Settings perform as a backdrop and are more than just where your story takes place. When you move a story to a different time and location, you tell a different story.
The setting must be believable. You want your reader to suspend disbelief and be immersed in the world you are creating.
Evaluate whether your settings are vivid, enhance the atmosphere, and effectively advance the plot or reveal character development.
How to Evaluate Your Setting
Consider:
• Do your choices about time and location affect the attitudes of the people within your story?
• Do your choices intensify the conflict or deepen the emotional impact?
• Is the setting clear and consistent for the reader?
• If your story is about transformation, does the setting also transform?
The goal is to find the perfect setting to give your story opportunities to develop its themes and enhance its conflicts.
Just as your opening scene sets the tone, your climax scene will do a lot to give your story a sense of closure and planning. End where you begin. How can you intensify everything for maximum effect?
Go with your instincts, let the new ideas expand your story and take it to a new level, and then let the butterflies settle.
Remember you are still shaping your idea. The possibilities are endless, but don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed.
Setting Promises and Expectations
What Setting (Time and Location) produces the most conflict and opposition or the opportunity to make your story more compelling, unusual, or exciting?
Can the setting for the scene be more effective? What are your Setting promises? What will a reader expect from this? Be aware of the expectations you invoke in your setting.
Your reader will have expectations. Those expectations are the “promises”.
Consider the promises a Period Piece makes for its setting. Are they kept, broken, or exceeded? Don’t disappoint your reader.
Time: Anchor Your Story
A reader needs to understand the time. Is it day or night? Have several years or seconds passed? Is the story linear or does it jump around in time? Is this clear to your reader?
What time choices could generate friction, opposition, or opportunity for a compelling, unusual, or exciting story?
Does time affect your characters’ experiences? What are the more effective ways to convey time through description and character? Do your sensory experiences change over time?
Location: View it as a Character
Location has its own personality, presence, and texture. How is it going to work for your story? How is it going to change the characters in the story? Is it the ideal location for your final conflict?
- Does the physical environment affect their moods, values, and prejudices?
- What’s the first thing someone would notice?
- Is it the most effective choice? Most powerful?
- Can you intensify the stakes by taking the location to an extreme?
- Is the setting doing the maximum work that it can? Does it enhance the action in the scene?
- Does the passing of time create tension or transformation?
The trick is to use what you have intuitively imagined, then brainstorm it to make it stronger.
Environments feature a distinct climate, architecture, ecosystem, and rhythm.
Think of Prohibition-era Chicago: speakeasies, crime, and jazz defiance. They shape the attitudes and decisions of the people who inhabit that world. Setting it on the streets is one texture. In a jazz club the texture is different. Change the location to rural Kansas and everything shifts.
When describing the location, ask yourself, is the location essential to the plot, character, or theme? If it is not, consider choosing one that enhances those elements. If it is, spend more time to flesh it out. It will change and intensify the theme of your story.
Bringing Worlds to Life with the Five Senses
Most writers heavily rely on sight and sound, often overlooking smell, taste, and touch. These less utilized senses can add incredible depth and authenticity to your world.
Authenticity is found in the details.
To give texture to your story, you need to focus on building worlds that seem real. Select key details so they directly impact your story to create the richness and texture that bring authenticity.
We experience life through our five senses. (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch), so we want to create an emotional journey for your reader where they experience the story through all five senses.
Paint with the Five Senses
Look at your five key scenes, your resolution, and you’re opening and closing scenes, and ask yourself what senses your characters interact with.
Consider bringing to life all senses at several points throughout your story.
- Can you invoke all five senses in one of your key scenes to give your reader a more immersive experience?
- Can you find three to five scenes where you can add smell, taste, or touch for deeper immersion?
Sight: Paint Pictures With Words
- Visual details are the first tool writers reach for. Effective visual descriptions go beyond listing colors and objects. They evoke emotion, tension, and atmosphere.
- What does the location look like?
- What do your characters see in the scene, and how does it impact the reader’s experience?
- Have you described at least two to three visual details clearly?
- Did you use specific colors, shapes, or lighting rather than vague terms like “pretty” or “dark”?
- Is there something unusual or striking about how things look?
Sound: Bring Your World To Life
Sound adds energy and texture to your world, transforming static images into living environments.
- Are your characters engaging with your story world through the use of their ears?
- What do they hear apart from the dialogue of the other characters?
- Are there ambient sounds (wind, footsteps, distant voices)?
- Does dialogue reflect mood through tone and volume?
- Is silence used intentionally? What happens after the silence?
Smell: Evoke Memory and Emotion
Scents are the most evocative and can trigger memory and emotions. Use them to evoke history, danger, comfort, or decay. Incorporating scent into your world building can make your setting feel visceral and alive.
- What does the location smell like?
- Do you have any moments in your story where the characters use their sense of smell?
- Do smells change with the time of day or season?
- Are there conflicting odours that create unique combinations?
- Does a smell trigger a memory or emotion in your character?
Taste: Add Layers of Authenticity
It may seem less than the other senses, but it offers a unique opportunity to deepen your world, particularly in scenes involving food, drink, or physical interaction. This can be interpreted literally (local food, water) or metaphorically (the taste of danger). Even a brief mention of taste can leave an impression, grounding your world in human experience.
- What does the location taste like?
- Does the sense of taste make an appearance in your novel?
- How do the local cuisine and beverages taste?
- Do you portray tastes that are associated with emotional memories?
- Is taste used symbolically or metaphorically?
Touch: Ground Your Reader in Reality
Touch is intimate. It provides a direct link to characters and their surroundings. It conveys texture, temperature, and physicality. Use touch to enhance realism and emotional resonance. Ensure that the story engages your readers’ senses.
- How does the environment feel?
- At any point, does the sense of touch play a part in how your story unfolds?
- Does it reveal something about the character or plot?
- How do objects feel?
Pull It All Together
You don’t need to include all five senses in every scene. Consider having at least three senses in a scene. Which senses do the heavy lifting? Consider the senses to create unforgettable scenes.
Heighten the impact by activating multiple senses during pivotal moments.
Be selective. Too many sensory details can overwhelm readers. Choose what best serves mood, theme, or character.
Whether your story is Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Fantasy, or Sci-Fi, the details can bring life and add an extra layer of authenticity to your reader.
These five senses are an invitation to your readers into your imagination. Carefully select and weave sensory details together. Create vibrant, dynamic, and real settings.
Final Thoughts
The goal isn’t to overload your story with description but to choose the correct details to evoke emotion, advance the story, and deepen the reader’s connection to your world. Transform your initial idea into a story that resonates deeply with readers.
Don’t get stuck in the finer details. Sometimes, it is better to make a radical shift than to fine-tune.
Locations can change through your story. Ground your settings in rich sensory experiences, fulfilling the promises made to your reader. Ensure that anything referred to or referenced in your story is consistent in your reader’s mind.
Bring your authentic voice to each scene, draw the reader in through a well-anchored setting. Fulfil all their senses, and give them a more immersive experience, putting them at ease. Let your creativity flow as you consider these ideas and refine and embellish your work.
Play, Have Fun, and let your Imagination Run Wild