When trying to create a story, your setting is one of the first things that you think about. Will this take place in the city or country? How about in a fantasy world with its own laws and rules? Does it take place in the past, present or future? The setting is one of the fundamental components that help create the foundation to a fantastic story.
The settings in a story can take the characters on a journey that helps shape and change the character. The area around the character can affect them in many ways. An example of great use of settings is Game of Thrones. The story takes characters on journeys through numerous settings and locations, each with its own characteristics that set it apart from the others.
The setting also doesn't just mean the overall location at which the story takes place. Multiple secondary settings take place within a story as well Maybe one minute they are sitting at home, a nice normal day; the next minute they're in a mental hospital fighting restraints. Do your characters have a job? Do they go to school? Maybe your setting is even just the single room they're in.
Your setting should help reflect what type of story you want to tell with your characters. Give them a journey. An adventure. Tell a story with just your setting alone, and how time can change not just your characters but the places around them.
So. Where are you?
I usually forget to give my characters jobs, or don't pay much attention to describing where they are. After reading this, I realize it is just as much a part of the story as the plot line itself. Really great blog post!
ReplyDeleteKeeping track of the details is tricky. I wrote that one of my characters fell in dog-dirt, but didn't mention a dog anywhere. Professor Mac pointed this out. Had she not, I'd have been oblivious to the fact that I even needed to explain where it came from.
ReplyDeleteThe setting is a key aspect to keep in mind especially with how it has a relationship with the characters of the story. Sometimes I often forget that as I have a tendency of destroying my settings throughout the course of my stories outside of class whereas in other cases, I tend to go into details that I probably don't need to with it. So how do you know when you've over complicated the setting or if it's not detailed enough?
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