Setting - developing and describing

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This weeks topic is 'Setting' and I have one author in with me today – the lovely Sharon Sant. We will be discussing how to approach deciding on a suitable setting for your novel and what to do once you have chosen. There are several parts to setting, many of which we will aim to cover here. 

Firstly, I would like to make note of the three key elements to setting that should be described vividly throughout your stories;

• Exterior – The outside world
• Interior – Buildings, rooms
• The psychological and social aspects of the environment – For example the emotional ‘tone’ of the setting.

When it comes to describing settings you should only discuss what you deem to be important for your story. Once you have these significant scenes planned you should then find 'out of the ordinary' ways to depict the settings. This can make it much more interesting for your readers. Another tip to make for an attention grabbing portrayal is to pick up on colours and textures of things – is the wall 'as smooth as glass and coffee in colour' or has 'the once vivid red colour faded to a mucky brown as the protruding bricks rot away'?

Exterior settings are important for the readers to understand what kind of world your character lives in. Is it somewhere real or has the place been unlocked from your imagination? If it is real try to make the effort to visit the location, see how it would feel for your character to step foot on its soil. If it is a made up place remember your target audience and base it on being suitable for that age range. For example don’t talk about an exquisite building made in the 17^th century, showing off a range of balconies and archways when writing a children’s book.

Interior settings are just as valid to write about, however it’s important that you don’t repeat what you've already mentioned. For example, if you discuss your main characters home, only do this twice at most and only if they enter a different room than the first you described. Again, it is important to remember your target audience here.

The psychological and social aspects of the environment are basically keeping your characters in mind when explaining their home. A middle aged woman with an obsessive compulsive order for cleaning for example, wouldn't invite her friends round to her cottage for afternoon tea knowing that last nights cabbage scents are still lingering in the air. Would your leading ladies nineteen year old daughter have a postman pat designed bedroom?

Once you have chosen your setting the next step is to develop it but try not to bore on about what style of floor the spare bedroom, that no character in your story uses, has. Highlight only the important and necessary scenes and try to do this by describing the unusual features. Keep it authentic by adding descriptive touches; 'a layer of dust floating around your characters after they find a really old book and open its front page'.

Next up to consider when it comes to setting is whether or not to provide direct or indirect descriptions. Young readers demand a direct portrayal, however you can let your creativity run away with you a little more when writing for teenagers, plus. Here are some examples of direct and indirect writing:

Direct – The rain drops fell from the grey sky and got Emma very wet.

Indirect –Emma tried to dodge the bullets firing out from a blanket of grey above her.

Direct – The Christmas tree was decorated with silver and gold tinsel and fairy lights.

Indirect – Bursts of glitter exploded from the green statue which danced seemingly wrapped up in stars.

Direct descriptions are obvious in what they are describing whereas indirect wording just hints.

The best part about being creative when it comes to depicting what a set looks like is that you can use it to conjure up emotions. For example, an open door that’s pitch black inside may look like a monsters mouth inviting in any daring wanderers. This could present the idea of threat.

You can also use the weather to develop a feeling within your readers. If you choose to have a scorching hot, sunny day you are more than likely sending a vibe of happiness. However, selecting a dark, windy night can make your set instantly mysterious and perhaps quite frightening. Remember things look different at night. In the park across the road from your leading ladies house there grows a rose bush protected by some flimsy string, but at night time a sinister shape takes its place stalking her home.

When writing a spooky tale for children keep in mind that the dark can instinctively put them on edge. Older readers need more details.

So top tips:

1. Only describe significant things and try to do this in an unusual way.
2. Have your leading character portray the setting using all their senses, not just what they see.
3. Reflect how the characters feel by using the weather or objects around them.
4. Weave descriptions into the plot instead of having them as vast essays distracting readers from the action of your story.
5. Research/visit the place you are writing about to get facts write or vacate to new places for ideas.
6. Make sure whatever decisions you make to always have your target audience in mind.

Now let’s see what the fantastic author of the Sky Song trilogy Sharon Sant has to say. (Remember you can follow her on Twitter via @SharonSant)

I could witter on about setting – time and place and premise etc – all night, but I’m going to stick to location as a specific point and hope that Amie has covered everything else! 

Every writer has a slightly different approach to using locations in their stories according to their needs.  As a fantasy writer, my sense of place (a bit like my writing in general) lies somewhere in between real and made up. Quite often I’ll take an actual place and modify it.  Sometimes I won’t tell you where that place is. The reason I don’t always tell you the name of the real place is that the story needs me to alter it in some way, and I don’t want everyone shouting at me that the details aren’t right. Sky Song, the first book of my trilogy, heavily features a boating lake in a real park, but I take details of an annual event in another, nearby park and add them to my boating lake park, then I chuck in some buildings that don’t exist in the real park either because they have a vital part to play in the final confrontation of the book.  In my standalone novel Runners, I do tell you the real name of every location, but the action is set in the future so that you can accept that the landscape or buildings may have changed.  The climax of Not of Our Sky (the third book of the Sky Song trilogy), however, needs a real place and it needs to be accurate because the whole book has been foreshadowing the events there in such a way that it has to be named.  The action takes place in a contemporary time too so it has to look in the book how the real place looks now.

But why not simply set the books in the place I live?  Wouldn’t that be easier? 

For me, the story dictates the setting.  The stories I have mentioned here needed the drama and diversity of the Dorset and Hampshire landscapes to work. I was born there and it seemed a natural choice.  But there are other stories I write that Staffordshire, where I live now, is a perfect backdrop for. 

I know some writers who can set a story in a place they’ve never visited by simply researching it for a sense location and some who only ever set things in the place they live.  Some spend pages describing intimately their locations and some throw in titbits to give you only a flavour.  And, obviously, there are some whose places don’t exist anywhere except in their books. Their methods work for them as writers and their stories.  It’s a fascinating process and one that, for me, is almost as important as characters and plot.  Location can do so much to shape a story.

Sharon has helpfully included two pictures she uses to help describe her setting – another fab tip to end on – pictures are very useful to have when it comes to describing a location.

So that’s all for this week. Thank you to Sharon for her great contribution and to my readers for your visits. Next week we’ll be looking at ‘Developing a Credible Character’. Until then – stay happy :)