The Reading Rainbow theme song really had it right.
One of the best parts of reading is the way books open up new worlds to us, whether a story is set in an unpronounceable ancient kingdom, the far reaches of outer space, ancient history, the distant future, or even the real world but maybe somewhere we’ve never been. It’s an incredible experience to be immersed in an unfamiliar setting.
Still, I’m not sure that all aspiring authors give quite enough thought to setting. The best worlds are more than just the trees that dot the hillsides or the stars in outer space.
Here are some of the most important elements in creating a memorable setting.
A sensory palette
When writers think cinematically, they often think solely about the dialogue and neglect that the author of a novel also needs to be the director and cinematographer. Readers need clear physical description to help them visualize their surroundings.
Great authors are able to immerse the reader in their novels by describing the precise way the blades of grass on the hillsides wave in the wind, the pungent smell of ale in the taverns, and the roars of the crowds in the coliseums.
There’s a reason J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling detail so many meals in Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Appealing to a reader’s sense of taste and smell is very immersive and evokes specific feelings in readers. And J.K. Rowling especially has a phenomenal talent for including small clever details in Hogwarts that contribute to a fully realized world that makes you want to visit.
As a writer, you have powers that go beyond even a 4-D film director. When you immerse a reader in specific sensory experiences throughout a novel, the setting will feel more tangible and vivid.
Change underway
The best settings are not static, unchanging places that have no impact on characters’ lives. Instead, in the best worlds, there is a plot inherent to the setting itself.
It could be a place in turmoil (The Lord of the Rings), a place that is resisting change but where there are tensions roiling the calm (To Kill a Mockingbird), or a place where an old era is passing in favor of a new generation (The Sound and the Fury).
Basically, something important is happening in the broader world that affects the characters’ lives. There are forces outside of their control, and the things that are changing in the world interfere with the characters’ lives (or the characters themselves may have a huge impact on these events).
Great settings are dynamic. Change is happening, and we have the sense that things will never be the same again.
Personality and values
There is more to a great setting than just the change that is underway, however.
A great setting has its own value system. Certain traits are ascendant and prized, whether it’s valor and honor, justice and order, or every human for themselves. It could also be a place where normal values and perspectives have become skewed or inverted due to outside forces (Catch-22).
There’s a personality and an outlook to these settings that throws us off kilter and makes us imagine how we’d react if we were placed in the same circumstances as the characters. They make us wonder if we would have the personal constitution to thrive within such places.
And, best of all, seeing places with unique values makes us look at our own surroundings in a brand new way.
Know and understand the values of your world. Who is a hero in this world? Who is a villain? Who are the celebrities? What are the religions? What is the government, who is in charge, and how are the laws decided?
Once you know the values, you can place your characters in line with these values or in opposition to them.
Unfamiliarity
Most importantly, a great setting shows us something we’ve never seen before. Either it’s a place that most readers are unfamiliar with and have never traveled to (The Kite Runner), or it’s a place that we are all too familiar with but is shown with a new, fresh perspective that makes us look at it again (And Then We Came to the End).
Whether it’s a bar in Tennessee or a family’s living room on another planet, you, as the author, have to take us someplace that has a sense of uniqueness and specificity. You have the ability to take us behind doors that are normally locked to us or that are unreachable because of time or distance. You can give us a glimpse of life that we can only receive through your novel.
Know this above all: What is in the world of your novel that your reader hasn’t seen before? Even if it’s meant to be a familiar setting, how does the setting show everyday places in a new way?
What do you think makes for a good setting? And what are some of your favorites?
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: May 27, 2010
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Art: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
All kissing up aside, I'm really enjoying experiencing China in Rock Paper Tiger. I've never been to Beijing before, but there's just enough detail in the book to give me a sense that I'm there.
I loved my 'Sense of Place' class in college, one of my faves.
James does some great things with setting. His New York and Europe control the stories. Also Janet Fitch's L.A., Willa Cather's New Mexico, Harris's Louisiana (I can feel the humidity), Twain's south, McCarthy's west Texas, there are so many I love.
