Have you ever read a story where the setting felt like its own character? Giving a story a strong sense of place can create an atmosphere of exploration and wonder in readers, and this is especially the case for readers of science fiction and fantasy.
The setting in storytelling can help shape the mood, characters, and plot. Rather than treat it as a “set and forget” feature of your story, developing it as a crucial component will give your story a richness and a deeper meaning that will engage and enrapture your readers.
Defining Setting
To avoid undervaluing setting, let’s first explore everything it entails. Your setting should include more than just details about places; it should also include elements of time and culture. It will help to develop both physical and intangible aspects of your setting, including geography, weather, and societal norms.
1. Geographic Features
What features will form the backdrop of your story? Is the story set in a forest realm? A mountainous expanse? Upon the sea? All of the above? Consider including more specific elements that might appear in the story, such as canals, rivers, mesas, cliffs, valleys, etc.
Think also of the ecosystems related to these places. What is the plant life and animal life like? Is it similar to what it’s like on Earth? Or is it more exotic? How so? Try to maintain a sense of interconnectivity between all of these elements so it doesn’t appear to be completely random.
Be sure to also include artificial features such as settlements, roads, agricultural systems, etc. Whether the place is densely or sparsely populated, try to give it some sense of it being lived in (unless, of course, your setting is a desolate place). To give your setting a deeper believability, also include details such as forms of government or other zones of control depending on who lives in your world. Finally, other artificial features might include highways, bridges, dams, and reservoirs.
Once again, how much these features deviate from what we might expect to see on Earth will help establish how exotic or alien your world might be.
2. Weather Features
How the weather appears in your story will also have an impact, especially on the mood. What can you reveal to your reader beyond the clichéd “dark and stormy night”?
Consider how the weather might affect the characters’ moods as well as how it might interfere with or help their goals. Is the weather typically sunny or partly cloudy? Is it always overcast with occasional drizzling rain? Has there been a lot of snow lately? Is there a fog rolling in? These features won’t necessarily dominate the story, but having them work as a contributing factor to the plot and character development will give your story more life and believability.
Think also of how extreme weather can have an impact, even a significant one. Severe thunderstorms, ice storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes can definitely make your protagonist’s struggle more difficult. Most of us are familiar with the idea that we cannot control the weather and therefore must bear the brunt of it. But perhaps your story—whether through magic or technology—is in part about how the characters do, in fact, have some control over these elements. In that case, how or why?
Think of how the weather can be either idyllic in nature or unbearably harsh. In the Shire in The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, for example, it can seem like an endless summer. Then there are the dangerous sandstorms on the inhospitable desert planet Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s Dune. Think of how these elements contribute to the story in unforgettable ways.
3. Societal Norms
You can feature the culture and society of your world at the forefront, or it could act merely as a backdrop. Either way, try to include enough details so your reader knows the expectations of the people that populate your setting. These expectations can act as guardrails to your characters’ actions, or they might be barriers for them to overcome. Some of these features might include how people greet each other, how they apologize, common courtesies, dress codes, and conventions of etiquette and reciprocity.
You may want to go even deeper if you’d like societal norms to have a bigger impact on the plot or character development. Consider adding details regarding taboos, transgressions, and unmentionables. Consider what might be completely legal in your society but deeply frowned upon. Some things might be a simple faux pas, while others might lead to ostracization. How these elements differ from what we might expect in various regions of your setting will dictate how different your society is from what readers might expect. Try to have some fun with it, but be careful not to make it feel too random or chaotic. Most societal norms have some kind of systemic structure where actions have consequences for a reason. Whether these reasons are left unsaid could add elements of mystery or intrigue to your story, but it’s important to have a good grasp of how things work beneath the surface of your world.
Finally, societal norms are often built upon precedent and refined over time. Adding elements of history to your setting will give it and its people a greater scope.
