presume since you know - they know.

Well, they don't. Give your reader information as you go along. It doesn't have to be, nor should it be a long, drawn out description of where they are, but if you put your characters inside a building, in an office, let your readers know if it's an opulent office or a humble cubicle.  Is there a window or are they across the room beyond the their cubicles?  Is it comfortable or cramped, cluttered or tidy, light or dark, private or in the open with others around to hear conversations. All those details, scattered through your scene gives your readers visual clues to the setting so they don't visualize your story in a hazy, undefined white space like your unattended computer screen with a new document as yet untracked by words and punctuation. It also provides the readers of your novel or short story with opportunity to get to know your character better.

Here's another thing. If we, your readers, can't see the space the characters are moving in, it turns your characters into talking heads and that is deadly when you're writing a story and want to move it forward.

So take the time to read through your writing to see what you've provided your reader in the way of setting. Don't let yours be one of the stories with a vanishing setting - one you begin, but just trail off into nothingness. Take advantage of the opportunity to flesh out the setting to write your story to life and enjoy the opportunity to sidle up to your character and really learn what makes them tick. Read some passages from your favorite books, just pick a few at random and read. Not the different ways different writers create the texture of the background and enhance without turning it into a lengthy exposition.

Example?

Here goes -
without description

John stormed into Larry's office and slammed the door.
    "What the hell did you do?" John demanded.
    "Huh, what?"
    "You know what I'm talking about."
    "I do?"
    "The Belmont case, you threw the damn case like a bad wrestler throws a bout."

Okay, a little excitement there, just because of the confrontation.  No details, nothing to let your readers bond with your characters.

So, how about:

John flung the door open to Larry's office, stormed in and slammed it behind him rattling the glass in the door. The heels of his shoes clicked imperiously on tile flooring. "What the hell did you do?" John demanded.

Hunched over his desk Larry peered up at his friend through designer glasses and squinted eyes focusing past the bankers lamp that pooled light on his work. A malfunctioning printer clicked, whirred and stuttered on a misfed sheet behind him. "Huh?  What?"

John strode past the age-patined maple desk to the window that looked out from the 40th floor and stared out of it, not looking at Larry.  "You know what I'm talking about."

"I do?" Larry ticked the pen he held on the desk blotter.

John's shoulders slumped.  He turned and dropped into the leather chair across from Larry.  "The Belmont case, you threw the damn case like a bad wrestler throws a bout."

Okay?  So it isn't the best, but it's a hint.  Not only do you see more of the surroundings, but it brings out a bit more of the character of John and Larry. Be aware of it, play with it. Have fun.