Much of my book takes place in Chicago. In fact, I just blogged about it today because I was on a field trip with my daughter's class today. We took a river/lake boat tour of the city. I hadn't done that before.
My book opening has only a short scene in the city, before the MC is dragged away to prison, but when he gets out, I focus more on Chicago. (I do have setting in the early part too, but it's not Chicago, that's for sure.)
I really incorporate the city at the end. In fact, the finale takes place at Wrigley Field.
My favorite book setting is and will always be Japan. The culture is just so weird and interesting, there's something new to learn each and every time I read about in fiction.
A great setting has certain characteristics that can be used to distinguish that particular setting from all others.
You chose some really good books for examples. The Kite Runner is phenomenal.
~TRA
https://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
The Last Convertible by Anton Myrer
I read that book when I was 14 years old and twenty-some years later it's still one of my favorites. It transports you back in time to the 1940's—from the dormitories at Harvard, to the beaches of Cape Cod, to opulent New England night clubs to the war-torn cities throughout Europe you literally see it all.
For more recently written works I'd have to say the Harry Potter series definitely creates a dramatic visual experience for its readers.
Awesome post, and one I needed to read.
I like fantasy settings for exactly the reason most people don't: the sweeping descriptions of the landscape, the colors and textures of the trees and ground, the scents, the feel of the breeze on faces.
I like it when a writer makes the setting as much a character and denizens that inhabit world.
The trend in contemporary writing is to ignore descriptions of place and people, considering it irrelevant to the plot. It may be true that most readers skip over descriptions, but not me.
I like stopping to smell the roses – or whatever else is in the setting.
………dhole
You make a really good point that it's important to have something in the larger setting changing in a way that affects the characters' lives, even for books that don't (seem to) have the big, sweeping drama of LOTR (THE SOUND AND THE FURY being a very good example. I don't think people pay enough attention to the setting, other than to note it as "interesting" and "characteristic of the time"). The best settings are almost characters unto themselves. (A lot of people have been commenting on the Island from Lost this week for that reason!) My favorite settings are in the caves and valleys of Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series, starting with THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR. Auel does a very good job using the setting to elaborate on the culture and practices of various prehistoric peoples, and of making familiar an unfamiliar part of our own world.
Thanks for the great post, Nathan.
The Mark of the Lion trilogy has one of the richest settings I've ever encountered in my reading. The author totally draws you into the world of 70AD Rome and then over to Germania. The setting provided such rich conflict for the story to be built upon.
I have never found myself so engrossed in another place and time. The real world did not exist when I was reading those novels.
I thought I had great settings with East Germany the year after the wall came down, and Burning Man, but the novels,alas,haven't sold. YET.
I love books to take me to places I can't go, like Havana or Afghanistan, or places I would like to visit–Buenos Aires or Scandinavia. One of the great things about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was the interesting setting. Sweden! Who knew? Mark Twain took us down the Mississippi. Lawrence Durrell made us Alexandrians. Setting can be a major character.
I give the best setting to J.K. Rowling's world of Harry Potter. She transports the reader into a whole new world that through her descriptions is incredibly real. I could see Diagon Ally, smell the butter beer, and feel the wind whip my face as Harry raced around on his Nibus 2000.
All of Richelle Mead's series do this so well and it's because of that, her books stand above the rest.
An example would be in the VAMPIRE ACADEMY series. The values and beliefs of the world she has created are made so real that when the protagonist goes against them it is a legitimate shock. So much so that the cliff hanger ending became secondary.
Read The Higher Power of Lucky for an example of setting as character. It is one of those books that made you want to be part of the community, in this case, a Death Valley community.
I fell in love with Baltimore, MD thanks to Anne Tyler.
Great Post!!
Setting is always one of my favorite characters! It adds that extra dimension to my stories and I give it as much attention as I can.
Great post, as always. It makes me reconsider jumping into my new WIP without developing the setting a bit more.
To throw some out that I didn't spot earlier:
I love Anne McCaffery's Pern. Even years after reading the novels last I can still imagine most of the setting.
Also I love the setting of the young adult Uglies, although I found that the storyline fell a bit flat.
