What Is a Story Setting?

A story setting is the backdrop against which the characters act out the events. A story with a poorly portrayed setting is like a play taking place on a virtually bare stage - you have character and plot and theme but no sense of place.

Like I said in the introduction to this section, the best way to think of a story setting is almost like another character.

This character might not walk and talk like the others, but it should nevertheless be compelling and charismatic.

The purpose of this first article is to define what setting is, precisely. It is split into two parts:

First, a checklist of all the elements that a well-drawn setting should contain (and that list extends far beyond houses and streets).

Second, I will talk about how to take this long list of elements and give it focus.

The Eight Elements of a Story Setting

1. The Central Location

In most cases, this will be the city or town or village in which the story takes place. If the location is large, like London, you will probably want to home-in on a district within it - Notting Hill, say. If the location is a small town, it will be the perfect size to act as the primary focus of a novel.

But story settings don't have to be traditional communities, of course. In a seafaring novel, the central location will be the ship. In others, it might be an isolated farmhouse, a prison, a train or a mountain.

2. The Wider Geography

Don't forget what lies beyond the community. A town surrounded by lakes and forests will have a very different atmosphere to one surrounded by heavy industry.

If the coast is 10 miles away, a day trip to the seaside will be an option for the characters. If it is 100 miles away, it won't.

3. Particular Buildings, Etc

Some locations within the overall story setting will be more important than others - the central character's home, the office where they work, the park where they eat their lunch.

You need to devote a lot more attention to the choosing and development of these key locations, because they will be where most of the scenes in the novel are set.

4. Activities and Occupations

This is where we begin to depart from the "bricks and mortar" of novel settings and look at them in a much wider way.

If the main character is a lawyer or a farmer or a detective, for example, the "insider knowledge" of how these jobs are performed is as much a part of the setting as the physical office or farm or police station.

Describing the physical characteristics of a farm - the land, the buildings - is just one aspect of its setting. Describing how to fix a tractor or how to harvest pumpkins adds an extra, and perhaps a more interesting, dimension.

And activities and occupations, of course, also apply to what characters do for fun or for a hobby - restoring classic cars, keeping tropical fish, cross country skiing. Pastimes like these are just as likely to form the heart of a story setting as what a character does for a living.

5. The Flora and Fauna

Most novels make some mention of nature, if only to describe the leaves falling off the oak trees or the sound of bird song.

The more rural the setting, the more you will need to mention the natural world to add realism to the setting. But even big cities have cats and foxes and trees and spiders.

Also remember that authenticity is important. The animal sounds you hear at night in Montana are likely to be very different from the ones you hear in metropolitan Manchester.

6. The Weather

This one, I suppose, is linked to the last, though it is generally a far more important tool to adding atmosphere to a scene in a novel.

A scene that takes place at midday during a heat wave will be very different from the same scene set at midnight with a hurricane blowing in.

Again, don't forget that different locations have different weather patterns. If you are familiar with them, fine. If not, do some research.

7. Local Customs, Etc.

Fairs and carnivals and other local events are another great way of adding dimension to your story setting. The local cuisine can be interesting, too, as can the way a town treats strangers or how it sees in the New Year.

In short, any custom or event or way of carrying on that is unique to your novel's location - whether it is real or something you have invented - is like gold dust to you.

And don't forget the local history and folklore - again, either real or made up.

Describing a town's main street in loving detail will give your story atmosphere. But if you mention, for example, that the locals claim the street is haunted by the ghost of an eight-year-old girl who was killed by a reversing cement truck 50 years ago to the day - that adds some serious atmosphere.

8. Soul

This final element of a novel's setting actually applies to everything I have mentioned so far. And it is simply a way of giving certain aspects of the setting a kind of indefinable "X-factor".

Take the central character's car, for example (yes, cars are a part of the setting as well).

Describing it as a 1954 pink Cadillac with a dent in the hood is a good start, but it remains an inanimate object.

Saying that the car wanders all over the road and the character has to fight with it to keep it on course begins to humanize it, as does the fact that he likes to sit in the car at times of stress because it is the only place in the world he can feel at peace.

Giving a Story Setting Focus

The list above is quite a lengthy one, but it is important to be thorough when creating a setting. The more layers you can add to a story's backdrop, the greater the dimension it will have.

But there are two dangers here...

The first is that setting can begin to take over from the more important aspects of a story - namely, the people and the events. In the novel about the farmer, for example, describing the farm's geography or the method of harvesting pumpkins is important, but it must be kept in the background.

A little snippet here and a little snippet there is good. A three-page essay on how to install an electric fence, with the characters and the events put on hold while you do it, will make your novel sound more like a manual.

The second danger with this all-encompassing approach to creating a setting is that your novel could lack focus.

All of the elements of setting that I have mentioned are important, and you should try to include them all in your fiction. But if you shine a bright spotlight on all of them - on the central character's gardening business and the Italian restaurant she eats in and her passion for beekeeping - then the reader might not know where to look.

So pick the most important element of the story setting - the one which figures most prominently in the plot - and shine the spotlight on that. Everything else can still be present, but only in the more gentle light at the edges.

Next Up: Fictional Settings vs. Real Settings...