Setting: Creating the Flavor
Setting is one of the most important elements in writing. It:
Advances Plot - Weather, for example. In Deadly Sins Deadly Secrets weather not only intensifies the conflict but it also serves as metaphor. An unexpected ice storm leads Sidra Smart, the protagonist, to rescue a half-frozen dog who becomes an important character in the series. She names him Slider because he keeps sliding on the ice.
Or say you want to build romantic tension between your protagonist and a secondary character. What do you do? You keep them apart, always having something happen that keeps them apart just when the reader thinks "this is it!" Weather can serve to finally get them together. Say a storm comes up and they are stranded in an old abandoned house, or snowed in and freezing to death without electricity or a fire. We now have plenty of time for the relationship to develop.
Creates Consistency/Unity - Our plot should have enough conflict and suspense to hold the readers' interest from cover to cover. In addition to the main plot, novels have one or more subplots so often, there are many things going on at once. Not to mention that the novel may deal with a variety of issues and themes. A constant and familiar setting can tie everything together and serve as the foundation of your novel.
Increases Tension/Sets Mood - An electrical storm, for example, is a subtle way to build tension, or an impending hurricane with no way to get out of town. In Dance On His Grave, Sidra Smart heads out into the swamp to see a Voodoo woman. Not only is Sid tense about talking to someone who talks to dead people, but the ride through alligator-infested swamp where she sees her first Le Feu Follet heightens the tension and further sets the mood.
Illustrates Character - The time and place of a novel will affect how characters behave, speak, and dress. It may also affect their level of education, occupation, and/or goals. Setting is more than where people live. It is a way of life. Certain places and eras evoke certain expectations and stereotypes. Use these to capitalize on these stereotypes or to destroy them. In order to make this work, you must have a good grasp of your characters, the cadence of their speech, the food they eat, how they dress, what they do in their spare time, what religion, what occupation and what they smell like.
Some (probably most!) writers start with a plot or with characters in mind. Then they decide on the setting.
Try this. Start with your setting and then develop the characters and the plot. Or begin with the setting and the characters, and then develop the plot. There is no one 'right way' to begin. Develop your mystery novel in a way that works for you. The key ingredient is that you are in love with your setting whether it is a real place, or it is one you create in your mind, or a mixture of both.
Where the story is set determines your characters personalities. Are they sophisticated or innocent? Are they "big city" (New York) or "small town" (Mayberry)? Is there a big-time, experienced detective or a rural sheriff working on the case?
Or, as in the Sidra Smart series, are they a middle-aged woman totally out of her element when she inherits a private detective business and stumbles through her first cases.
Your setting does not necessarily have to be comfortable for your protagonist. It can also be used for contrast. The situation may be such that she must move from a big city like Houston to a small rural town like Hico, Texas. Maybe she went to care for her ailing father in a small peanut-farming community and stumbles on a decade-old unsolved murder. That would allow for unlimited plot twists and subplots.
Whether your setting complements or contrasts with your characters, it can effectively further your plot if chosen carefully. If your setting does not enhance your plot or your characters, you need to pick a new one.
The time period of a novel is of vital importance. Is the protagonist from the Victorian Era or is she a modern-day sleuth? If the plot involves her living together with a man who has tattoos on both arms, you better think again.
Once you know your setting, get detailed. If possible, go to the town and dig around. Become a sponge, absorbing how they talk, the words they use, their grammar, their speech patterns.
1. Learn the different religions of the area and how that impacts their lives.
2. Discover their educational levels, their prejudices, their social activities.
3. Learn the weather variance, the politics, the restaurants or the lack thereof, the employment rate, the crime statistics.
4. Are the streets clean and well maintained?
5. Does it have a mixture of lifestyles or just one?
6. Are homeless people allowed to gather under bridges or hidden away and assisted by local churches or organizations?
7. What's the primary industry?
8. What are the major problems faced by the residents?
9. What is the area's history? ( If your city has no past beyond the beginning of the story, it will seem contrived-because it will be. We can't divorce our past.)
10. Did your characters grow up there or did they move from elsewhere?
11. Does the city have popular sports teams with long standing rivalries with neighboring cities?
12. What's the primary source of transportation?
Get a map or create one of your own. It will help you keep everything in its correct location and give you a visual reference when having your characters move from place to place.
Read the local newspaper. Even though you may not use all of this information, you absorb it and go back to it as you develop your characters and plot.
If you can't visit the area, then use your library, the internet. If the setting is an imaginary place then you must create all this information before you begin. Fictitious locations can be quite effective, but they are a little more difficult to do because you have to start from scratch and create, rather than simply describe.
Remember, setting is equally important as characters and plot. Actually, setting itself becomes character, and leads the reader to feel like they are a part of the story, rather than reading about it.