Some great books have been cited in the comments for fabulous settings. I feel, however, that Lewis did much more than Narnia, so if you're going to lump him in with the other great fantasy writers, you need to include his sci-fi trilogy and "Til We Have Faces", his greek mythology. He was the greatest writer that ever lived, in my opinion, and if I ever manage to attain one fourth of his talent, I will die happy.
Let's not also forget McCaffrey's dragonriders, or the painfully slow rituals required to be performed by geishas in Japan's underbelly.
Whether real or not, descriptions bring you into the world of the characters, and are thus important.
I like settings that mean something. But sometimes, I just don't care. Sometimes I just want the vaguest description possible. They're in the hallway at school. You don't have to explain the layout of the school. Or, you know something like that. Only if it has a big part in the plot do I think the setting needs a lot of emphasis.
I absolutely LOVE settings. I love different settings. I love it when a writer can describe a setting in such a way that even if it is normal it feels special because he/she's descriptions were so good.
Since I read what I write, it would be paranormal: historical, futuristic, urban fantasy/contemporary.
The books that come to mind are:
Kerrelyn Sparks Love at Stake Series
Angela Knight's Time Warriors series
Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter world
Deidre Knight's Gods of Midnight series.
Each of these authors transport you to their world and make you a part of it.
Thanks for another great post, Nathan.
Best,
Tambra Kendall
http://www.tambrakendall.com
My second manuscript is set in a small town in a remote area o Alaska. The only way in is by plane.The town is changing with the addition of satellite internet and new enterprise "tourist trade" due to a renewed interest in all things Alaskan. Not all the changes are good of course. Even global warming is changing the area. The setting offers,killer storms,treacherous,beautiful scenery and the pioneer spirit of the Alaskan people. I know,I live in Alaska and spent the last two years living in "The Bush".I know,what it is to have bears in the yard,eagle watch when you let the cat outside,driving a car over and iced river and roads. And the heart stopping feeling of driving in a whiteout and the danger of a moose cow with a new baby.I love to describe scenery in my manuscripts. I write what I know. I grew up on a working farm in Louisiana.I rode horses,worked the cattle,picked cotton,fed the livestock,helped bale cotton and walked the streets of New Orleans on our family trips to New Orleans four times a year. I lived through three terrible hurricanes on the gulf coast of Louisiana and Texas.I've lived without electricity for three to four weeks. I rode horses in a local square dance group where we preformed in rodeos where one horse and rider died in a collision performing figure eights at breakneck speed.These places make great settings,not just because they are great settings,but because I know them.The Mississipp river delta and the swamps of Louisiana as well as remote sections of Alaska are my favorite settings. read Nora Roberts"Northern Lights" or "Midnight Bayou" to name two books with my fav sensory settings.Michael McDowell's "Blackwater"series. Other settings and fav books are too numerous to mention.
want my reader to BE THERE when they read my novels,but not to overshadow the story and characters
Florida in any John D. MacDonald or Carl Hiaasen novel.
My second manuscript is set in a small town in a remote area o Alaska. The only way in is by plane.The town is changing with the addition of satellite internet and new enterprise "tourist trade" due to a renewed interest in all things Alaskan. Not all the changes are good of course. Even global warming is changing the area. The setting offers,killer storms,treacherous,beautiful scenery and the pioneer spirit of the Alaskan people. I know,I live in Alaska and spent the last two years living in "The Bush".I know,what it is to have bears in the yard,eagle watch when you let the cat outside,driving a car over and iced river and roads. And the heart stopping feeling of driving in a whiteout and the danger of a moose cow with a new baby.I love to describe scenery in my manuscripts. I write what I know. I grew up on a working farm in Louisiana.I rode horses,worked the cattle,picked cotton,fed the livestock,helped bale cotton and walked the streets of New Orleans on our family trips to New Orleans four times a year. I lived through three terrible hurricanes on the gulf coast of Louisiana and Texas.I've lived without electricity for three to four weeks. I rode horses in a local square dance group where we preformed in rodeos where one horse and rider died in a collision performing figure eights at breakneck speed.These places make great settings,not just because they are great settings,but because I know them.The Mississipp river delta and the swamps of Louisiana as well as remote sections of Alaska are my favorite settings. read Nora Roberts"Northern Lights" or "Midnight Bayou" to name two books with my fav sensory settings.Michael McDowell's "Blackwater"series. Other settings and fav books are too numerous to mention.
want my reader to BE THERE when they read my novels,but not to overshadow the story and characters
After reading Alice Siebold's The Lovely Bones, anytmie heaven came up, I felt like, Yeah, I've been there.
