Creative Writing – How to Set Your Story in Time and Place

I'm just starting to work on a new writing project, so the setting of the story is very much on my mind. As a huge fan of Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels, as well as classics like Wuthering Heights, I'm conscious of the powerful role that location can play in a book. Handled well, it can carry as much weight as the central characters. It can inspire feelings of longing, revulsion, alienation; it can enhance the emotional arc of your narrative by contributing to the atmosphere, or alternatively it can provide a useful counterpoint.

You can be businesslike about it and provide just enough information to anchor the events you're describing and the people who are involved in them and in a plot driven novel, where action is all, this may be the right way to go about things. However, I'm inclined to think that any writing opportunity which presents itself should be exploited to the full and that if you don't give due attention to the location of your narrative – where it exists in time and place – you may be selling yourself short.

If you want a brilliant example of how to tackle setting, check out Dart, Deborah Harvey's new book just published by Indigo Dreams. It's a young adult's novel set in 14th century Devon, and Harvey meticulously brings to life this remote mediaeval period (without her extensive research ever intruding), but the irresistible pull of the story lies in its setting on Dartmoor, which works upon the lives of her protagonists almost as powerfully as the scourge of the Black Death - the bubonic plague which overwhelmed the county and decimated its population. Even if you don't want to learn useful lessons about location, read it anyway: Deborah writes with a poet's lyricism, combining it with authenticity and accuracy to produce an epic tale that is still haunting me, even though I finished it a while ago.

An Alphabet of Better Writing # S

S is for...Setting

The setting of a story can be crucial.  It's certainly never incidental and you shouldn't underestimate the importance of it.  Apparently writer Catherine Czerkawska discovered to her dismay that publishers wouldn't take a gamble on her lovely novel The Amber Heart in spite of her established track record because it was set in Poland!

When you are framing a story in your head, don't consider the setting in purely commercial terms, either.  A well-handled location can add immeasurably to a reader's enjoyment of a book: would we remember Wuthering Heights if it weren't for the wild beauty of the Yorkshire moors? Would Thomas Hardy's Wessex Novels be so memorable without -- well -- Wessex? You should give setting at least as much importance as a minor character in your story.

When you are working on place, it is important to be authentic and accurate -- even if the location exists only in your head, you need to be consistent. As with the use of any kind of detail, less is more, so aim for quality rather than quantity when you are bringing the landscape of your narrative to life -- brevity is the soul of everything, not just wit.

If you want some practice - a  little writing exercise - try describing the picture below.

Think about colour, texture, geology, the weather, the smell, the silence, the history of the place, what it means to your protagonist and what dramatic potential it might have.  When you have written your piece, cut twenty percent of it and see what you are left with.

On your marks, get set...

Blending into the Background?

The importance given to the setting of a novel varies from writer to writer and from book to book. At its most limited it acts merely as a decorative frame to the action and has the same function as an exotic location in a film -- it gets the reader's aspirational juices flowing. It can also provide an informative backdrop to your characters and can help to shed light on their moods and behaviour -- think Heathcliffe on Wuthering Heights, Eustacia Vye on Egdon Heath or Mark Renton in Trainspotting.

Given that the hallmark of good writing is to be doing several things at the same time (advancing the story, commenting on character, establishing mood and tone are much more gripping if done simultaneously rather than one after another) I thought it might be interesting to give some thought to how setting can influence the plot.  In Michael Dibdin's Zen novels, currently being given a lush makeover as a BBC TV series, the fact that the action takes place in Rome provides endless scope for Mafia-style corruption and casual brutality.

It might be interesting to have a go at this yourself.  Try writing a story in which the setting defines and influences what happens to the characters-- it might help to synthesise the various elements of your narrative into something organic, with added depth!