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Setting is created by the use of sensory images and phrases that appeal to the five senses. These images do two important things. One, they help the reader to picture the place, the peri
od in history, the year and even the time of day that action and events are occurring, and two, they help to create the feeling or mood of the story. (Pictured is the Brush Country of Central Texas - Setting for A Second Splendor.)A major function of setting is to lend realism to the story's action. The more in depth the description of the setting, the more believable the events of the story become. Without a detailed setting, stories lose much of their credibility.
Setting can reveal character. The traits that make a character unique are dependent on environment as well as circumstance. Even in rare cases when the characters are far more important than the setting, that setting will still have an impact on the characters and their actions.
The tension between a character and the environment can play an important part in shaping action and tracing controversy. It can also reflect a character's inner tensions and strife.
Setting can reflect and sustain social surroundings by revealing etiquette, mores, customs and codes of conduct. It can emphasis the harmful results of squalor and poverty, or stress the incapacitating consequences of riches.
Atmosphere is closely connected to setting. It generates feelings and impressions that cannot be attached to any concrete cause. It is developed through the use of expressive language that has sensory appeal. Atmosphere should be set early in the story.
A plot is always connected to a specific time and place. A setting that is animated and visualized intertwines with events and actions to become a part of the plot.
The point of view that a writer employs is determined to a great extent by time and place. The point of view for a modern, fast paced murder mystery that takes place in a large city will not be the same as the point of view for a sweet, slow-moving love story set in the eighteenth century in a small town in Middle America.
Time is a part of setting. The fictional overview of time in a story is threefold. The first view is concerned with the period in history in which the story occurs. The second asks the question, how long does it take for the action in the story to occur? The third inquires into the passage of time as it is perceived in the story.
Whether you choose to write about the magnificent, the isolated, the ordinary or the mystical; if you describe fairy woods, brooding forests, city slums, or lovely landscapes, be aware of this all pervasive fact - your setting is an integral and important component of your story.
Blurb:
Julie Anderson is not happy that her ex-husband is coming home to attend their daughter’s wedding. Max has broken her heart in the past – not once, but twice. Thank goodness she’s too wise to fall under his spell again, or is she?
Max Anderson has some reservations about his daughter’s coming marriage to the son of his ex wife’s business partner. He shows up early and walks into a situation that begs him to intervene. When he does all hell breaks loose.
