creative writing about setting

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✍️ Setting Writing Exercises

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We found 11 setting exercises that match your search 🔦 reset

Write a description of the room you are in from the point-of-view of a character in your work-in-progress. If the character is from another time or place, so much the better. What would the character notice first? What would she find odd? What would she love about the room? What would she dislike? Go beyond describing the physical space and capture her attitude about what she sees. Let her be snarky or wax poetical. Whatever captures her emotions about the space.

Mood Swings

I recommend starting this exercise with a travel magazine packed with lots of interesting photos. Select an image that appeals to you. Now, write a short scene from the viewpoint of a character who has just arrived at this location and is seeing it for the first time. Describe the setting through the character's eyes, paying particular attention to the mood that this image evokes in you. Evoke this mood in your readers through the reactions of the character - look for sensory images!Now, write a second scene, with the same or a different character - and evoke just the OPPOSITE mood. If your castle seemed tranquil and romantic, set a scene in which the mood is menacing or sorrowful. If the image of that tropical beach made you feel relaxed and happy, create a scene in which, instead, it is causing your character to feel angry or anxious. Again, look for sensory details and impressions that will convince your reader and evoke that same mood through your words - regardless of what mood the picture alone might have evoked!

From The Ground Up

Choose a place you've never been to. (If you have a map, you can close your eyes and pick a random spot for an extra challenge!) Do some research and try to learn everything you can about that location and make it the setting for the next scene you write. Try to include as many details as possible to make it seem like you've actually been there. For example, what does it smell like? What kind of people would you see there? What is the climate like?

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Establishing The Background

Think of some information your readers will need to learn to understand the story. This could be technical information or character backstory. Now write an argument between two characters in which you use conflict to share this information.

The Art of Description

• A market in the South of France
• A teenage bedroom
• A hairdresser's salon
• The souk in Marrakesh
• A stately home

Describe Your Surroundings

We've all read about the grey autumn day, the crisp spring morning, the dewey summer evening. Flex your descriptive muscles by spending some time writing about your surroundings. Look for new, interesting, evocative ways to explain the world around you. For instance, instead of writing, "a breeze blew in through the open window, try, "papers fluttered in the gust that swept in through the window, throwing dust into the air like confetti."

Consider the World View

When describing your setting, consider who's looking at it as well as what they see. For example, an ex-con is likely to view (and describe) a restaurant hosting a police officer's retirement party differently than the daughter of the retiring officer. Take the point-of-view-character's world view and personal judgment into consideration. What details would they specifically notice? How would they feel about what they see? What emotions or thoughts might those details trigger? This allows you to craft richer settings that reflect both the character, and the world they live in.

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Elements of setting: How to create a vivid world

The elements of setting – time, place, mood, social and cultural context – help to make a novel feel real and alive. This is an essential element of writing that helps anchor your writing within a specific place. Read more about using the ingredients of setting to make your story more vivid:

• Post author By Bridget McNulty
• 3 Comments on Elements of setting: How to create a vivid world

Defining setting

Let’s first define setting. This can be the time frame or/and the location, and environment in which your story takes place. Setting is as vital a part of your story as characterisation or plot. Some novels are rooted in setting, such as many mystery novels where the setting becomes vital to the action. But many stories rely on setting, so it’s worth getting this right and creating your fictional world in detail. 

What are the 4 key elements of setting?

The core elements of setting are:

Time in setting  can refer to the length of time in which the story unfolds (as short as a day or as long as 1,000 years or more).

Time  can also refer to time period , the historical epoch (for example the Middle Ages) in which your novel is set. [When you brainstorm your core setting in the Now Novel dashboard, answer prompts about both to add time details to your story’s outline.]

‘Place’ is the ‘where’ of story setting. Place in your novel is the geographical location or or physical location of the story’s events, fictional settings that take place on a specific planet (or in space), in a specific country, county, city or neighbourhood (or span several).

The ‘mood’ of a story’s setting refers to the tone you create by providing details of time and place. The mood of a dank and rustling wood is very different to that of a bustling, bright metropolis.

Lastly, ‘context’ in setting refers to the way time and place come together to show how elements of setting (such as politics, culture, society) shape (or limit) people’s choices and actions.

Read the following tips on using each of these 4 elements of setting well:

1. How to create a sense of time in a novel

A. use time of day to dramatic effect.

Details such as the time of day add colour and variety to your novel’s mood. Characters leaving on a mission in the dead of night  instead of the daytime may create a much greater sense of urgency, threat or secrecy, for example.

Think also of the symbolic meanings people attach to time in stories. Daybreak can symbolize rebirth, renewal or the return of safety. Nighttime could symbolize danger, mystery or death. Or peace, tranquility, solitude.

Even if you don’t explicitly reference the time of day or year in a scene, it can help to add one to your outline so that you have other details in mind as you draft and describe your scene.

B. Show time passing to create urgency or anticipation

Show time passing in your story setting to help the reader see that the action of your story unfolds within a shifting, changing world.

A classic example of this we return to often is the ending of Evelyn Waugh’s  Brideshead Revisited . The protagonist returns to a grand manor he once knew to find it damaged considerably in the war. This passage of time creates a nostalgic, ‘you can’t go home again’ effect.

A sense of time passing is especially important where there is urgency. In a murder mystery, for example, each passing sunrise and sunset without a new lead is another opportunity for the ‘baddie’ to strike.

Showing how time’s passage changes your setting is a great way to add development to your story’s backdrop.

C. Make your time period realistic

It takes readers out of your story when you have a medieval knight saying ‘that’s sick’ or ‘cool’.

Unless your characters are supposed to time-travel, make sure your time setting is realistic and consistent.

Also ensure that you have a handle on the social environment (or cultural environment) of the setting of your story. What world or political events take place in an historic setting, and how might this contribute to the plot, for example? What is the etiquette like: are women allowed to walk the streets alone? 

If you’re writing historical fiction in particular, keep a cheat file of every detail about your setting. Research what people ate, wore and believed and how they spoke. You don’t have to include every detail in your draft. Some information is just for you to know, so you can keep details believable.

2. How to write place in a book

The second key element of setting, place, is equally as important as time . If your characters’ actions are anchored in a vivid location, they will seem much more real. To make your story locations vivid:

A. Research real locations thoroughly

Setting your book in a real place means that you need to understand it: Not only its geography but also what kind of life a traveler would find there.