Setting As Mood and Atmosphere
An important element of your story to consider is how you establish the tone. Tone refers to how you communicate a range of emotions that convey feelings of mood or atmosphere to the reader. You achieve this through word choices and dialogue, but a big part of it is also the setting.
Consider the oppressive environment of post-apocalyptic San Francisco in Philip K. Dick’s dystopian novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (also known as Blade Runner). Now compare that to the whimsical but perilous world of Wonderland in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. These settings have distinct differences that establish very different tones, and much of that is achieved through setting details alone.
The emotional resonance of a well-crafted setting will engage the reader and immerse them in the narrative.
Setting and Character Development
Setting can also shape your characters’ personalities, choices, and worldviews. Think of how the setting(s) in your own life have shaped you as a person. In my own case, I grew up in the suburbs of a small city, but as a young adult, I moved to the midtown area of the metropolis where I currently live. This experience, coupled with other elements such as social class and education level, has had a significant impact on me. My life, however, isn’t super exciting. In contrast, I imagine that if the setting details of my life were more extreme, I would be a very different person today.
For example, consider how Arrakis in Dune shapes and influences Paul Atreides’ sense of survival and his transformation as a person. The inhospitable nature of the planet and its people are undeniable factors in his character development. Think also of how the harsh winter landscape of Westeros in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin influences the characters’ resilience and political maneuvering. Without the daunting prospects of an unusually long winter on the horizon, things might have turned out differently for many of the characters, especially those in the North and beyond the Wall.
There are also countless examples of how cultural and societal norms act as catalysts or barriers for character struggles. Think of how such elements could influence the journeys of your characters, both the protagonists and the antagonists.
Setting and Plot
Setting often has an impact on the plot of a novel in how it might drive the story forward. In the story of my own life, I might never have gotten into the book publishing industry had I stayed in the suburbs of my youth. For all I know, I might have gotten into the trades like my father. (Probably not, but you get the idea.) Think of how the setting of your world might affect your story’s plot in other (and surely more interesting) ways.
For example, consider how the plot of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien would be impossible without Middle-earth generally and the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) specifically. The story of the novel only moves forward when the characters (a single hobbit and a bunch of dwarves, with the help of a meddling wizard) see a great need to go to a specific place for a specific purpose. In this case, they seek to reclaim the Lonely Mountain, the dwarves’ home, from the dragon Smaug.
The interplay between setting and conflict, whether it’s an alien world, a magical realm, or a futuristic society, can act as a significant source of tension. Think of how you can create a dynamic setting that evolves alongside the story’s progression. Some of the best stories are those where the setting can feel like a character itself. (The labyrinthian, decaying castle in Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast comes to mind.)
The Challenges of Crafting a Balanced Setting
The more time you spend crafting your setting, the more you run the risk of doing too much. Setting is a component of what we call worldbuilding, and worldbuilding can be a lot of fun. However, it can often run away from you and create problems. When it comes to setting specifically, some common pitfalls include overly descriptive prose (and a lot of it), clichéd locations, and a lack of integration with the plot. Keep these in mind, especially during the revision process. Evocative and dynamic settings can be fun, but they need to serve the plot, or you will run the risk of breaking the reader’s immersion.
Overall (i.e., even beyond setting), it’s a good practice to maintain a balance between detail and narrative pacing. Try not to let the story get mired in details that have no significance to either the plot or the character because these same details will have little or no significance to the reader either.
How do you set and maintain this balance? Creating memorable settings includes performing research, crafting sensory details, and considering the “why” behind the setting. Don’t include elements that are unbelievable or in conflict with the other aspects of your story, no matter how exciting or brilliant they may seem. (Though you might want to save these for a different kind of story.) Integrating setting with character and plot as well as the narrative flow is a challenge, but as a writer working on your craft, it is a practice you will get better at the more you do it.
Keep the following in mind: A great setting doesn’t just tell the reader where the story happens; it makes them feel like they’re living in it.
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