Setting

Every writer knows how important setting is to a story, poem, novel, even essay. Setting is where the story is. I’ve been thinking a lot about setting the last few days. Not just about what setting is to a story, but what it means to a character.

Setting can be described in detail, but until it is seen from a character’s eyes, it doesn’t seem real. Until it is felt through the characters emotions, it doesn’t touch the reader. And the truth of that or, the reality of that came home to me this last week.

I can’t say the week has been very productive. Last Wednesday I got a new computer tower. I’ve been struggling with a difficult computer for years. One thing and another going wrong, but me determined to make the dang thing last. I’m what you would call a kept writer. My husband supports my writing financially and emotionally with very little financial help from said writing. I’ll never be able to repay the expenses I’ve incurred: computers (7, at last count), how-to books, subscriptions, software, post-it notes, pens (an obsession, I’ll admit), office space. Finally, my husband and I decided there was nothing to do but to throw in the towel and buy the new computer.

I spent last Thursday and Friday installing programs, Monday and Tuesday getting the whole thing organized the way I like it and Wednesday and yesterday getting comfortable with the new stuff and getting all the settings in Word the way I want them.

I can’t tell you how unsettled I felt until everything was working like I was use to. I felt so lost and that got me thinking about setting again.

Setting, a character’s setting, defines them. Each little piece of that character’s setting gives a hint about that person. There is emotion involved with the setting in which a character finds themselves, always. Setting brings comfort, calm or unease. We feel it. Our characters must, too.
How do you feel when things aren’t where you left them? What’s the first emotion you feel when you come home from a long vacation? How did you feel when your home (or trailer) was robbed and trashed (I know. Do you? That one good thing that can come out of a bad situation. You know. A writer can always take a bad situation; remember and write about it.) What do you feel when you look at that Buddha statue your father gave your mother that you keep on a bookshelf? What does your mother’s tablecloth, the one with the big red roses all over it, mean to you when you pull it out of the drawer?

You must ask all those questions for sound, sight, smell, touch, and emotions. You must ask why and how, too.

The best way I’ve found to include all this in my stories is to look what setting does for me. How do I feel about a place? Why? What makes me happy, uncomfortable, reminds me of something? What are my memories? Are they good or bad?

When you begin making notes for settings, think beyond what setting looks like. Look at what it means to the characters; look at the emotions your setting will foster. Ask questions and never stop asking them.