To research a real contemporary location:

• See if it’s available to explore using Google Street View – your own virtual guided tour will make it much easier to describe
• Read through information about your chosen real-world setting on regional government websites.
• Read other works of fiction set in the same place and time. Many fiction writers take liberties with describing real places. But creative accounts can develop your own imaginative grasp of a place

Even if your fictional world is entirely made up – a distant planet in the solar system that has been colonized in the year 5000, for example – you can base it on a real world location for inspiration.

B. Show place with description

‘Show don’t tell’ is repeated so often that you’re probably tired of hearing it. But this is especially true for place description in setting.

Instead of just telling the reader that the train rolled into the big city, show the big city . Describe some of its buildings, or its landmarks, or the faces on the station platform [Brainstorm individual locations such as landmarks or a station by creating a ‘small-scale setting’ in the World Builder on Now Novel].

Describe the features that would strike a newcomer most. The better you observe and show place in your novel, the easier it is for readers to enjoy your fictional world.

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C. Go there if possible

If you’re writing about a real place and you’ve never been there in person, go if it’s at all possible. As writer Suzannah Windsor Freeman says, when creating a story setting sometimes ‘research doesn’t cut it’.

Research and looking at photos of the destination combined can give you enough material to create a keen sense of place, but actually walking the streets where your novel is set will help to inspire your storytelling and enrich it with plenty of detail.

3. How to create mood in your story’s setting

Creating a precise mood with your setting is important because:

• It signals to the reader how they should read the unfolding action: Is there a sense of danger or adventure? Is the story reaching a point of higher stakes or is the action winding down?
• It creates contrast – the light and shade – that keeps a story’s environments interesting and believable

Setting can also be used to contribute to the plot and perhaps show the character development of your cast. For example you can show that a character has grown up and become more responsible because their house has been freshly painted, and looks neat now. 

Some tips for using the elements of setting to establish a clear mood:

A. Use common connotations of places and times

Different places are associated with different things: A mountain pass might be associated with travel and adventure while the seaside might be associated with relaxation and introspection.

Similarly, winter might be associated with introspection or depression while summer is associated with extroversion and a jubilant mood.

If you want to emphasize that a negative situation is turning around for your character, you might show the transition to a new life alongside a change in the seasons.

Underscoring the action of your novel with mood this way heightens its sense of drama and change.

B. Show how time and place affect characters’ moods

You could use the mood of your setting to also reveal aspects of your characters’ personalities and desires.

For example, if your character loves to spend time in a library, this may show that they are an intellectual person (or simply a person who loves books or quiet).

Think about the relation between place and time and how your character might change depending on their surrounds.

4. How  to write context for your story’s setting

Context is one of the most important elements of setting for plot . The social, cultural, historical, political and environmental details tied to time and place shape people’s lives in many ways. Creating this context for story settings is important because:

• It shows what possibilities and limitations are placed on your characters by their place and time
• Context gives readers a more detailed sense of your fictional world (readers know how power is divided, how people celebrate, and other cultural details).

To make the context element of your setting more real:

A. Think about how society is organised in your setting

Let’s consider the environmental setting of your world, not just the scenery, but what is happening socially and politically. Think about the kind of your society your characters live in. From country to country, different cultural practices are the norm. Think about what the practices will be in your novel’s own place and time. Will your main character uphold these traditions or challenge and rebel against them?

B. Make notes on every aspect of a real-world context

If your novel is set in a real-world time period and location, make notes on all the context-related elements of setting. Do light research and summarize information about:

• Demographics (what is the social makeup of your setting: What different groups and belief systems occupy the land?)
• Political system
• Social views (are most people leftist, centrist or on the right of the spectrum?)
• Cultural practices (For example, what is the standard greeting? What words or gestures are considered offensive?)

Your novel doesn’t need to reference each of these elements explicitly (a romance novel most likely won’t explore politics). Yet having an idea of the most dominant viewpoints and ways of life of a place and time will help you to create characters and dialogue that feel right for the setting.

Use the ‘Core Setting’ section of Now Novel’s story dashboard to work out your story’s memorable setting .

I started using Now Novel to assist me with my story’s structure. The prompts were helpful in developing my characters, settings, and scenes. The story outline was a valuable asset that guided me through my rough draft. The feedback from my personal writing coach took my writing to the next level. — Kathy

Related Posts:

• Vivid story setting description: Examples and insights
• How to create a fantasy world that everyone will believe
• Story setting ideas: 6 effective setting examples and tips
• Tags elements of setting , world-building

By Bridget McNulty

Bridget McNulty is a published author, content strategist, writer, editor and speaker. She is the co-founder of two non-profits: Sweet Life Diabetes Community, South Africa's largest online diabetes community, and the Diabetes Alliance, a coalition of all the organisations working in diabetes in South Africa. She is also the co-founder of Now Novel: an online novel-writing course where she coaches aspiring writers to start - and finish! - their novels. Bridget believes in the power of storytelling to create meaningful change.

3 replies on “Elements of setting: How to create a vivid world”

This is the factor that will bring the world that you created to your readers, connecting them to it. That is why you need to put more effort into making your setting come alive.

If you don’t mind, I want to know your thoughts about this blog: https://gregvanarsdale.com/guide-to-creating-vivid-setting-for-your-fiction/

I will surely appreciate your opinions.

Hi Lydia, thank you for sharing that. I would say it could use a little further editing for paragraph structure and length, as well as more headings. Clarity and argument could be tweaked a little too, but it’s on its way.

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Story setting ideas list of writing prompts.

I keep a list of settings. In fact, I keep a list of many things to help jar my creativity while brainstorming—core fears, phobias, careers for characters, character types—just about anything I think might help my brain make a creative cross-connection and get a new idea. I look at brainstorming as a musician practices playing scales—exercising my creativity just makes it stronger.

Of all the lists I keep, story setting ideas is one I use often. When I am freethinking, I close my eyes and point at random. Sometimes when I’m stuck in my manuscript, I look over this list and see if I can’t jar an idea loose. Sometimes I match the settings up. I also use other lists and randomly choose from one list, then the other. Anything to get my creative juices going again.

Here is my list of places or settings for you to begin your own list and use as creative writing prompts.

