Think of Laurence of Arabia and the desert springs to mind. Think of Star Wars and you probably picture the Death Star. Think of Agatha Christie and you envision an old manor house or some quaint little village in the English countryside. Think of Philip Roth and some drab bedroom town in New Jersey springs to mind.
These works, whether they be novel, film, play or genre fiction, all rely on setting to make them great. And successful use of setting is, in my view, what separates the good from the great when it comes to writing.
I like to think of setting as playing a subtle role that, though behind-the-scenes, is of vital importance. Similar to props and scenery in a Broadway play. Done well, it adds to the novel, enhancing key elements such as plot and character. Done poorly, it is unimportant or, conversely, too important - distracting readers by hitting them over the head with endless depictions of scenery.
In other words, successful use of setting can feel like walking a tightrope: done wrong and you may fall; done right and at the least you'll make it to the end in one piece. Here are several simple rules that I try to keep in mind (sometimes more and sometimes less successfully) when I'm writing:
1. Integration: Your setting should be integrated into your novel. By this I mean that it should "make sense," it should play a role in your novel, in the characters lives, it should enhance and further the plot. For example, if your setting is the desert, certain plot conflicts should be related to the environment: maybe a lack of water or a battle against the harsh elements. If your setting is a small town (my favorite), then the characters and the plot should revolve in part around that. To check if your setting is properly integrated, you can perform a little test. Imagine your characters and plot in a different setting, say a city instead of a small town or an urban area instead of the wilderness. What would have to change to make the new setting work? If nothing much would have to change other than some descriptions of your surroundings, than your setting is not properly integrated.
2. Write About What you Know: If you live in a small town, write about that. Live on a farm? Great setting for a novel. Love NYC and spend a lot of time there? Great, use it as your setting. I don't mean this as a hard and fast rule. As a writer, I don't like those - they seem too limiting. And if everyone followed it we would not have Lord of the Rings or Dune. But let me give you a personal example. I have lived most of my life overseas, traveled to many countries and lived in more. But I have never been to Mali. For some reason, when writing a thriller, I got it into my head that part of the action had to take place there. Big mistake. Although I could piece together how I thought it should look - we live in the internet age after all - I felt like a fraud, like I was describing something I was guessing at. And my writing suffered. Much better to choose a setting you know intimately, that you can picture in your head with your eyes closed, that you can twist and pull and turn until you know just what is important about the setting and the role it plays in your novel. Maybe this is a physical place - the view outside your window. Maybe this is an imaginary world. Each writer is different. But stray too far outside of your comfort zone and you may find yourself struggling.
3. Setting is More than just Location: When you mention setting people think of the physical place where the novel takes place. But it is more than that. It is also period, duration and time as well as culture and milieu. By this I mean, setting is also about when your novel takes place, how long it spends there in that place and how people think and act there. A novel can be set over a day, a minute, a month. Decades. It can also be set in the past, present and future. As a writer, I find this inextricably linked - part of, in fact - setting. So consider these points when developing your novel.
4. Describe through example. This is basically a fancy way of saying 'show, don't tell.' You may get the point across by writing 'it was raining,' but that is not a particularly memorable way to describe your setting. It is in descriptions such as these that authors create their style, set themselves apart from the rest, draws the reader in. Much better to say, "The hard drops pelted against the sidewalk," or "Water gushed from the low-hanging clouds that sped past over their heads." I'm not saying my examples are the best, but the point is to avoid basic descriptions such as "It was hot," "the leaves were green," "the house was yellow," etc., etc.
5. Keep it Consistent: It is very helpful as a writer if you can picture the setting in your head. I find I can usually do this best when lying in bed before sleep. If not, another good system is to jot down the various elements of your setting in a notebook to keep them in mind. This will help keep your writing consistent throughout your manuscript and "true" to your setting. There's nothing worse than to describe one thing one way in the first chapter and another way 20 chapters in. Astute readers will spot the discrepancy and it will turn them off from your work.
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