Setting: More Than Just Place

Unique settings that are described tactfully and run counter to expectations—these are the places readers never forget.

This post is part of the Outline With Me series. For more like this, check out the outlining your novel page.

One need look no further than Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series or George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire to understand how a thoroughly developed world can enrich a narrative. In both of these examples and countless others, however, setting isn't just a place. It can be a character itself! Think of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series, the silo from Hugh Howey's Wool, and the titular Room from Emma Donoghue's 2010 bestseller.

Each of these environments separates themselves from simple set dressing in that they are unique, contrary to expectations, and described in vivid but tactful detail. In this post, we'll explore how to craft an engrossing setting in which your characters can thrive.

Unique

Creating a unique setting for your characters is easier said than done. Degrees of uniqueness can vary, however, ranging from the setting in its entirety to elements thereof. For the former, consider Wool by Hugh Howey, the premise of which is that survivors of the apocalypse are living out their lives within a silo that burrows deep into the ground. The silo is partitioned into over one hundred floors, each of which is different from the others based on the function performed by those that work or live on that floor. This entire environment is unique—not the sort of thing most of us have (or will?) encounter within our lifetimes.

On the other hand, consider Room by Emma Donoghue. Room is what you might think it is: a room. At first glance, there's really nothing special about a space with a bathroom, small kitchen, and a bed. In fact, it sounds an awful lot like a studio apartment. What makes Room unique isn't the setting itself, but the nature of the setting. Once readers learn that Room is actually a shed in which the five year-old protagonist, Jack, and his mother have been held against their will for the entirety of the Jack's life, we get a much different take on the space itself. With Room being the only world the perspective character has ever known, the relationship he has with his environment is equally as rich as the relationship he has with his mother.

It's easy to get discouraged when pitting your own settings up against those in Room and Wool. Those authors are bestsellers, after all, and setting plays a major role in the plot for both books. If you're stuck on how to add unique or stand-out flair to your settings, try to think of the little things you appreciate (or don't) from places you see in your day-to-day life and incorporate them into your writing. Do you have a faucet that always leaks? Your character can, too. Hate how you have to turn the key all the way to the left and then wiggle it before your front door will unlock? Your character hates that, too. Or maybe they find it appealing for some reason. I don't know. In any case, I should really call my landlord.

Tying these ideas into the prospective novel about our Mormon bartender, Joseph, I've decided to have the story take place in a township surrounded by a bustling metropolis on all sides. The reason it remains a township separate from the surrounding city has to do with its resistance to historic annexation on the part of the nearby city. Not only that, but the town has some historically bizarre laws, which are enforced by a constable rather than a traditional police force. Joseph's bar will be located within the township's limits, which will open up the door to all sorts of out-of-the-box legal wrangling and shenanigans.

I'll get into further detail regarding Joseph's setting as we advance through the post.