Going Deeper into Location, Location, Location

The setting: Rah's living room, with seven inches of snow outside. Tea and cocoa and some miraculous cookie/brownie concoction, compliments of the tasty brain of L. A random name generator on the laptop and a feather ballpoint pen that doesn't work. A candle that smells like grass and the spring that is Way. Too. Far. Off.

At its most basic, setting is about how a character’s physical surroundings look, feel, sound, smell and taste. Setting locates the reader in our world. Setting helps the reader believe. (Like Rah believes that she is over winter.)

But setting isn’t just a backdrop for a character’s actions. Setting can reflect something about a character’s personality. It can be a kind of secondary character itself, helping or hindering the animate characters in the story. It is also something of a tyrant who likes things just so.

Ivan, dude, you can put flowers
around you, but it doesn't
make you less Terrible.

Setting is a Tyrant

Our world has rules: Rules of physics limit our physical movements; laws of government and cultural customs regulate our behavior (more or less). Part of the fun of writing is weaving a world a little or a lot different from ours, but a believable world will have rules. They can be outrageous, but they must be consistent—unless your plot involves the magnetic poles of your planet flipping and totally screwing up the telepathic abilities of your three-legged frog creatures.

Awooga-awooga! Keep it under control. I can’t say it any better than this great comic by xkcd.

Setting is a Mirror

Things Rah is not allowed
to touch.

Look around your room. Is it Scandinavian neat or typhoon messy? Is that a half-empty Big Gulp at your elbow or a turned mug the color of a sunset, teabag dangling over the side? Is that flower pot inhabited by a meticulously trimmed bonsai or a sad stick that might once have been a plant?

Setting is personal. What we surround ourselves with and how we take care of it says something about us—though what it says isn’t necessarily obvious. That sad stick of a plant doesn’t mean you have a black thumb like Cranky Rah. It could mean that lying scum of an ex-boyfriend gave it to you, and you’re just treating it now like he treated you.

But setting doesn’t have to be familiar to our characters to illuminate them. We can reveal a lot about our characters by throwing them into situations that make them uneasy or downright miserable. That’s where we learn what kind of people they really are.

We can also learn a lot about a character’s mental state. Say Special Agent Wilhelmina is out of her depth, unsure of herself. All she needs to save the world is a 9-volt battery and leopard-patterned duct tape, but the only store nearby is the Walmart. Shelves groaning with cheap junk from China loom over her; blue-vested employees vaporize around a corner every time she calls out to them; her path is blocked again and again by carts filled with screaming children. Not only does none of this help poor Willi, it reflects her own out-of-controlness.

Ouch! How did that clunky writing
get stuck in my eye?

Awooga-awooga! Stay away from actual mirrors. You’re stressed out. You’ve just discovered that your best friend stole your formula for a cheap, infinite energy source. You storm into the lab to confront her, and you…Pause to take in all the details of the décor. Um, no.

It’s rare that a person takes the time to examine her surroundings. It’s even rarer that she looks in the mirrors to peruse her face at length, dwelling on the shape of her eyes and the number of freckles on her nose and the perfect curl of her glorious raven hair.

While there are times we're surprised by a new place or person and can take the time to describe them, avoid lengthy descriptions where possible. Instead, incorporate setting into action. Don’t describe that collection of colorful Czech hat pins on the mantle; have your character use them to offer acupuncture to party guests who just won’t leave.

  

Setting is a Character

Setting often has a mood, a hint of personality: the creepy, neglected house that seems alive, watchful; the ancient ruins that radiate wisdom; the welcoming cottage. But setting can also act like full-fledged secondary character that interacts with the protagonist, helping or hindering.

Things Cranky Rah doesn't care
to touch. Where are the tacos?!

That Walmart is clearly out to get Wilhelmina. When your protagonist is in a hurry, does the setting throw a traffic jam, a dead end or a maze-like building in her way, or does a taxi miraculously pull up to the curb? Does your newly dieting protagonist see a doughnut shop on every corner or a bunch of billboards for weight-loss products? Is the river going to wash her sins away or flood her already struggling restaurant?

Awooga-awooga! Guard against the expected. Remember that creepy, neglected house that seems alive, watchful? What else do you expect from a creepy, neglected house? Go for the fresh and unexpected; try to use setting in unusual ways. It doesn’t always rain on a sad day; sometimes it’s sunny. Don’t put the first kiss in a quiet corner of a snug café; put it on a busy street corner, where the characters keep getting bumped by oblivious passersby. A loud, busy nightclub can be irritating and overwhelming, or it can be a sanctuary for someone trying to hide from pursuers.  

Despite Rah's terrible winter malaise, The Three and I didn't just sit around drinking tea and cocoa and chowing down on miraculous cookie/brownies. Of course we wrote about setting, too. But that's for another day, like tomorrow.