Story Setting Ideas List

Write about what happens at a(n):

__________ Academy            Abbey                                     Airport

Alley(s)                                   Alligator Farm                       Art Gallery

Art Studio                              Artist Colony                          Auto Junkyard

Ancient Pyramid                  Animal Sanctuary                  Animal Shelter

Animal Research Facility   Art Museum                           Aquarium

Barber Shop                          Baseball Stadium                  Basement

Beach                                      Beauty Salon                          Blood Bank

Blood Drive                           Bookstore                                Botanical Garden

Bridge                                     Buddhist Temple

Cabin                                      Castle                                      Casino

Cathedral                               Cave (Bat, Collapsed, Crystal)

Cemetery                               Center for Disease Control Laboratory

Cheap Hotel                          Chinatown (any city)            Church

Circus                                     City Dump                              City Rooftop(s)

City Street                             Coal Mine                                Coffee House

College Dorm Room           Concert Hall                            Corporate Board Room

Day Spa                                  Distillery

Fairground                             Fishing Boat                           Floating Fish Factory

Football Stadium                  Fort

Garden                                    Graveyard                               Gymnasium

Highway Rest Stop                Hospital                                  Hospital Board Room

Insectarium                          Jazz Club

Landfill                                   Lighthouse                             Logging Camp (Town)

Mansion                                 Mannequin Factory              Medical Laboratory

Mississippi River Barge      Mosque

New Orleans during Mardi Gras

Nuclear Reactor                     Nursing Home

Observatory                           Opera House

Palace                                     Park                                   Pet Grooming Salon

Precious Metal Mine (Gold, Silver, Copper)                      Priory

Prison                                     Police Station                       Pottery Studio

Previously Undiscovered Island

Previously Undiscovered Planet

Principal’s Office

Racetrack                               Rainforest                              Roadside Motel

Roadkill Pickup Truck

Salt Mine                                Sanitarium                             Schoolroom

School Lab                             Secret Hideaway                   Sewer

Shack                                      Shoeshine Stand                   Shopping Mall

Small Town                           Spider Farm                           Steel Mill

Steam Ship (or Boat)          Synagogue

Temple                                   Theater                                  Tower

Trailer Park                           Train Graveyard                  Train Station

Wax Museum                       Wildlife Ranch                       Windmill

Winery                                   Woods                                      Worm Ranch

Story Setting Ideas List, Somewhere Famous

Alcatraz                                              Amazon Rain Forest

Angkor Wat, Cambodia                  Buckingham Palace

Death Valley                                      Disneyland

Easter Island                                     Forbidden City

Galapagos Islands                            Golden Gate Bridge

Grand Canyon                                   Great Barrier Reef

Great Wall                                          Hollywood

Jerusalem                                           Kashmir Valley

Machu Picchu                                    Mount Everest

Nile                                                      Palace of Versailles

Pike’s Peak                                         Pompeii

Potala Palace, Tibet                         Pyramids of Giza and Great Sphinx

Sahara Desert                                   Serengeti

Sistine Chapel                                   Statue of Liberty

Stonehenge                                        Taj Mahal

Tombstone                                         Uffizi Gallery

Valley of the Kings                           Venice (Canals)

The White House                              Zen Garden of Kyoto

Story Setting Ideas, Combine Setting with Another Idea

Insert a place from above into one of the following creative writing prompts and see what happens. As Stephen King says: “…good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun…”

Pet __________ (okay, Pet Cemetery has been done and so has the idea of combining a pet and racetrack ( The Art of Racing in the Rain) but what about other stories including pets? What about pet & theater? Pet & palace? Pet & casino? Pet & circus? Pet & Stonehenge?)

Old Folks __________ (yes, “home” is the first thought, but keep going.) What about old folks & circus? Old folks & college dorm room? Old folks & garden—Yikes! I just had a thought about planting old folk parts and getting…what? Veggies that if you eat them, you become possessed? Or is this garden a connection to the otherworld? Will the garden produce wisdom? Prophets? Or a zombie plague?

See how this works? So get your creative juices flowing and don’t look back.

Abandoned __________ (logging camp, church, fish boat, trailer park…you get the idea)

Haunted __________

A murder at ­­­­­­­­­­__________

A secret at __________

A magical __________

An evil __________

A previously undiscovered __________

__________ in the woods

Old __________ turned into apartments

A __________ shrine

A __________ museum

A __________ graveyard

Story Setting Ideas, Combine Two Settings

Write about a blood drive at a nuclear reactor. Or a roadkill pickup truck at a casino. What about an animal protection sanctuary on city rooftops? A mannequin factory near Stonehenge or a secret hideaway wax museum?

Lots of ideas come to mind—not all good, but that’s okay! The point is to jog your brain (or muse) into generating new connections. As your subconscious tries to make sense of connections, ideas will come. Try it. May many excellent, fresh, exciting ideas come flooding your way!

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16 Comments

August 24, 2012 at 11:30 am

August 24, 2012 at 1:27 pm

You are so welcome, Kim 🙂

September 5, 2012 at 4:55 pm

Your settings list is great. It just may become my settings list. 😉 For some reason as I scrolled through, “City Dump” piqued my interest the most. Haha.

September 6, 2012 at 6:05 am

I’m glad you find the list helpful, Lauren. You gotta accept inspiration no matter where it takes you, right? 🙂 The settings I seem to choose (or more to the point–that choose me) always end up gritty and less on the “romantic” side of life. Sigh.

April 11, 2013 at 4:15 am

This is great! really useful!! I often use places that I have been as the starting point. In my latest story I used the tomb raider temple that I visted in Cambodia as the base for the setting in one of the scenes. I started with a picture in my minds eye and my imagination did the rest!! Twitter – @anagranimals

April 14, 2013 at 1:07 pm

Wow, Leith, that sounds like quite a trip! Once I get a “mind’s eye” scene, I do the same, I’m off to the keyboard (or pen–depending on my mood 🙂

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March 7, 2016 at 9:41 pm

hello. I am just beginning to write and I found this website very helpful for my setting. When I finish the book ill put in a note thanking your website.

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January 31, 2018 at 7:20 am

Can’t wait to try this with my homeschool class tomorrow! I have 7th-12th grades.

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Top 200 Setting Ideas for a Story, from Expert Writers

Last Updated on October 20, 2023 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next story idea, look no further! This article has 500 setting ideas to help get your creative juices flowing. Expert writers have contributed their favorite settings , so you’re sure to find something that sparks your imagination. With this wealth of ideas at your fingertips, you can write a truly unique story or write a paper online with someone’s help. Short story ideas don’t get much better than this.

