A Writer's Guide to Active Setting

Cincinnati, Ohio

A Writer's Guide to Active Setting. Copyright © 2015 by Mary Buckham. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Writer's Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc., 10151 Carver Road, Suite # 200, Blue Ash, OH 45242. (800) 289-0963. First edition.

For more resources for writers, visit
www.writersdigest.com/
.

19 18 17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1

Distributed in Canada by Fraser Direct

100 Armstrong Avenue

Georgetown, Ontario, Canada L7G 5S4

Tel: (905) 877-4411

Distributed in the U.K. and Europe by F&W Media International

Brunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 4PU, England

Tel: (+44) 1626-323200, Fax: (+44) 1626-323319

E-mail:
[email protected]

Distributed in Australia by Capricorn Link

P.O. Box 704, Windsor, NSW 2756 Australia

Tel: (02) 4577-3555, Fax: (02) 4577-5288

E-mail:
[email protected]

ISBN-13: 978-1-59963-932-1

WritersDigest.com

Cincinnati, Ohio

For the writers who want to expand their understanding of the craft of writing!

Writing any book does not happen in a vacuum, especially a how-to craft book. I'd like to thank the hundreds and hundreds of writing students who helped define the assignments and the need to explore how to better use Setting in our novels. I'd also like to thank my early readers, all writers who gave invaluable feedback on the format and content of this book: Laurie G. Adams, Kat Jorgensen, Elizabeth Gibson, Theresa Rogers, Ellen Russell, Debbie Kaufman, Deborah K. Andersen, and Laurel Wilczek. A special thank you to Dr. Patrick Maher, former Chair of the Australian Writers Guild, for his invaluable insights. Any of the great advice I did not take was my fault alone. A special thanks to Dianna Love, writer extraordinaire and a good friend who has always been there for one last eagle-eyed look. And to my husband, Jim Buckham, who makes all things possible in my world. And last, but not least, thanks to my readers. Without you, I'd have no craft to teach. Thank you!

Crafting a good book takes a lot of hard work.

Crafting a
great
book demands even more.

I want every novel I write to be better than my last one. That's intimidating, but very possible as long as I continue to push myself to grow as a writer. I believe writers are born with talent, but exceptional writing comes from studying craft … and studying some more. Writers with discipline and dedication will quite often outpace those who depend solely on talent every time they sit down to write.

Our job as writers is to give the reader an emotionally satisfying experience, but that experience is in jeopardy if the reader begins to skim.

Why does a reader skim?

Because the words become boring. There are two opportunities to bore a reader even in the most active story—introspection and setting. Those two often go hand in hand, which is good and bad news. The bad news is that you have twice as much opportunity to lose your reader, but the good news is you can use setting to ramp up the tension and emotion to pull your reader even deeper into your story.

For too long, setting has been ignored.

Wait … that's not actually true. Unfortunately, setting is often described at great length. Some writers spend paragraph after paragraph detailing the world the protagonist has entered, as if the character paused to do a mental rundown of everything around.

Great writing instead weaves setting throughout story just as emotional arc is woven through every scene. I've said for many years that Mary Buckham creates brilliant settings in her books. Some might say it's because she's traveled all over the world, but rather than droning on with flowery descriptions like those found in travel brochures, she has the skill to plunk a reader right in the middle of a location.

When setting is introduced this way, the reader feels the setting as it develops. Crafting stories in a way that drops the reader in the middle of a scene with precision and emotion is both a gift and a skill, one that can be learned.

Mary has shared this gift through workshops she teaches in the US and internationally. I've referred many writers to her workshops and all have raved about Mary's ability to provide instruction in such a way that writers see immediate improvement in their stories. Still, if she taught for the next hundred years, she would never be able to reach every writer, which is why putting all that valuable information into a book is the best of news for all of us.

Writers everywhere can now benefit from Mary Buckham's clever instruction.
A Writer's Guide to Active Setting
is for the writer who wants to break out of the pack and make a name in publishing by engaging readers so powerfully that they always come back for more.

Anyone can create a setting in great detail, painting a beautiful scene using description, but a master pulls a reader deep into that scene by drawing on emotional context.

