Writing Isn't For Wimps: Part 3

"Easy reading is damned hard writing." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Well, here we are again, after a bit of a hiatus (the challenges of life being what they are -- unpredictable and overwhelming), and this time, we're going to consider setting.

Now, I know you all remember the definition of setting from middle school. It was drummed into your head that setting refers to the time and place in which events occur in a story. That's a good, uncomplicated definition, as far it goes. But for a writer, is that quite far enough?

Let's play a little game. Consider, if you will, this sentence: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome once again to our semi-annual donor appreciation dinner-dance in support of For The Children." (From my WIP). This is the first sentence of the whole story. Where and when do you think it's happening? At least one part of the answer is evident in the speaker's greeting. The other part you may be able to figure out from the rest of the sentence where she gives some context in her opening remarks. But do you know where this event is occurring...what time of year, what city, what state, what country?

One statement has raised four extra questions you didn't even know you had. If you had access to the rest of this chapter, you'd get your answers to all of them. But as you can see, 'time' and 'place' are not quite as simple as you might suppose, since there are all the subconscious questions that your story must answer in order to move it along. Let's use another example to illustrate this point.

"Sam watched the screen on his cell phone and saw that Toni was typing. He wondered what she could possibly write this time to wind him up any further. He felt full to bursting, as though she had laid hands on him and stroked him to this heightened arousal that was pressing uncomfortably against the zipper of his dress pants. He knew he shouldn't have opened the message when he saw it was from her, but he was so enthralled by her that he couldn't resist." (From a short story I'm working on).

What questions does this beginning raise for you? Is it important to know where Sam is here? Where Toni is? Why? How does the description of Sam's physical reactions to Toni, who is clearly not where he is, further engage our curiosity about where he is? And did you notice the words "this time"? They tell us something important, but they also raise questions, not just about the plot, but about the setting. Is this the kind of opening that engages you? Do you want to be immediately brought into the action, to the time and place of events? Do you need the setting spelled out for you, or do you enjoy the tease?

Setting is also important for helping to ground readers in the story because they begin to feel like they're in the space with the characters going through the events with them. It's an important part of the work of building authenticity in storytelling. I spend a lot of time thinking about the minutiae of settings in my stories. How large is the house the character lives in? What kind of dwelling is it...brand new, fixer-upper, apartment, house? Is it in the city, the suburbs, or the country? Where is the furniture in a particular room? Is the flashback from the recent or the distant past? Do my time stamps -- "a few hours later" as opposed to "later" or "weeks later", for example -- help with pacing in the story? And having made these little decisions, I try to ensure that I don't deviate from any of them over the course of the story because that can throw off a reader, and may be the difference between a good review and a less enthusiastic one.

Setting is more than just the sweeping idea behind the clause "when and where a story takes place". It's about where a character is when important events occur. It's about how time of day affects a character's behavior. It's about where they live or work and what that says about who they are and what they value. Setting is important for doing more than locating characters in a story. It can be used to unveil them to a reader's gaze, or to provide symbolism, or to influence a reader's emotions. Setting is significant, and the more you play with it, the better you'll get at using it to evoke the responses you want from your reader.