List of the Top 200 Setting Ideas for Writing a Story

• A dark forest full of traps and magical creatures
• The seafloor
• A derelict space station floating in orbit around a distant planet
• An abandoned amusement park at night
• The surface of an unknown planet, far away from Earth
• The center of a massive mountain range where nobody has ever ventured
• A massive library full of real, physical books that no one has ever read before
• The very tip-top floor of a massive skyscraper
• An isolated prison in the middle of an endless desert
• The house is at the end of a long, winding road leading to nowhere else but more road with no landmarks or distinguishing characteristics
• A small farmhouse on a large plot of farmland, surrounded by woods and swamps on all sides
• An abandoned warehouse filled with secret passageways that are impossible to find without help from someone who knows them by heart
• The surface of Mars during sunrise over Olympus Mons Crater
• On an elevated platform at the center of a small island
• The very, very bottom floor of a massive skyscraper that has been abandoned since construction was completed
• An underground cave system where one can go for days without seeing sunlight or another living being
• A space shuttle orbiting around Jupiter
• In the belly of a massive whale as it swims through dark, frigid waters filled with horrific monsters and other life forms from Earth’s deepest nightmares.
• On the surface of Venus during sunrise over Sif Mons Crater
• In a massive library filled to the brim with books so old, they crumble to dust when touched by human hands, at least if their age is not protected by magic or advanced technology beyond what humanity understands today
• A massive tree with a labyrinth of interconnected rooms and underground tunnels deep within its roots, filled with strange creatures like nothing ever seen on Earth before
• The center of the sun
• In the mouth of a massive dragon as it flies through the sky
• On an abandoned oil platform in the middle of an ocean where strange sea creatures lurk and unknowable horrors hide just out of sight under dark, stormy waters
• Beneath the surface of Europa during sunrise over Valhalla Crater
• A massive cave system that has been occupied by orcs for centuries upon centuries
• An endless desert where sandstorms strike without warning and can carry entire structures away if they aren’t built properly to withstand the elements
• A small, floating island somewhere in the Indian Ocean that is only accessible every seven years when the tides pull it closer to other islands and civilizations ashore
• In a tent at a massive music festival miles away from civilization
• Underground while being chased by trolls with weapons forged from precious metals and stones no human has ever seen before
• On a far-off planet orbiting a distant star where friendly inhabitants will welcome you with open arms, but be careful about what you accept or take from them–the planetary economy might not be able to handle Earth’s money supply
• Inside Amazon forest
• In a small town in the center of a large valley surrounded by dense forests and thick swamps
• In a dark alley in New York City at night, desperately trying to find your way home from work before something bad happens
• A small town that has been cut off from civilization for centuries upon centuries, isolated from humanity behind seemingly impenetrable walls built to keep out dangerous monsters that lurk outside the village’s limits
• A small shuttlecraft piloted by an AI on its way to explore Pluto and beyond
• In a massive city made of towers stacking high into the sky, each one attached to another by bridges and elevators that stretch from floor to floor
• A single room in an apartment complex near a major city where strange noises and smells come from beneath the floorboards late at night
• The depths of an ancient jungle filled with giant trees and nocturnal predators whose roars echo through the forest like nothing ever heard before on Earth
• Atop a large mountain looking down upon a vast desert filled with sand dunes as far as the eye can see
• On an abandoned oil platform in the middle of an ocean where strange sea creatures lurk, and unknowable horrors hide just out of sight under dark, stormy waters
• Across the surface of Europa during sunrise over Valhalla Crater
• Outdoor Skating Rink
• Seaside Towns
• Parisian Cafe
• Middle Eastern Bazaar
• Rain Forest
• Hollywood Theatre
• Moto X Track
• Train Station
• Castle Dungeon
• Greek Island Resort
• Alaskan Wilderness
• Redwood Forest
• Subway Station
• Ocean Liner
• Space Shuttle LaunchPad
• English Countryside Manor House
• Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Theatre
• Disneyland Park
• Sports Stadiums and Arenas
• Military Bases and
• Palace and Gardens of Versailles
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Central Park in New York City
• Amusement Parks
• Water Parks and Theme Piers
• Stadiums and Arenas (Indoor)
• Museum of Natural History (NYC)
• Casinos & Gentlemen’s Clubs
• Lighthouses
• The White House (Washington, DC)
• Fruit and Vegetable Market in South Central LA
• Airports and Airlines
• Ships Before They Sink
• Space Satellite Control Center (Houston)
• High-Rise Buildings (NYC, Chicago, etc.)
• The Planet Mars
• Mountain Ranges on Earth
• Urban Streets of Any Large City
• Rural Towns in Any Region of the World
• Movie Premiere Venues, Awards Shows & Conventions
• Night Clubs & Bars (NYC)
• The Great Wall of China (Northern China)
• Russian State Duma Building (Moscow)
• Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)
• Rio de Janeiro City Streets During Carnival
• Harbor Alley in Hong Kong at Night
• Abandoned Amusement Parks (Asbury Park, New Jersey)
• The North Pole and the Arctic Ocean
• Concert Halls & Opera Houses
• Any Major Sports Stadium or Arena
• Movie Theatres
• Public Parks
• Downtown Zoos & Aquariums
• Gas Stations & Convenience Stores
• Clothing Racks in High-End Department Stores
• Shopping Malls
• Museums, Art Galleries, Libraries & Historical Sites
• War Memorials and Monuments
• Historic Homes and Buildings
• Restaurants with Diners Outside
• Boardwalks with Shops and Stands
• Famous Hotel Pools & Resorts
• The Great Pyramids of Giza (Northern Egypt)
• Miles of Seawall in Galveston, Texas
• Inside a Presidential Limousine Riding Through Town
• Carnival Cruise Ships
• A futuristic manufacturing facility
• A world filled with genetically modified creatures
• An old-west town that has been magically restored to its 19th century glory days (and beyond!)
• A lighthouse on an isolated island
• A rickety old wooden bridge collapsed into the raging river below it
• An industrial complex filled with glowing debris and strange machinery
• A castle in the middle of a deep, dark forest
• A boarding school built on an alien planet
• The edge of space broken by an enormous asteroid field and marked with craters and jagged ridges where stars have fallen to Earth (and beyond!)
• A tropical archipelago filled with exotic wildlife that is home to dangerous sea life
• A quiet coastal town full of quaint little houses sitting at the bottom end of a steep cliffside overlooking calm, glassy waters
• An untamed wilderness filled with wild creatures and beasts of many kinds
• A world where the sun is just a bright point in the sky, but there are entire civilizations out there that have completely abandoned their star for another one entirely. There’s no way to travel between them without making a trip through an inter-dimensional rift or wormhole
• A futuristic mega-city at night, full of glowing billboards advertising products that no one will ever buy (and there’s a great deal more to discover!)
• A forgotten temple complex nestled in the foothills of a dormant volcano
• An isolated corner of the cosmos, lit only by distant stars and several smaller moons
• A frozen wasteland
• The Oval Office of the White House
• Slum Areas in Any Major City Around the World
• Abandon Prison Camps from WWI and WWII
• In a cave deep beneath a mountain on another world
• Entirely Inside a Computer Program
• The deck of a pirate ship sailing the open seas
• A tropical island forgotten by time
• A train caught in an avalanche
• Inside the body of a giant monster rampaging through the countryside, looking for something to eat
• A city made entirely out of ice and snow.
• An empty school after everyone has gone home for the day
• A derelict luxury liner adrift in space (with a secret inside!)
• Inside an Imaginarium (or similar fantasy machine)
• Construction Sites
• Any city street, alleyway, or back-alley
• A cruise ship adrift at sea
• An aircraft carrier or battleship sitting in the middle of an abandoned port
• An ancient temple deep within a jungle
• The inside of a spaceship or space station has crash-landed on an alien world (and beyond!)
• A barren desert with nothing more than dead land for as far as the eye can see
• Any massive stadium or sports arena that has been abandoned by its owners
• A crowded subway train at rush hour
• The inside of a refrigerator, freezer, walk-in cooler, meat locker, etc.
• A wealthy man’s lavish estate sitting alone on top of a hill overlooking the city below it
• The peak of an active volcano
• Ancient Underground Cities
• On the set of a cheesy old science fiction movie from the 1960s
• A lush jungle of tall, sprawling trees that are completely covered in thick vines and tangled undergrowth
• A strange world where everything looks wrong (that’s how it always starts!)
• A post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by desperate survivors scavenging for resources to survive another day. There are still pockets of civilization here and there, but they have fallen into chaos as the population has dwindled due to starvation or plague. The landscape is littered with debris from the former days, while the skies are a burning orange and red. The air is thick with ash and dust, making breathing difficult at best.
• A mysterious technological planet filled with massive construction projects that seem to have no purpose whatsoever
• An alien world full of colorful plants/animals (and other creatures) that somehow still manages to be boring as hell. There aren’t many places for settlers to set up shop, so it’s mostly just a large.
• A beautiful world filled to the brim with dragons and other amazing creatures, but also completely devoid of life.
• A peaceful world with lush fields, rolling hills, and deep forests where life is bright and cheery. The sky is always clear blue; there are no storms or hurricanes to be found.
• Mount Rushmore
• The inside of a giant glass dome where the air is breathable, no one can see in or out. The inhabitants are completely cut off from the outside world (except radio communications)
• A once proud civilization was reduced to ruins by an unknown enemy.
• The cold vacuum of space, where nothing lives or grows
• A quiet little town that has been completely abandoned for reasons still being investigated. It’s everyone for themselves out here in the wasteland, and sometimes people just get sick of living life on their own
• The inside of a massive haunted house or castle
• The inside of a giant amusement park filled with all sorts of rides and attractions. Unfortunately, the park has been deserted for decades, so anything that can move is inoperable. The vast majority of people who went missing over the years were just sucked into this place when they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• A peaceful village in the mountains where everything is quiet and calm. It’s all fun and games until someone shows up with a gun, demanding whatever valuables you might be hiding away. Once they get what they want, you’re either forced into servitude or simply executed on the spot (depending on how nice their boss happens to be feeling at the time)
• The inside of a department store during the busiest shopping day of the year
• A dark and dangerous world where mutants, robots, cyborgs, zombies, and other vile creatures are constantly trying to kill each other.
• Inside the great pyramid of Giza
• A massive cruise ship that has been stranded at sea
• A futuristic manufacturing facility with
• A city of the undead
• A post-apocalyptic wasteland
• A futuristic sports arena inside a mountain range
• A great white wasteland covered entirely in snow and ice. The temperature is far too cold for any sort of human settlement.
• A crowded coffee shop
• An abandoned mansion
• A field in springtime
• An erupting volcano
• The cockpit of an airplane during takeoff or landing in rough weather (I like this one. I’d go for the cockpit of a passenger airliner.)
• A library at night
• The first row at a rock concert
• Mount Everest
• Underwater (Like “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”)
• On top of a skyscraper during a thunderstorm at night (Like that part in Spiderman 3 where Spidey’s fighting the Lizard and what’s-his-name.)
• On the ring road around Paris at rush hour (I’ve never been to France, but it sure sounds like hell in this instance.)

