For me, an important aspect to a story coming together is where it's set. It is important in reading or writing one. The setting is almost like another character in the best stories. It fits the action and emotional feel and can be as important as any other single element. Consider it a character.
So far I have never written one that wasn't in places I have been and experienced. The closest to an exception would be the story of the wagon train. But I did see the parts of the trail from Wyoming on West, had driven some of it in my part of Oregon.
When I am thinking of characters and plot, I come very early to deciding where this whole thing is happening. For me it's fun to write about places I have enjoyed being and incorporate them into a story. The stories have to seem to have potentially really happened there.
Equally enjoyable is to write about a character's home and have it be a home I'd love to have. An example, from one of my contemporary romances, was where the artist heroine had gotten an older home along the Tualatin River near Portland, Oregon. She had bought it needing to be repaired and had fixed it up before the story began.
When I was a child, I had been in a home very similar to that one when my uncle had rented it and I stayed there with my cousins for a few days. I'd have loved having that home even though it was older and not my uncle's idea of a good house. I gave it to my heroine and let her do with it what I'd have enjoyed doing if I had gotten it.
Some of my favorite books to read have had the same situation where the characters are living somewhere I find fascinating. I don't know how many readers find that an important part of their reading pleasure, but it's sure mine and it adds a lot of enjoyment to writing a fiction piece when I can set it somewhere I'd love to live in an alternate life.
If you know where the story is taking place, you know the birds, the feel of the wind, what kind of storms are likely, the flowers or seasonal colors, and you can insert that now and then to let the reader feel they are really there-- not making it into a travelogue but as it is for us when we are somewhere and the sounds, smells and sights are part of what it means to be there.
In a novel, it's nice to, instead of writing setting all down in one block and forgetting it, to have it weave through the story, pieces here and there. It keeps the reader grounded as your characters are. For some characters where they live is a big part of who they are. With others not so much. Sometimes I have wanted to base a story somewhere I have not been but that would require at least research (ideally trips) to familiarize myself with what it means to be there.
6 comments:
I think you are right. Give the setting a bit at a time, not all at once in the beginning. A long description in the beginning might cause the reader to lose interest.
Great post!!! You set me a-thinkin' about how I write the settings in my stories.
When I was writing fiction, I always used places I knew. And, to some extent, the characters were based on parts of me or people I knew. How's the writing going?
The fiction writing is going very well although it is mostly editing. Some of the old stories were good almost as they were with minor problems to adjust or improve. Some though had some real character glitches and have required major upheaval but the structure seemed solid to me and they were worth doing it. I have now done all but one which means when it's done, I'll start over as my goal is still to have this ready to begin trying out epub in the fall.
Graham Green had great settings....evocative...Also Paul Scott in the "Raj Quartet."
I adore the setting of a house with many, many rooms where my child can go exploring physically and imaginatively like entering the wardrope in THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. In fantasy and science fiction some grounding in a familiar setting is esential?
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