Where and When Are We?

by Jane Toombs

Have you ever started to read a novel that began promisingly with enough of a hook to focus your interest, only to become frustrated after a couple of pages because you had no idea where on earth (or off it) the heroine was?

Perhaps you also were unable to determine, even vaguely, in what year the action was taking place. Not being able to identify the setting of a novel early can cause a loss of interest in the story because readers have their attention called to a defect before they swallow enough line to stay hooked.

Setting is an integral part of any novel and is essential to the beginning of any story. Readers need to know if the heroine's in New Zealand or at the Arctic Circle; they want to be able to tell whether it's the Middle Ages, today or somewhere in the indefinite future.

Where and when are the basics of setting. Sometimes the author simply writes "1890, New York City," at the beginning of Chapter 1 and goes on from there. While this isn't wrong, the cold fact of the date and place may take away from the drama of the beginning. Unless readers must be oriented before they begin to read the opening sentence, it's often best to be more subtle and not establish the setting so abruptly.

People are what interest readers--characters and their troubles and triumphs. Readers open each new book hopefully, eager to participate vicariously in someone else's life.

This is why stories usually begin with the heroine in trouble or about to be caught up in forces beyond (for the time being) her control. At the same time, readers expect to discover very soon where and when the heroine is. Readers want to know whether it's morning or night, January or July, inside or outside, sunny or raining.

Script writing requires that each new scene begin with the notation: Interior (or Exterior); Night (or Day).

Obviously directors need to have this information before they can set any scene for the camera to record. If, when writing a novel, you think of the reader's eye as the camera, you'll see the necessity of establishing the setting of your scenes.

Though this can't be done so obviously as in a script, a little time, thought and effort will enable a writer to make the setting a part of the scene and allow the setting to add mood to the plot or to echo plot elements.

Setting is often called background. Dean Koontz in his HOW TO WRITE BEST SELLING FICTION, warns the writer to beware of faking background details. Someone, he says, always spots your goof. He also reminds the writer to break down all background material into small bits and ease these crumbs into the story. For example, don't write a travelogue or a treatise on how glass is made just because your heroine is a glassblower traveling in the Far East. Give readers enough on glass blowing so they get the flavor of the profession and use the Orient research to color the plot, to further action and to show its cultural effect on the heroine.

Don't make the mistake of thinking background is created by physical description alone. No one lives in a vacuum and if your characters seem to, you lose plausibility. As well as the physical setting, the culture of the time and place you're writing about must be researched because people are always influenced by the culture they live within.

Try to imagine yourself as the character you're writing about. Naturally, all five of your senses would help to interpret what's around you but don't forget your mind would also be busy assimilating the input and forming conclusions that lead to how you'd behave. If you were a visitor to the area your behavior would naturally differ from that of a native.

Try writing one or two sentences about a character in various places and times. For example: "Maryann's breath caught as the horsemen leading the parade trotted into view."

As it stands, the sentence gives no impression of where or when Maryann exists.

"Maryann's breath caught in admiration as the sun glinted off the silver trim of the vaqueros' gear. Their horses' hooves churned dust as they led the Cinco de Mayo parade onto Santa Fe's main street." The reader knows Maryann's in Santa Fe and suspects it's New Mexico rather than Mexico because her name is more English than Spanish.

Santa Fe today wouldn't have a dusty main street so the reader understands the story's set in the past, sometime after 1862 because Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican revolution fought in that year. Quite possibly the setting is the New Mexico Territory before statehood.

"Maryann's breath caught and she shivered as the black- hooded horseman led the prisoner-filled tumbrils through an early morning haze toward the--" If the next word is gallows, the setting is probably early England, if guillotine, more likely France during the Revolution.

"Maryann's breath caught and tears filled her eyes as the first blue-uniformed horseman trotted into view.

God had heard her prayers and saved Richard from the carnage at Gettysburg." Obviously this is the Civil War era, somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon line.

To repeat, setting is the time and location of an action and the description picturing that setting should be interwoven with the characters and what they're doing and feeling. Meshing plot, character and setting adds depth to the story as well as creating more vivid scenes for the readers. Not only will they know where and when the characters are but they'll also have a real sense of being there themselves.

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