The Importance of Setting

First of all -- I forgot to participate in Frankie's No Kiss Blogfest.

I suck.

I was so excited about writing something for it too! AW! But I'm reading the other entries and they are so tingly! I was going to write about a boy and a girl stuck on Mars together. Yeah. Like the planet. I was going for something way out there. Maybe some other day!

So I am excited for this:



I love this book. It's been passed around my family and everyone loves, loves, loves it. It's something we can see together! Yeah!

But it got me thinking about the importance of setting. Water for Elephants takes place during the Depression era, set within a circus. The setting is another character. It is integrated into the story. You couldn't change a single thing about it without changing everything.

I'm from a small town. So that's where I tend to place my stories because it's something I know. But the setting doesn't have to be something as spectacular as a circus to become part of the story. Setting can be used to show character. I wonder how my characters feel about where they live, which can reveal something about them, and something about the town. I can't start really writing without knowing where and when the story is going to take place. That's something I need to have set up very early on because it's a big deal! The setting will breed the events! Where do you characters first kiss? Where do they fight? Where do they cry? Where do they runaway to? Where is their secret place? Setting can also move the story forward. It brings it alive.

Stephanie Perkin's Anna and the French Kiss wouldn't be the same if it weren't in Paris! All of those romantic moments and all of that wonderful food. The city was another character.

Where things happen is just as important as what happens and why things happen.

Setting is so much more than the where and when!