Advances Plot - Weather, for example. In Deadly Sins Deadly Secrets weather not only intensifies the conflict but it also serves as metaphor. An unexpected ice storm leads Sidra Smart, the protagonist, to rescue a half-frozen dog who becomes an important character in the series. She names him Slider because he keeps sliding on the ice.
Or say you want to build romantic tension between your protagonist and a secondary character. What do you do? You keep them apart, always having something happen that keeps them apart just when the reader thinks "this is it!" Weather can serve to finally get them together. Say a storm comes up and they are stranded in an old abandoned house, or snowed in and freezing to death without electricity or a fire. We now have plenty of time for the relationship to develop.
Creates Consistency/Unity - Our plot should have enough conflict and suspense to hold the readers' interest from cover to cover. In addition to the main plot, novels have one or more subplots so often, there are many things going on at once. Not to mention that the novel may deal with a variety of issues and themes. A constant and familiar setting can tie everything together and serve as the foundation of your novel.
Increases Tension/Sets Mood - An electrical storm, for example, is a subtle way to build tension, or an impending hurricane with no way to get out of town. In Dance On His Grave, Sidra Smart heads out into the swamp to see a Voodoo woman. Not only is Sid tense about talking to someone who talks to dead people, but the ride through alligator-infested swamp where she sees her first Le Feu Follet heightens the tension and further sets the mood.
Illustrates Character - The time and place of a novel will affect how characters behave, speak, and dress. It may also affect their level of education, occupation, and/or goals. Setting is more than where people live. It is a way of life. Certain places and eras evoke certain expectations and stereotypes. Use these to capitalize on these stereotypes or to destroy them. In order to make this work, you must have a good grasp of your characters, the cadence of their speech, the food they eat, how they dress, what they do in their spare time, what religion, what occupation and what they smell like.
Some (probably most!) writers start with a plot or with characters in mind. Then they decide on the setting.
Try this. Start with your setting and then develop the characters and the plot. Or begin with the setting and the characters, and then develop the plot. There is no one 'right way' to begin. Develop your mystery novel in a way that works for you. The key ingredient is that you are in love with your setting whether it is a real place, or it is one you create in your mind, or a mixture of both.
Where the story is set determines your characters personalities. Are they sophisticated or innocent? Are they "big city" (New York) or "small town" (Mayberry)? Is there a big-time, experienced detective or a rural sheriff working on the case?
Or, as in the Sidra Smart series, are they a middle-aged woman totally out of her element when she inherits a private detective business and stumbles through her first cases.
Your setting does not necessarily have to be comfortable for your protagonist. It can also be used for contrast. The situation may be such that she must move from a big city like Houston to a small rural town like Hico, Texas. Maybe she went to care for her ailing father in a small peanut-farming community and stumbles on a decade-old unsolved murder. That would allow for unlimited plot twists and subplots.
Whether your setting complements or contrasts with your characters, it can effectively further your plot if chosen carefully. If your setting does not enhance your plot or your characters, you need to pick a new one.
The time period of a novel is of vital importance. Is the protagonist from the Victorian Era or is she a modern-day sleuth? If the plot involves her living together with a man who has tattoos on both arms, you better think again.
Once you know your setting, get detailed. If possible, go to the town and dig around. Become a sponge, absorbing how they talk, the words they use, their grammar, their speech patterns.
1. Learn the different religions of the area and how that impacts their lives.
2. Discover their educational levels, their prejudices, their social activities.
3. Learn the weather variance, the politics, the restaurants or the lack thereof, the employment rate, the crime statistics.
4. Are the streets clean and well maintained?
5. Does it have a mixture of lifestyles or just one?
6. Are homeless people allowed to gather under bridges or hidden away and assisted by local churches or organizations?
7. What's the primary industry?
8. What are the major problems faced by the residents?
9. What is the area's history? ( If your city has no past beyond the beginning of the story, it will seem contrived-because it will be. We can't divorce our past.)
10. Did your characters grow up there or did they move from elsewhere?
11. Does the city have popular sports teams with long standing rivalries with neighboring cities?
12. What's the primary source of transportation?
Get a map or create one of your own. It will help you keep everything in its correct location and give you a visual reference when having your characters move from place to place.
Read the local newspaper. Even though you may not use all of this information, you absorb it and go back to it as you develop your characters and plot.
If you can't visit the area, then use your library, the internet. If the setting is an imaginary place then you must create all this information before you begin. Fictitious locations can be quite effective, but they are a little more difficult to do because you have to start from scratch and create, rather than simply describe.
Remember, setting is equally important as characters and plot. Actually, setting itself becomes character, and leads the reader to feel like they are a part of the story, rather than reading about it.
