Construct the Novel's Setting

Building a novel's setting is a subject that is glossed over in a lot of creative writing guides - but not here at Novel Writing Help.

A story without a setting is like a blank stage. It is soul-less, devoid of atmosphere - which is why I have called the dedicated section on how to build a novel's setting "Writing a Story with Atmosphere".

"In certain fiction, the setting lives from the very first pages. Such places not only feel extremely real, they are dynamic. They change. They affect the characters in the story. They become metaphors, possibly even actors in the drama."
- Donald Maass

Now, this might not be immediately obvious, but the setting of a story is actually a very similar thing to a character in a novel.

In some ways, in fact, the setting is another character.

Settings might not walk and talk but, in the best novels and movies, they can nevertheless have a powerful presence - just as powerful as the presence of any human.

And from the point of view of us writers, creating a setting is done in precisely the same way as creating the characters - you simply need to get to know it before you start writing.

Why? Because if the setting has not come to life in your own imagination before you start writing, you cannot hope to bring it to life in the imaginations of your readers.

How Do You Build a Novel's Setting?

The first thing you will need to do is learn what a setting is, precisely. A setting, you see, includes so much more than streets and buildings and the surrounding countryside. It also encompasses things like:

  • The weather
  • The flora and fauna
  • The history and folklore of the community

Having decided what a novel's setting is, the next task is to get to know it, and you do this in precisely the same way that you would get to know a fictional character - namely, by fleshing it out on paper.

Largely, you do this through writing descriptions of the town, the buildings, the weather patterns, and so on. But you might also want to make maps and take photographs - or do anything that will help the setting come alive in your mind.

The other thing you need to do here is carry out any necessary research. Depending on the type of novel you have in mind, this might be a tiny task or a huge one...

  • If you are writing a contemporary domestic drama set in your own hometown (or a fictional version of it), you are pretty much going to know everything you need to know already.
  • If you are writing a spy novel or an historical novel set in medieval England, you will have plenty of background reading to do and facts and figures to research.

Like I said, you will find instructions on how to do all these things either in the Setting section on the website or, in more detail, in my Downloadable Writing Guide.

Next Step...

In a moment, you are going to take all of these story elements you have been working on individually and combine them into what I call a novel's "Master Plan".

(At that point, you'll be relieved to know, it will be time to start some actual writing!)

But first off, you need to work on the fifth and final story element: Writing Your Novel's Central Plot...

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