Setting as a Storytelling Tool

Hello Internet!

Last week, my classmates and I studied the topic of setting. Now, you might be wondering why a college course--especially one called "Writing Character-Driven Prose"--would devote a week to studying setting. After all, setting is an easy aspect of writing to master, isn't it? Can't you just pick your story's location, describe it like you would the area you're currently sitting in, and be done with it? 

Well, I used to describe story settings by doing just that, and it went very poorly. I primarily used this technique when writing an initial draft of my novel, which is set in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, this technique caused me to include a plethora of unnecessary details in my writing, such as whether objects were located on the character's right or left. While these details made it somewhat easier for me to envision my setting, they also bogged down my story and made things overly complex for my readers. 

So, if that method of describing setting doesn't work, what is a method that does? To answer that question, one must first remember that every sentence in a book must do something to further the story. This doesn't mean that every sentence has to be plot-related; rather, it means that every sentence should convey something about the characters, their world, or their conflicts. Therefore, every provided detail about a story's setting needs to be relevant. 

There are plenty of ways to make a detail about a story's setting relevant. For example, if a setting is described from a particular character's point of view, then the details that the author includes indicate what the character notices or finds important. This can be quite revealing of a character's personality. Alternatively, setting details can be used to foreshadow future plot events, as outlined by the Chekov's Gun principle (the idea that a gun presented in the first act of a story must go off in a later act). In some instances, a setting can even serve as an additional character, provided it offers the story's protagonist a trait to identify with and/or an obstacle to overcome. 

Setting, therefore, is much more than a detailed description of a place. It is a storytelling tool, just like characterization and plot, that must be carefully used to sculpt a story's overall narrative. 

Thanks for reading!

Abby Bethke

Writing Advice: Eliminate details that don't serve any purpose in your story--especially extraneous uses of the descriptors "left" and "right."