Setting as Character...

Setting provides an “emotional landscape” upon which a character’s own temperament may play counterpoint or may resonate in a wonderful symphony

—Nina Munteanu (The Fiction Writer)

In my online writing classes and workshops I cover several common pitfalls of beginning writers. One common pitfall is to forget the importance of setting in story. Think of Frodo in Lord of the Rings without his beloved Shire. And what about wayward Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz without her dear home in Kansas and the contrasting Land of Oz…

Setting includes time, place and circumstance. Without a place there is, in fact, no story. In the examples I gave you, place plays a principle role in defining major and minor characters. Like the force in Star Wars, setting provides a landscape that binds everything into context and meaning. For author Richard Russo, it goes beyond place; he suggests that “If you’re not writing stories that occur in a specific place (my emphasis), you’re missing an opportunity to add depth and character to your writing.” He describes some of his students’ responses to his challenge, “where does the story take place?”: it doesn’t really matter, they say; it’s really more about the people. The irony is that we do want to know and, oddly enough, the more specific you get, the more universal your truth becomes. It’s one of those wonderful paradoxes in life that writers need to embrace.

I’ll go even further: settings can not only have character; they can be a character in their own right. A novelist, when portraying several characters, may often find herself painting a portrait of “place”. This is setting being “character”. The setting functions as a catalyst, and molds the more traditional characters that animate a story. The central character is often really the place, which is often linked to the main protagonist (e.g., Scarlet O’Hara and Georgia in the 1860s in Gone With the Wind; Eustacia Vye and Egdon Heath of Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native; Paul Atriades and the planet Arakis in Dune). In each example I gave, the main character comes to symbolize the setting and vice versa. Setting ultimately portrays what lies at the heart of the story.

In fact, D.H. Lawrence, in commenting about Hardy’s book Return of the Native, suggested that Egdon Heath was the most important character of the story:

Egdon, whose dark soil was strong and crude and organic as the body of a beast.

How you portray setting and place, then, becomes an integral part of the story itself. You can significantly increase metaphoric meaning in your story with a richly textured setting. You can use setting to amplify a character’s emotions or contradict them, depending on the circumstance of the character, her mood, disposition, tendencies, and observational skills. Either way, setting provides an “emotional landscape” upon which a character’s own temperament may play counterpoint or may resonate in a wonderful symphony.

Here are some suggestions that can help every fiction writer create vivid, memorable and meaningful settings:

• Choose your setting purposefully; make it an integral part of the story with meaning (e.g., linking it to your main characters)
• Describe setting selectively, through integration in “scene” rather than exposition.
• Be specific (e.g., beat up Chevy, not car; old clapboard cottage, not house.
• Use similes, metaphors, and personification to breathe life into setting.
• Use the senses like sight, sound, smell, taste, feel.
• Show, don’t tell (e.g., instead of saying the time is the 1920s; show the cars and dresses. Instead of telling the reader it’s raining; show them by describing the dripping trees, etc.)
• Don’t describe setting all at once in the beginning; work it in slowly throughout the story; let it unfold as the story and the characters do.

You can find more about “Setting” in Chapter H in my writing guidebook, The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! by Starfire World Syndicate (available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other quality bookstores).

I discuss “setting” in my workshop, “The Writer’s Toolkit”, a workshop that I give throughout North America. This comprehensive writer’s workshop will be launched on DVD soon and will be available at Amazon as well as online here and on www.NinaMunteanu.com.

tags: online writing courses, online writing classes, The Writer’s Toolkit, fiction writing, becoming a writer, creative writing online, book writing, writing stories, setting in fiction, nina munteanu, The Fiction Writer Get Published Write Now

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Nina and a student have fun learning

Nina recently gave three substantial workshops for aspiring writers in the South Shore area of Nova Scotia, based on her Aurora Award-nominated writing guidebook, “The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now“. Held at the Bridgewater Library, Nina engaged and challenged students in an actively participated workshop to hone their skills as successful writers. Students participated in writing exercises, and had their stories, query letters and ”elevator pitches” critiqued.  

Her workshops, covered by Vernon Oikle in the South Shore Now, included:

Workshop No. 1, which was titled “Getting Started … and Finishing”. In this session, Nina shared the strategies and techniques she used to write, finish and successfully publish while serving as a full-time scientist, teacher and mother. The workshop reviewed common misconceptions in the writing and publishing industry and provided practical strategies to help aspiring authors succeed.

 Workshop No. 2, “The Art and Science of Craft”, covered several models of storytelling, and examined the interrelationship of plot and theme, setting and character in a book’s overall story arc. Nina explored the language of page-turning writing with examples on the use of the five senses, power verbs, use of dialogue and other writing techniques that will transform your page into a compelling read.

Workshop No 3, “The Science and Magic of Marketing”, focused on a different but critically necessary creative process in an author’s writing and publishing career – revision, marketing and promotion.

Response to Nina’s workshops was very positive. Here are some of the things students had to say about Nina and her workshops:

“Nina was engaging and inspiring in a low-key way, no hype, practical, good humour. This was a really pleasant and helpful experience. I was able to use specifics that were discussed to immediately improve my writing.”–Susie Buck
 
“Nina was very knowledgable, relaxed, personable, unpretentious.”
 
“I enjoyed it. I was intrigued. Nina put her heart into her workshop.”–Darlene Tong
 
“I found what I had been searching for a long time.”–Candice Croft 
  
“What you’ve done for me, Nina, is you’ve just opened up a whole new world. You’ve shown me how to put soul into my books … You’ve transformed me from what I considered an oddball to somebody special and for that it’s worth a fortune.”–Hectorine Roy

The series of workshops were filmed as part of “The Writers Toolkit” series and will be available for sale shortly. Go to www.ninamunteanu.com or here for news on availability and how you can get a great deal on the 3 DVD set.

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Nina Munteanu

“Discover the Writing Magic…where passion and skill collide. During my live coaching programs I was overwhelmed by the number of people seeking guidance on getting their own books published.  I’ve created a coaching and training program designed specifically for people who are serious about becoming “published authors”—Nina Munteanu, author of The Fiction Writer

Email Nina at thepassionatewriter@gmail.com or nina.sfgirl@gmail.com (subject: coaching) to book a personal coaching session or group workshop. Coaching may include:

• manuscript readings, editing and consultations
• language and grammar
• storyboarding and idea generation
• focus issuees and writer’s block
• synopsis and query letters
• marketing
• promotion

Workshops have successfully included “hotseat” panels and “hotseat” manuscript assessment/critique.  

To receive Nina’s informative NEWSLETTER (packed with writing advice from her many consultations) and to browse through awesome writer’s resources, be sure to sign up for her free coaching club. Praise for her coaching and workshops continues:

“Nina was warm and encouraging.  I felt free to share my fears and ask questions that exposed my ignorance.  She was extremely knowledgeable and gracious and honest…  I felt as though she really wanted me to succeed as a writer, and was a mentor sent to provide guidance and inspiration.”— Zoe M. Hicks, author of The Women’s Estate Planning Guide and Dream Catcher, the Power of Faith

“Nina shares her expertise with endless enthusiasm.  I always go away with double the energy than when I came!”—Krista Fogel, coordinator of Calliope Network, UBC

“As a hopeful author, I found Nina’s words inspiring. I thank Nina for sharing her acquired knowledge.”—Amanda Lott, writing student, Scribblers Writers’ Retreat, GA

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