And NYC circa 1970 in the book, When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) was like 'watching a movie' vivid.
I forgot one more great writer who I forgot to mention. (shame on me.)
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.
He makes you believe that the worlds of the White Council, Red Court, White Court do cross into our world.
As Josin said earlier, setting isn't something tossed in. It plays an important role along with the other elements that are needed to create a novel that stays and lingers with the reader.
Best,
Tambra
A story with an amazing setting is a story you cannot imagine unfolding in any other place, time, atmosphere, or sensibility. The setting and the story go hand in hand together, neither overshadowing the other.
I think of Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road as an example of setting that is so tightly woven into the story that it simply could not have been set any place else. And by the end as much as I do not want to leave the characters behind, I do not want to leave Jellicoe Road, either.
@heather: I don't think your setting has to be fantastical to still be a living, breathing part of the story.
I mentioned Donald Maass's latest book, and here's my attempt at massacring – er, summarizing – one of his examples. He talked about a book (and of course, I can't remember which one) set in Socal. The main character goes there at the beginning of the book, during the spring, when she's feeling hopeful. She notices all the good things about the place: the sparkle of the surf, the warm sea breeze, the cheerful sunshine.
Later, though, when she returns to southern California after going through some conflict, it's fall. The flip-flops don't look carefree anymore, just careless. It's cloudy most days, and the ocean doesn't sparkle – it broods.
So the setting reflects the character's mood, because it's seeing the setting THROUGH THE CHARACTER'S EYES that's important. If you filter the setting – and everything, in fact – then it can't help but become a vital part of the story.
In my debut novel Dead Frog on the Porch the setting is any town north america but is really a compilation of where I grew up, where I live now and parts of other cities. I think the real setting is a time when children had the freedom to ride their bikes around the neighbourhood and explore their surroundings.
Recognized the Mono Lake photo right off! I was there a couple years ago and took a (far less cool) picture from the same spot.
A book whose setting made an impact with me is Beautiful Creatures (by Garcia and Stohl).
Any setting that offers the unexpected. It can be outer space, another dimension, or an any American inner city.
Totally forgot about these two:
The Citadel and to a lesser extent Charleston in Pat Conroy's Lords of Discipline and Eatonville in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.
It's nearly impossible to picture either of those stories in a different setting. The place informed and influenced the characters.
Mr. Bransford said: "There's a personality outlook that throws us off kilter and makes us imagine how we'd react if we were placed in that world. And it makes us wonder whether we have the makeup to thrive within it."
That is fantastic.
I think the mark of a really great literary world is this: not only can we (and if they writer is really good, must we) imagine ourselves there but we don't really leave it when we are finished with the story.
We take it home with us, we dream about it. In those instances where it becomes so dear that we can return to it with a single thought and feel the tension or the beauty or the wonder there then it's truly a gift from the writer to us.
The best of those worlds can surprise you by popping into your head at the oddest times. I, for one, processed this yesterday as returning in my head to that galaxy far far away and comparing a medical test I was having to Han Solo's spa experience on Bespin…I could almost smell the Ugnaughts!
Characters can make you love a book but I think it's truly great atmosphere that pulls you in and makes you live it.
Thank you for this post- I'll be thinking of it as I revise.
I think the setting should always reflect the character's mood, and as the MC's mood changes, so should the nature of the setting. I like settings that tempt me to enter with their mystery and beauty. I like fragrant natural settings, but also grand, gothic buildings with many rooms to explore where exotic treasures and the unexpected are lurking. I read a book a long time ago about a huge castle-city that grew and changed as if a character in the story. This sprawling structure dominated the story and the title and evoked a powerful sense of place. Was it Gormanghast?
