5 Tips for Crafting Unforgettable Settings

Please welcome C. S. Lakin to Writer Unboxed today! C.S. is an award-winning author of more than 30 books, fiction and nonfiction (which includes more than 10 books in her Writer’s Toolbox series). Her online video courses at Writing for Life Workshops have helped more than 5,000 fiction writers improve their craft. To go deep into creating great settings and evoking emotions in your characters, and to learn essential technique, enroll in Lakin’s courses Crafting Powerful Settings and Emotional Mastery for Fiction Writers. Her blog Live Write Thrive has more than 1 million words of instruction for writers meant to help level-up your writing. Welcome, C.S.!

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Settings in fiction are not just backgrounds; they are living, breathing components of your story that can immerse readers in your narrative world. Whether it’s the bustling streets of a city or the tranquility of a countryside, the setting plays a crucial role in engaging your readers.

Fiction writers often ignore setting. Or it’s casually brushed over as if the writer begrudgingly knows something ought to be said about the place her character is in and just wants to “get it over with” and move on to the interesting elements in the scene.

An attitude like that shows a complete lack of understand of how powerful setting is.

Setting is perhaps the most versatile and useful element in fiction. It can reveal character motivation, backstory, past trauma, and the story’s cast, as well as reveal emotion and supply tension. If you haven’t considered how powerful setting can be, take some time to work on this key element in your fiction.

To help you get started, let’s explore five essential tips to help you understand the various elements of setting and create memorable, immersive worlds for your characters.

Tip 1: Choose Your Locale with Purpose

The choice of where your story unfolds can significantly impact your narrative. Consider locales that align with your plot, characters, and the emotional atmosphere you want to create. Best-selling author Emily St. John Mandel demonstrates this in Station Eleven, where selects settings like the post-apocalyptic wasteland and the Traveling Symphony’s nomadic existence to enhance the sense of survival, loss, and the enduring human spirit.

In Station Eleven, the world has been ravaged by a devastating flu pandemic, leaving behind a desolate landscape. The setting of a post-apocalyptic world serves a dual purpose. First, it magnifies the sense of isolation and vulnerability felt by the characters, emphasizing the fragility of human existence. Second, it becomes a canvas upon which the resilience and creativity of the characters are painted.

The corridor was silent. It was necessary to walk very slowly, her hand on the wall. A man was curled on his side near the elevators, shivering. She wanted to speak to him, but speaking would take too much strength, so she looked at him instead—I see you, I see you—and hoped this was enough.

No more flight. No more towns glimpsed from the sky through airplane windows, points of glimmering light; no more looking down from thirty thousand feet and imagining the lives lit up by those lights at that moment. No more airplanes, no more requests to put your tray table in its upright and locked position—but no, this wasn’t true, there were still airplanes here and there. They stood dormant on runways and in hangars. They collected snow on their wings. In the cold months, they were ideal for food storage. In summer the ones near orchards were filled with trays of fruit that dehydrated in the heat.

Tip 2: Utilize a Diverse Range of Settings

While some stories may focus on a single, specific location, many benefit from diverse settings. Incorporating various locales that align with your characters’ experiences and goals can add depth and interest to your narrative.

In the world of Harry Potter, the settings are as diverse as the characters themselves. From the bustling streets of Diagon Alley, where young witches and wizards shop for their school supplies, to the foreboding corridors of Hogwarts Castle, each location serves a purpose in the story. The Forbidden Forest, for example, with its dark and mysterious aura, becomes the backdrop for critical moments of danger and discovery.

Tip 3: Infuse Emotional Value into Settings

Connected settings, places imbued with emotional value, can enhance your story’s impact. These settings trigger emotions, revealing character backstory and influencing character behavior. Consider Stephen King’s The Shining, where the Overlook Hotel becomes a place of terror and madness, reflecting the inner turmoil of the characters.

The Overlook Hotel is more than just a backdrop; it’s a character in its own right. As the Torrance family arrives to take care of the hotel during the winter months, the setting becomes increasingly menacing. The hotel’s dark history, coupled with the isolation of its remote location, intensifies the psychological horror that ensues. The setting itself becomes a source of fear, as the hotel’s malevolent influence preys on the vulnerabilities of the characters.

Tip 4: Create Mood through Settings

Settings can set the mood for a scene, influencing both characters and readers. Utilize sensory descriptions, lighting, and weather to convey specific emotions. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the opulent mansions and extravagant parties of the Roaring Twenties to evoke a sense of decadence and disillusionment.

Fitzgerald transports readers to the dazzling, yet ultimately hollow, world of the 1920s upper class. The opulent mansions of Long Island and the extravagant parties hosted by Jay Gatsby himself become symbols of excess and superficiality. Through vivid descriptions of these settings, Fitzgerald creates a mood of extravagance and decadence that masks the underlying emptiness of the characters’ lives.

In In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the post-apocalyptic world reflects the story’s themes of survival and hopelessness.

He stood looking around the garage. A metal barrel full of trash. He went into the office. Dust and ash everywhere. The boy stood in the door. A metal desk, a cash register. Some old automotive manuals, swollen and sodden. The linoleum was stained and curling from the leaking roof. He crossed to the desk and stood there. Then he picked up the phone and dialed the number of his father’s house in that long ago. The boy watched him. What are you doing? he said.

Tip 5: Use Weather Effectively

Weather isn’t just background noise; it’s a powerful tool to enhance your narrative. Weather can affect characters’ moods, create tension, and serve as a plot device.

Let’s take another look at The Road. The relentless bleakness of the world mirrors the grim struggle for survival undertaken by the story’s protagonists, a father and son. The ashen skies, unending rain, and the scarcity of life contribute to an atmosphere of despair and hopelessness. McCarthy’s skillful use of weather as a thematic and emotional element reinforces the story’s central themes of resilience and the enduring bond between parent and child.

He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief.

Crafting compelling settings is an art that can elevate your storytelling. Remember to choose your locales purposefully, incorporate diverse settings, infuse emotional value, create mood, and use weather effectively. By following these tips, you can transport your readers to vivid and unforgettable worlds, making your stories all the more immersive and engaging.

Whether your story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic wasteland or the glittering excess of the Roaring Twenties, the right setting can breathe life into your narrative and leave a lasting impression on your readers.

Where is your story set? How have you brought life and power to that place? What might you do to make that place even more vivid, more meaningful to your narrative? The floor is yours.