An Exercise in Setting

If you’re like the vast majority of fiction writers, you often have a hard time getting started when it comes to a new story or novel. I know I do.

This is one of the ways that I frequently get going, especially when it comes to a brand new story (outside a series I’ve previously worked with).

Start by creating a vivid setting. 

Generally, I start with the place I believe most of my characters are going to be, most of the time.

Step 1:

Imagine what your world looks like. Now do a Google search, and find a picture of it (or something similar). If you’re a science fictioner, search images from shows you think might be mildly similar to your piece. 

(note: this can also be done the other way around. Build your setting off an image you've seen, or a place you've been)

We’ll use this one as an example.

(in case you were wondering, this is Germany’s Black Forest at night)

Step 2:

Make a list of all the things you think or feel when looking at this image (adding your imaginations into the image is encouraged), and that might be useable for describing your place. Metaphors are a good thing, here. Come up with at least five of these (they don’t have to be full sentences or even phrases, single words will do fine).

Have your list? Good.

Here’s mine:

Step 3:

The last thing is to put everything together into a paragraph. Write each one into a sentence, one after the other. Between each one of these sentences, write one that’s physically descriptive of the image. If you’re a science fiction or genre fiction writer, feel free to intersperse descriptors that suit only your world.

You should come up with something like this:

If you didn’t, that’s okay. This is only your basic setting sketch. Use this, build off of it, to create your world. This is a very important step when it comes to writing fiction. The world needs to be fully developed—even if your world is the world we live in. Remember: it’s always a work in progress, right up until you've written the last words of your piece. But to begin, you need to know as much about it as you could feasibly need. After all, you never know what your characters are going to run into.

Speaking of characters, I use a different method when it comes to creating them: one which I will explain in detail next Wednesday. 

I hope you all enjoyed this post. Keep an eye out for Friday’s post on writing tips!