I concur with what Josin has said, too.
I really love it when the entire world, (Characters, language, slang, locations, everything) sucks you in and won't leave your mind. I just recently read a six book series that was so vivid I actually caught myself using terms from the book in real life. Crazy huh?
CV
I love settings too! I think that's why most of what I write tends to take place in a world and time far removed from my own.
I definitely agree with the plot being inherent to the setting–that's why the current WiP I'm working on takes place during a time of transition in Japanese history–the era when East and West met and the issues and conflicts arising from two different cultural ways of life.
Favorite setting in a book: Cold Moutain. I could hear my own feet on the cobblestones.
This isn't of substance, but I love how you weave examples of books into these posts. I would never have thought of And Then We Came To The End as a book with a strong setting, but you're right that in a lot of ways, it was.
Great post, NB.
Fantastical/Sci-Fiish settings (e.g., HP, THG)are easier to do, IMO (though by no means easy). That's why I'll second Duncton Wood b/c it took an ordinary-ish, everyday setting and made it fantastically alive.
PS – What happened to Snoopy?
This is really, really good. I might just email myself that, makes one think.
By the way your fantastic advice re. non-fiction proposals really helped – I had to cut relationship with the big agent short as the percentage they wanted was above and beyond. Sad, and not pleasing. Considering going to the publisher direct which is probably a big nono.
Arioch looked up toward the azure sky. His eyes followed a wind-driven cloud. “We will see light thrice and darkness two times and see them as they come into each other.”
The skies began to burn, faintly at first, like sunbeams playing in the waters of a blue sea. And then a soft crimson glow tinged the sky. A blush began to fall on the cheek of darkness in colors of crimson and gold. Candida looked to the zenith, east and west, and like the flames from a fiery sword, sunset cast its broad band across the heavens. The red fiery glow burned along the horizon until it faded away.
Soft purple clouds sailed over the sky, and through their vapory folds, winking stars shined white as silver.
Do you have to like the setting for it to be effective? I would hate to live where Stephanie Plum in the Evanovich series lives. Sounds like a dreadful place.
Would like to live in Laura Joh Rowland's world, though.
Great post. Sounds like common sense, although it's the kind that is all too easy to forget. This has been helpful.
I read M.T. Anderson's "Feed" recently and that setting is stuck in my head. Especially the park where lovers stroll through acres of raw sirloin. I'm currently reading the first of his "Octavian Nothing" books. It starts with: "I was raised in a gaunt house with a garden; my earliest recollections are of floating lights in the apple-trees."
Agreed on all points. My three examples would be POISONWOOD BIBLE, THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, and ANGLE OF REPOSE. It's been years and years and years since I read any of them, but I can't think of the stories or the characters without also seeing vivid moments of the setting.
C. Sansom's Shardlake mysteries really put one in Tudor England, and not a prettified Tudor England, either.
Of course Middle Earth, but the book is as much about the setting as it is about the quest.
Corelli's Mandolin.
A thought on setting & e-books:
When my husband read Dan Brown's The Symbol on e-book, he kept looking up the various locales on the web…he said 'I wish this e-book came with direct hyperlinks to the web'. He found the pictures really enriched his enjoyment of the novel/setting.
I can easily foresee this happening some day! Is it possible e-books will transform our idea of setting? Will novels become more like multi- media events? ('Here's the soundtrack to my novel')
Just a thought.
I loved L.M. Montgomery's settings/ I also agree about Robert Heinlein's Moon is A Harsh Mistress. I need to work on setting in my mid grade book. Fortunately I have Lupe Fernandez in my critiques group. He is a master of description and through his critiques, my setting are getting better. Namaste
I loved L.M. Montgomery's settings/ I also agree about Robert Heinlein's Moon is A Harsh Mistress. I need to work on setting in my mid grade book. Fortunately I have Lupe Fernandez in my critiques group. He is a master of description and through his critiques, my setting are getting better. Namaste
A striking setting becomes a great asset- like the Yorkshire moors in 'Wuthering Heights' or the desert planet Arrakis in 'Dune'. Another element that enhances the narrative