The Importance of Setting in Creative Writing

The setting is the blueprint from which your story is built. Knowing how to use it effectively can turn a good story into a great one and a mediocre story into a complete failure.

The advantages of a good setting are many:

1) It creates a sense of comfort in the reader who reads your short story.

2) It can increase suspense when used properly.

3) It adds depth and realism to the story, making it easier for readers to escape their daily lives and immerse themselves in your work.

4) If you do it right, it can give your story an amazing and lasting sense of wonder and nostalgia.

5) The story setting becomes a character in and of itself, with its motives and goals that may or may not align with those of the main characters (or even change as the story goes on).

6) It helps to make your writing more vivid and concise.

7) It becomes a tool you can utilize to provide foreshadowing and build tension.

8) It helps determine plot direction, character motivation, pacing, etc.

9) It becomes one of the first things your readers will notice about your work, so it must be done right from the beginning.

The setting is the foundation upon which your story is built. Do it wrong, and your efforts will come crumbling down around you, but get it right, and you’ll have a masterpiece on your hands.

Thanks for reading my blog, and Happy Writing ! What’s your favorite kind of setting? Mine is anything post-apocalyptic, as long as there are mutants and zombies. 🙂

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Tips on Great Writing: Setting the Scene

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• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

The setting is the place and time in which the action of a narrative takes place. It's also called the scene or creating a sense of place. In a work of creative nonfiction , evoking a sense of place is an important persuasive technique: "A storyteller persuades by creating scenes, little dramas that occur in a definite time and place, in which real people interact in a way that furthers the aims of the overall story," says Philip Gerard in "Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life" (1996).