How does that happen?

The easiest way for me to answer that question is by suggesting you read this book.

—Dianna Love,
New York Times
best-selling author

• Title Page
  
• Copyright Page
  
• Dedication
  
• Acknowledgments
  
• Foreword
  
• Introduction
  
  • Overview
    
• Part One: Characterization & Sensory Detail
  
  • Chapter 1: Getting Started with Active Setting
    
    • Anchoring the Reader
      
    • Subtext in Setting
      
    • Setting the Stage
      
    • Pacing and Setting
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
  • Chapter 2: Using Subjective Setting Detail to Reveal Character
    
    • Showing with Setting
      
    • Revealing Character Through Setting
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
  • Chapter 3: Using Sensory Detail to Enhance Setting
    
    • How to Use Sensory Detail in Your Novel
      
    • Layering POV and Sensory Details
      
    • Ways to Bring Out Sensory Details
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
• Part Two: Emotion, Conflict, & Backstory
  
  • Chapter 4: Using Setting to Show Emotion
    
    • Creating an Emotional Experience
      
    • Using Concrete Descriptions
      
    • Foreshadowing
      
    • Reinforcing Story Themes
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
  • Chapter 5: Using Setting to Create Complication
    
    • Foreshadowing Trouble or Conflict via Setting
      
    • Internal and Emotional Conflict
      
    • Conflict and World Building
      
    • Orientation and Conflict
      
    • Conflict via Contrast
      
    • What's Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
  • Chapter 6: Using Setting to Show Backstory
    
    • Defining Backstory
      
    • Using Contrast
      
    • Tying It All Together
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
• Part Three: Anchoring, Action, Setting as a Character, & More
  
  • Chapter 7: Using Setting to Anchor the Reader
    
    • Using POV to Anchor Setting
      
    • Use Deeper POV to Anchor Setting
      
    • Transitioning via Setting
      
    • Transitioning via Same Setting from a Different POV
      
    • Transitioning in Stories with Large Worldbuilding
      
    • Chapter and Scene Beginnings
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
  • Chapter 8: Using Setting in an Action Sequence
    
    • Using Short Cues
      
    • Movement Through Space
      
    • Word Allocation in Setting Details
      
    • Showing Versus Telling
      
    • Character in Action Through Setting
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
  • Chapter 9: Using Setting as a Character in Your Story
    
    • When Place Matters
      
    • Setting in a Series
      
    • What Not to Do
      
    • Assignment
      
    • Recap
      
  • Chapter 10: The Devil in the Setting Details
    
    • Your Story, Your Setting, Is Unique
      
    • Pay Attention to Setting in What You Read and Write
      
    • Other Details to Remember
      
    • Additional Setting Pitfalls
      
    • Wrap Up: What Makes a Great Setting
      
• Bibliography
  

Setting can be one of the most underused tools in a writer's toolbox, but it shouldn't be.

Setting involves much more than stringing together a list of adjectives or dumping a chunk of visual clues to orient the reader. It can create the world of your story, show characterization, add conflict, slow or speed up your pacing, add or decrease tension, relate a character's backstory, thread in emotion, and more. Some authors are known for creating Settings that are so deeply integrated into the story that when readers step away, they still find themselves in the place described on the page.

Think of Setting as the stage that contains your story—it should be as important as any character, whether you choose to write sparsely or in great detail. The Setting orients readers to the geography, climate, social context, time of the story's events, foreshadowing of unfolding events, architecture, and much more. When handled well, Setting can also have an impact on your readers' thoughts and your characters' actions, thus moving the story forward.

If handled poorly, Setting description can thwart or frustrate to the point where the reader wants to set the book down and walk away.

Setting can add so much to your story world, or it can add nothing. In creating Active Setting, you can develop subtext in your writing—a deeper way for your reader to experience your story.

Instead of simply describing a place or thing for the sake of description, we'll look closely at how to maximize what you are showing the reader. You'll learn how to verbally illustrate a place and where to insert this information so the reader will understand the intention of your scenes and be pulled deeper into the story. In
chapter one
, we'll look at using Setting to reveal your characters and to add sensory details.