Originally posted over on Serena Synn's blog


Serena Synn

 

Why Choosing Your Setting is Important

 

Setting is where the story’s at. Not just in the literal sense, but in that old Sam Cooke, 1960’s, “this looks fun, let’s stay a while” way. A bland setting is Van Gogh’s starry night painted all in beige. It’s cauliflower mashed potatoes. Maybe it can be overcome by great dialogue, interesting characters, a fun premise, but a truly memorable setting can elevate a story faster than any other element. After all, what are characters without a world to live in? What’s a conflict without stakes that matter? Isn’t that tender, romantic conversation made more special because you’re transported into that mountain cabin where the fireplace is crackling and the wood smoke fills the air?

Even the most minimalist story builds a setting to transport the reader right into what’s happening. Take Hemmingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” as an example. While most of the story is reserved for dialogue, the whole opening is dedicated to describing a setting that’s dry, hot, and exposed. It sets the tone for the story and gives a frame of reference, a context, to the characters and conflict.

“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” Harlan Ellison’s gripping short story, takes longer to fully describe the horrific post-apocalyptic nightmare in which the characters languish. In many ways, the antagonist of the story is the setting as well as an entity, tormenting those last few survivors.

Would  the characters of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road be as impactful in, say, the setting of Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon? Each setting forces characters to behave a certain way, to make decisions in a logical manner depending on their circumstances. It is the basis of the story itself, the bedrock upon which foundations are built. The claustrophobic, paranoid themes of Michael Crichton’s Sphere are a deliberate and direct result of his choice to have it take place at the crushing depths of the ocean.

I really can’t think of a single book in my top hundred that didn’t have a fantastic setting first and foremost. Settings are what transport us to places we’ve never been, places nobody’s ever been. Alone on mars, trapped in a time loop, hunting Civil War-era vampires. So often, the entire premise of a story hinges on its setting. What’s Harry Potter without Hogwarts? Ringworld without…well, without the Ring? We want a world built, word by word, so we can snuggle down comfortably and just be there. The better the setting, the less work it takes to allow the story to transport you. A gripping conflict may keep you reading until you hear the morning birds singing, but it’s the setting that got you there in the first place.

So pick a fun setting. (Dragonriders of Pern)

Pick a weird setting. (Day of the Triffids)

Pick a setting you’ve never seen before, then populate it with the sorts of things you’d stay up until five in the morning to read. (Discworld, over and over again)

Just don’t pick a boring setting. That’s not where the story’s at.

 


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