Examples of Narrative Setting

• "The first den was a rock cavity in a lichen-covered sandstone outcrop near the top of a slope, a couple of hundred yards from a road in Hawley. It was on posted property of the Scrub Oak Hunting Club -- dry hardwood forest underlain by laurel and patches of snow -- in the northern Pocono woods. Up in the sky was Buck Alt. Not long ago, he was a dairy farmer, and now he was working for the Keystone State, with directional antennae on his wing struts angled in the direction of bears." -- John McPhee, "Under the Snow" in "Table of Contents" ( 1985)
• "We hunted old bottles in the dump, bottles caked with dirt and filth, half buried, full of cobwebs, and we washed them out at the horse trough by the elevator, putting in a handful of shot along with the water to knock the dirt loose; and when we had shaken them until our arms were tired, we hauled them off in somebody's coaster wagon and turned them in at Bill Anderson's pool hall, where the smell of lemon pop was so sweet on the dark pool-hall air that I am sometimes awakened by it in the night, even yet. "Smashed wheels of wagons and buggies, tangles of rusty barbed wire, the collapsed perambulator that the French wife of one of the town's doctors had once pushed proudly up the planked sidewalks and along the ditchbank paths. A welter of foul-smelling feathers and coyote-scattered carrion which was all that remained of somebody's dream of a chicken ranch. The chickens had all got some mysterious pip at the same time, and died as one, and the dream lay out there with the rest of the town's history to rustle to the empty sky on the border of the hills." -- Wallace Stegner, "The Town Dump" in "Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier" (1962)
• "This is the nature of that country. There are hills, rounded, blunt, burned, squeezed up out of chaos, chrome and vermilion painted, aspiring to the snowline. Between the hills lie high level-looking plains full of intolerable sun glare, or narrow valleys drowned in a blue haze. The hill surface is streaked with ash drift and black, unweathered lava flows. After rains water accumulates in the hollows of small closed valleys, and, evaporating, leaves hard dry levels of pure desertness that get the local name of dry lakes. Where the mountains are steep and the rains heavy, the pool is never quite dry, but dark and bitter, rimmed about with the efflorescence of alkaline deposits. A thin crust of it lies along the marsh over the vegetating area, which has neither beauty nor freshness. In the broad wastes open to the wind the sand drifts in hummocks about the stubby shrubs, and between them the soil shows saline traces." Mary Austin, "The Land of Little Rain" (1903)

Observations on Setting the Scene

• Grounding the reader: " Nonfiction has done a much better job in terms of setting the scene, I think. ...Think of all the splendid nature writing , and adventure writing -- from Thoreau to Muir to Dillard ... where we have fine settings of scenes. Setting the scene precisely and well is too often overlooked in memoir . I'm not sure exactly why. But we -- the readers -- want to be grounded . We want to know where we are. What kind of world we're in. Not only that, but it is so often the case in nonfiction that the scene itself is a kind of character. Take the Kansas of Truman Capote's  "In Cold Blood," for example. Capote takes pains right at the beginning of his book to set the scene of his multiple murders on the plains and wheat fields of the Midwest." -- Richard Goodman, "The Soul of Creative Writing" 2008)
• Creating a world: "The setting of a piece of writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose , is never some realistic snapshot of a place. ... If you were to describe with the utmost accuracy every structure in a city ... and then went on to describe every stitch of clothing, every piece of furniture, every custom, every meal, every parade, you would still not have captured anything essential about life. ... As a young reader, place gripped you. You wandered with Huck, Jim, and Mark Twain down an imagined Mississippi through an imagined America. You sat in a dreamy, leafy wood with a sleepy Alice, as shocked as she when the White Rabbit bustled by with no time to spare. ... You traveled intensely, blissfully, and vicariously -- because a writer took you somewhere." -- Eric Maisel, "Creating an International World: Using Place in Your Nonfiction" in "Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism and Creative Nonfiction Exercises," ed. by Sherry Ellis (2009)
• Shop talk: "A thing I never know when I'm telling a story is how much scenery to bung in. I've asked one or two scriveners of my acquaintance, and their views differ. A fellow I met at a cocktail party in Bloomsbury said that he was all for describing kitchen sinks and frowsy bedrooms and squalor generally, but for the beauties of Nature, no. Whereas, Freddie Oaker, of the Drones, who does tales of pure love for the weeklies under the pen-name of Alicia Seymour, once told me that he reckoned that flowery meadows in springtime alone were worth at least a hundred quid a year to him. Personally, I've always rather barred long descriptions of the terrain, so I will be on the brief side." -- P.G. Wodehouse, "Thank You, Jeeves" (1934)
• Creative Nonfiction
• What You Should Know About Travel Writing
• What Is Literary Journalism?
• Point of View in Grammar and Composition
• Defining Nonfiction Writing
• An Introduction to Literary Nonfiction
• 100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction
• How to Summarize a Plot
• Examples of Images in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction
• A Look at the Roles Characters Play in Literature
• Stream of Consciousness Writing
• Definition and Examples of Vignettes in Prose
• Are Literature and Fiction the Same?
• John McPhee: His Life and Work

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The Creative Penn

Writing, self-publishing, book marketing, making a living with your writing

Writing Tips: Setting And Sense Of Place

posted on March 14, 2023

All stories, whether fiction, memoir, or narrative non-fiction, happen somewhere, so setting is a key aspect of writing.

From an epic fantasy world to a small room in a literary novel, to the open road of a personal travel memoir, your characters experience their journey in specific places.

Here are some tips for writing settings. For more detail, check out my course, Writing Setting and Sense of Place , available now. There is a preview lesson available so you can check it out in more detail.

What is a setting and what is a world?

A scene in a story has one or more characters in a setting performing some kind of action toward a specific goal. The setting is the backdrop against which the scene unfolds.

There are multiple settings within a world, for example, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth (world) has many specific settings, one of which is a hobbit hole.

“In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat. It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort.” — The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

It doesn't have to be a fantasy world. The world of your story is where it takes place, and will have multiple settings included in the narrative. My recent travel memoir, Pilgrimage , includes real-world settings of the Camino de Santiago, the Pilgrims' Way, and the St Cuthbert's Way.

Why do we need to write better settings and inspire a sense of place?

Your job as a writer is to manipulate the reader's imagination, to make them think and feel what you want them to, but too many writers forget the importance of setting in their books.

In fact, a common error for new writers is “talking heads in an empty white room,” where characters have great conversations and undertake significant action, but it's unclear where it's all happening.

Consider the following sentence.

Morgan walked along a path through the trees.

The path and the trees in your head will likely be different from what I had intended. Here's a version with more details about the setting.

Morgan slowly walked along a winding path that meandered through a dense forest of towering evergreens with needle-like leaves, interspersed with spindly birch trees with papery white bark. Their trunks reached up towards the sky like giant pillars, their bark rough to the touch with deep grooves and ridges that formed intricate patterns. Leaves rustled gently in the light breeze, creating a soft whispering sound as the scent of pine and earth filled the air. Sunlight filtered through the branches of the trees, dappling the ground with patches of warm light.

