Crafting immersive worlds that do more than decorate.

Setting is more than simply “Where” and “When”

A few months ago, I participated in SleuthFest, a conference for mystery, thriller, and suspense writers and fans. The event was organized by the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, and I was fortunate to be seated on a panel titled “Location, Location, Location,” where we discussed the vital importance of setting in storytelling.

When we talk about setting, we are referring to more than the specific place (whether it’s a real city or a fictional town) and the specific time (be it modern day, a prior century, or five hundred years in the future). Setting includes all those tangible and intangible aspects that give place and time meaning, structure, texture, and color. It obviously encompasses physical elements—buildings, streets, and geographic features like rivers and mountains—but it also includes the sounds, scents, and atmosphere of a location. Is there music playing? If so, what type and how loud? Is food cooking or are flowers blooming nearby? Perhaps there’s an odor of something decaying. What is the weather like this time of year? Is it hot and humid? Has a blizzard caused whiteout conditions? Is air-conditioning available? Has the heating gone out? Is the environment wild and untamed, or is it artificially controlled?

In addition to adding depth and richness by grounding the reader in a time and place, setting has an enormous impact on the characters. It affects their mood, their choices, and the pressures bearing down on them. For example, if someone is being eaten alive by mosquitoes, they’re unlikely to be smiling and happy, unlikely to want to be lazy and inactive, unlikely to feel like everything is going well. Instead, they’re more apt to be cranky, impatient, and ruing the day they ever stepped foot in that particular place. . . .