Writing Stellar Scenes: Part 3—Setting
Welcome to part three of my series on scene writing!
I started with an introduction to the eight essential elements of a scene. You can read that here. Then, I talked about one aspect of writing character in your scenes—point of view. You can find that one here.
For a quick review, here are the eight elements of a scene:
1. Character – who will be there?
2. Setting – where are they?
3. Goal – what do the characters want to accomplish?
4. Event or Situation – what is happening?
5. Action – What will each character do or say?
6. Emotion (Reaction) – How will each character react to what is done/said? Why?
7. (Incomplete) Resolution – How will the event/situation end? What will make readers want to keep reading onward?
8. Purpose – How does this scene move the story forward, develop characters, and/or add to the conflict?
Today we’re talking about #2—setting. Let’s go!
Essential Scene Element #2: Setting
Just like last week, I’m not going to attempt to teach you everything about setting and world building in one blog post. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
Instead, I’m going to focus on individual scene settings and some of the questions you should be asking yourself as you plan, revise, and draft your novel’s scenes.
Here’s a fundamental truth: your scene has to happen somewhere. Even in a dream sequence, the character is in a place, it just happens to be a place that only exists within their mind.
Okay, we’ve gotten that out of the way. We know we need a setting for each scene, but how do we decide where that setting should be? Sometimes, the decision is made for you when the scene’s situation comes with an inherent setting. For example, a trial happens at a the courthouse. The big game happens on the football field. The evil witch brews poisons in her secret, basement potion room. You get the picture. But what do you do when a scene could happen anywhere?
Here are a three guiding principles that you can use to choose a compelling setting for each scene.
I love a tavern scene as much as the next girl, but variety is the spice of life.
Principle #1 - Scene Settings Should Vary
I learned this rule from the late David Farland, a masterful teacher and fantasy writer.
Readers want to be surprised and excited throughout the reading experience. They don’t want to see your characters drinking in the same tavern over and over and over again. Instead, bring them to new and interesting places throughout the story.
This rule is particularly important in fantasy and science-fiction. Why? Readers come to these genres to be awed by amazing created settings. Getting to see different parts of the world is one of the main draws of the the SFF genres. If half the book happens in the same old place, you’ll end up with bored, dissatisfied readers.
Don’t let that happen!
Instead of having a third conversation happen at the same neighborhood bar, have the characters meet up at the market instead. Instead of having your main couple fight at the spaceship commissary where they’ve met for all of their dates, have them argue with each other while they service the control room (I’m sure there’s a better word for this—forgive me, I don’t write sci-fi very often!)
Principle #2 - Pick Settings that Amplify Conflict
Setting-based conflicts can intensify or complement other types of conflict that your characters face.
For example, let’s take the couple fighting on the spaceship above. Let’s imagine that they’re arguing about their relationship. If they have that argument privately in quarters, they’re likely safe from eavesdroppers or prying eyes. Here’s the problem. Safety is boring!
There’s nothing else at stake for them in that version.
But what if that same conversation happened while they’re servicing the control room. There might be other people there to overhear them and judge their relationship problems. Maybe the relationship is a secret and it’s important that no one finds out that they’re in a relationship at all.
The argument could also distract them from the job. What if they get so distracted by the argument that they miss a system malfunction or cause a new malfunction to occur? In that version, a simple lover’s spat could have massive consequences for their jobs and the entire crew’s safety.
Principle #3 - Choose Settings that Characters Can Interact With
One of the biggest pitfalls of dialogue heavy scenes is that characters can sometimes feel like floating heads talking in a blank space. Without specific setting details to ground us, readers will have a difficult time visualizing a scene. That lack of information can push us out of the story.
The remedy?
Choose a setting that demands interaction.
For example, say you have two characters talking in a scene, they’re getting to know each other while filling the reader in on important backstory. That conversation could happen while they sit in the castle gardens. But there’s a more active option.
Have those characters talk while walking through a market. Every so often, have the characters pause and interact with a vendor or dodge a child dashing through the streets. If this is a romance, perhaps they bump into each other while dodging that child and it pushes them to look in each other’s eyes and feel a hint of a spark. If you’re writing a darker fantasy, maybe that child is a pickpocket or an assassin in training who tries to stab your protagonist in the thigh.
Either way, it beats sitting at the same table in the same tavern for another round of ales.
Conclusion
I hope these tips help you think of varied and creative settings for your work-in-progress. If you come up with something awesome after reading this post, drop me a line at olivia@oliviahelpswriters.com - I would absolutely LOVE to hear about it!
I’ll be back next week to talk about character goals. In the meantime, happy writing!