While it still needs some editing, it gives you a much better idea of the setting.

Here are three quick tips to help you write better settings, whether you're writing fiction, memoir, or narrative non-fiction.

(1) Use sensory details

Sensory descriptions help create vivid mental images in your reader's mind. Describe how the place looks, sounds, smells, feels, and tastes. This can be as simple as describing the colors and textures of the walls in a room, the smell of freshly baked bread, or the feel of the sun on your skin.

Of course, you don't need to go overboard and include all of these every time, but at least consider how a couple of sensory details can help evoke each setting.

You can also “show, don't tell.” Avoid simply telling your reader what a place looks like. Instead, show them by describing the actions and emotions of the characters in the setting. For instance, instead of saying “The room was cold,” you could say “She rubbed her hands together to warm them, her breath visible in the chilly air.”

(2) Write from the character's point of view (POV)

The setting will be completely different depending on the character and what they bring to it.

For example, a hospital room in the aftermath of a clinical emergency will be experienced differently by the widow of the patient who just died, by the junior doctor who just lost their first patient, and by the cleaner whose job it is to make the room ready for the next person.

You can also use setting to show aspects of character and backstory. For example, someone with a military background would notice different things in a setting to a primary school teacher.

(3) Use metaphor and simile to deepen your settings

Metaphors and similes can help to convey abstract concepts through concrete imagery. For example,

“Tendrils of crimson dawn touched the Thames and turned the river to blood as it heralded a new day.” — Destroyer of Worlds , J.F. Penn

The river did not actually turn to blood, but the metaphor gives a sense of the violence to come and evokes the color of the river in the dawn light.

You can even use the setting itself as a metaphor. For example, two characters walk through a graveyard in the snow on a dark wintery day. “Let's talk about our future,” one says.

The same dialogue, the same two characters, but the setting is now a white sand beach fringed by palm trees in the glorious sunshine. The setting changes the mood and the meaning entirely.

I hope that gives you some ideas for writing settings, and if you'd like more help, check out my course, Writing Setting and Sense of Place , available now.

You'll learn how to use  sensory details, character perspective, as well as metaphor, symbolism, and theme  to create a setting that is both believable and captivating. You'll explore  how to research settings, how to use setting to drive plot, plus, explore aspects of worldbuilding , as well as learn  editing tips  and ways to  use setting in your book marketing .

There are optional  writing exercises  you can do throughout, and  questions  to consider with each lesson.

Reader Interactions

March 14, 2023 at 2:55 pm

Dear Johanna, I cannot thank you enough for the wonderful “service” you provide to writers. I first logged onto your website at least ten years ago, when writing my first novel, Under the Salvadoran Sun, at age 70 (self-published at age 72). Now at 80 years of age, I have published my second novel, Dark Secrets, a Legacy of Memory from 1939 Sweden, historical fiction inspired by my Swedish heritage and secrets revealed by my Swedish cousins. I love writing but hate the marketing end and have failed miserably at that. Perhaps I was spoiled with my first book, written when I was 29 years old, published in 1973 because I had a publisher and Scribner’s Sons, NY, distributed it. I actually made money; it sold 15,000 copies. I am at the moment writing the 50th Anniversary Edition of Europe with Two Kids and a Van, a travel memoir of my husband’s and my travels throughout Europe (it, of course, included your country)with our 3 and 5-year-old daughters, who were super travelers. We are still travelers and recently visited the northern UK, Wales, and Scotland and loved it. I just wanted to finally thank you for all you offer aspiring authors. By the way, I have missed many of your missives as I forgot to change my email address with you and rarely look at my gmail. I would love to do a post with you (a testimonial perhaps) or share a blog.

Warm regards, Sher Davidson https://sherdavidson.com/

March 15, 2023 at 1:03 am

Thanks, Sher, I’m glad to help!

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Definition of Setting

Setting is a literary device that allows the writer of a narrative to establish the time, location, and environment in which it takes place. This is an important element in a story , as the setting indicates to the reader when and where the action takes place. As a result, the setting of a narrative or story helps the reader picture clear and relevant details. In addition, setting enhances the development of a story’s plot and characters by providing a distinct background.

In literature, setting can be specific or general in terms of geographical location and historical time period. A specific, or integral, setting refers to an exact location and time period established by the writer. This information can be directly imparted to the reader or implied in the narrative. A backdrop setting is more general, vague, or nondescript, which makes the story more universal for readers. The setting of a literary work may also be a fictional location or world, a future time and place, or it may be unknown.

For example, the fairy tale “Cinderella” traditionally features a backdrop setting, such as long ago in a faraway kingdom. However, a modern interpretation of “Cinderella” might feature an integral setting such as New York City to enhance aspects of the story’s plot, characters, and theme .

Examples of the Importance of Setting as a Literary Device

Setting is an important literary device, as its purpose is to create a “world” in which a story takes place. Setting can also influence the plot of a story and the actions of the characters. Here are some examples of the importance of setting as a literary device:

• helps establish the mood and/or tone of a story
• provides context for other story elements such as plot, characters, and theme
• reinforces the narrative by providing structure and function in the story
• enhances individual scenes within a story’s plot

Occasionally, the “presence” of a story’s setting, in terms of a time period, geographic location, or environment, can feel to the reader like an additional character . This can make for clever use of this literary device in portraying a particular time and/or place with a personality all on its own in a story.

Common Examples of Cities Frequently Used as Setting

Certain cities are frequently used as settings in literary works. By setting a narrative or story in a well-known city, the writer can be relatively certain that the reader will have a general sense and understanding of the locale, including geographical characteristics, landmarks, culture, etc. This can alleviate some burdens for the writer in terms of description and allow for the focus to remain on the story’s plot and characters.

Here are some common examples of cities that are frequently used as settings in literature:

• New York City
• Los Angeles
• New Orleans

Common Examples of Historical Time Periods Frequently Used as Setting

Certain historical time periods are frequently used as settings in literary works as well. By setting a narrative or story in a well-known era, the writer can also be relatively certain that the reader will have a general sense and understanding of the history, events, historical figures, etc. This can additionally alleviate some burdens for the writer in terms of description and allow for the focus to remain on the story’s plot and characters.

Here are some common examples of historical time periods (not in chronological order) that are frequently used as settings in literature:

• Ancient Greece
• Industrial Revolution
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance
• Age of Exploration
• Classical Era
• Turn of the century
• Roaring ’20s
• World War I
• Westward Expansion
• World War II
• Victorian Age
• Contemporary

Common Examples of Environments Frequently Used as Setting

Certain types of environments are frequently used as settings in literary works in addition to specific geographical locations. By setting a narrative or story in a well-known environment, the writer can be relatively certain that the reader will have a general sense and understanding of that environment’s characteristics, such as terrain, climate, culture, etc. This can alleviate some burdens for the writer as well in terms of description and allow for the focus to remain on the story’s plot and characters.

Here are some common examples of environments that are frequently used as settings in literature:

• outer space
• rural/farmland
• countryside
• Southern plantation
• ship at sea

How to Understand and Describe Setting in Writing

The idea of understanding the setting depends on the storyline, characters, and events. These three are important elements that define a setting. It is because every setting has some specific qualities where certain people live and interact. Also, setting impacts them and their actions which define their lives. Some other less significant elements of setting are landscape, type of land, climate, weather, social conventions, and cultural surroundings. When writers and readers understand all these elements, it becomes easy for them to write about setting and describe it in words.

Backdrop and Integral Setting

Although the backdrop and integral setting sound the same, they are different. An integral setting is a specific place associated with some specific characters, having a specific role to play in the events of the story, a backdrop setting is general. It is could be any town given in a story without any specific quality and feature. An integral setting has all the necessary elements that define a setting, a backdrop setting has only common elements given through generic names.

Five Elements of Setting or Aspects of Setting

A setting within a piece of literature must have five elements or aspects. Although there are several other aspects that are necessary, the following five are fundamental elements of a setting. The first one is locale which means the country or the region. The second is the time which also includes the timing which means day, night , or month of the year. The third is climate, the fourth is geographical features and the fifth is population, society, and culture.

Fictional and Non-Fictional Settings

A fictional setting is a type of setting that exists only in imagination and there is no connection of this setting with reality. The non-fictional setting is a type of setting that exists in reality. For example, Eldorado does not exist nor do some cities mentioned in various novels. However, Paris and London do exist and they are real cities mentioned in several novels and short stories as the settings of the storylines. This difference, however, evaporates when some real place is mentioned in connection with fictional characters.

Setting and Exposition

As the term shows, exposition means detailed descriptions of the characters, settings, and the storyline in the beginning of the novels or short stories, setting is part of the exposition. The exposition just explains settings, giving its details. It also shows how events are going to unfold. However, the setting only shows characters having certain relationships with the land, geographical location, social fabric, and flora and fauna.

Difference between Temporal and Spatial Setting

Spatial refers to space that means the place, its geography, its location, its social fabric, its flora, and fauna, etc. Temporal, on the other hand, refers to a time that means the specific time of the year or the month, or the day when the event in question takes place. Whereas spatial setting shows the location and the place, the temporal setting shows when the events have taken place in that specific place. Both settings are used interactively and in conjunction with each other. No one can be used interchangeably or exclusively.

Examples of Setting in Literature

In literature, setting provides the reader an image and idea of time and place that frames the action of a story and can reveal aspects of its characters. By using the setting as a literary device, the writer can help the reader visualize the action of the work, which adds credibility and authenticity to the story. In addition, a setting can create and sustain the illusion of imaginary places and worlds in fiction as well as time periods in the future or prehistoric past. Without an indication of the setting, a story would lack significant context for the reader, potentially reducing their enjoyment and/or understanding of the work.

Here are some examples of setting in well-known works of literature:

Example 1:  Harrison Bergeron  by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

In Vonnegut’s short story , the narrator reveals the setting at the outset. This establishes a significant amount of information for the reader before the action of the story even begins. The narrator stipulates the year, which indicates to the reader that the time period of the story is in the future but not terribly distant. In addition, the story is clearly set in the United States as indicated by the mention of the constitutional amendments.

As well as directly establishing the time and location of the story, Vonnegut also utilizes setting as a literary device to impart to the reader a sense of the story’s environment. In this case, there is a strong refrain of mandated equality in terms of the physical and intellectual characteristics of this future population that is further enforced by a national agency. As a result, the reader is able to instantly picture the background in which the events of the story and the movement of the characters will take place.

Example 2:  As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

That’s the one trouble with this country: everything, weather, all, hangs on too long. Like our rivers, our land: opaque, slow, violent; shaping and creating the life of man in its implacable and brooding image.

Faulkner created his own fictional county in Mississippi, Yoknapatawpha County, in which to set nearly all of his novels and numerous short stories. Yoknapatawpha was inspired by and based on Lafayette County in Oxford, Mississippi, with which Faulkner was familiar. Faulkner himself considered Yoknapatawpha County as apocryphal in the sense that many of his readers believe it to be a real place. In fact, his novel   Absalom, Absalom! includes a map of the fictional country that was drawn by Faulkner.

By creating this realistic yet fictional Mississippi county, Faulkner was able to incorporate several aspects of this setting across many of his works. In this passage from his novel As I Lay Dying , for example, the atmosphere of Yoknapatawpha is as much a presence as the characters, and Faulkner underscores the reciprocal influence and shaping of the novel’s setting and characters. In addition, by using Yoknapatawpha to set so many of his literary works, Faulkner’s readers find familiarity with and understanding of the physical location and environment in which the narrative takes place. This allows readers to focus on the action and characters of the story.

Example 3:  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

And now there came both mist and snow , And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen: Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken— The ice was all between. The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound!

In Coleridge’s poem , he juxtaposes two very different and distinct settings. At the outset of the poem, the setting is a wedding in which the guests are joyful, merrily dancing, eating, and drinking. This celebratory environment is in stark contrast to the setting of the mariner’s story within the poem, which he relays to a wedding guest outside the venue.

This passage of the poem indicates the setting of the Mariner’s tale, as the boat travels to the icy Antarctic. The oppressive presence and noise of the ice create a barren environment that is cold to the existence of living things. This emphasis on the environmental setting in Coleridge’s poem not only draws the reader away from the warmth and life-affirming nature of the wedding, but it also reflects for the reader the danger and isolation faced by sailors at sea. In fact, the reader becomes part of the setting described by the mariner just as the wedding guest becomes part of the mariner’s story through the poet’s description of the setting and events. This allows for a stronger connection between the poem and the reader.

Synonyms of Setting

The distant synonyms for setting are as follows: position, situation, background, backdrop, milieu, environs, habitat, place, location, spot, locale, context, frame, area, neighborhood, locus, district, and region.

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• Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
• Once More unto the Breach
• Hamlet Act-I, Scene-I Study Guide

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