Workshop #6: Setting
- Setting is your story’s stage – Show your reader what you want them to see, narrow the camera lens from panoramic to single shot
Her skiff lay in its slip, near the end of the dock. Its hull had faded to a sickly hue of green. A pair of oars hung like mangled limbs from rusty oarlocks. Nearby, a seagull, perched on the metal railing, stretched its neck and let out a cackle. It sounded like he was laughing at me (excerpt from my current work in progress, The Ditty Box)
- Types of setting:
- Historical setting
- Chronological setting
- Topographical setting
- Meteorological setting
- Social setting
- Cultural setting
2. Sprinkle descriptions throughout your story rather than deliver long descriptions (Info dump)
- Use sensory words to show scenes
- Sound
- Sight
- Smell
- Taste
- Touch
The tea was warm and sweet, precisely the way I liked it. Breathing a weary sigh, I wrapped both hands around the cup and closed my eyes. I could still feel the sway of the ferry and the sting of salty droplets on my cheeks (except from my current work in progress, The Ditty Box)
3. Offer specifics rather than generalities
He tossed his briefcase into the back seat, then folded his long, lean frame into the Mini Cooper (excerpt from, The Ditty Box)
4. Use active rather than passive descriptions
The sunporch had two green rockers and looked out over the ocean (passive)
OR
The sunporch was one of Aunt Bea’s favorite hangouts. I often found her curled up in one of the green rockers, reading, sketching, or simply staring out at the vast ocean. She came here to recharge, to commune with nature, to visit with the One who fashioned the wind and the waves (excerpt from, The Ditty Box)
5. Shape your settings to reflect character’s mood
E.g.: Rain lashed at the window (negative)
The drumming of the rain soothed her (positive)
6. Use Personification
The rooster perched on Dad’s tractor (telling)
Or: The rooster watched from his perch atop the carcass of Dad’s rusty red tractor. I remembered watching Dad as a child, astride the metal beast, sitting tall and straight as he headed out to the fields each morning, a thin ribbon of crimson barely visible on the eastern horizon. Like a fierce bull, the mechanical brute snorted and bucked, kicking up clouds of dust as my hero in denim overalls coaxed it onward once more (showing – Excerpt from Hope for Joshua).
7. Describe setting according to your character’s point of view
What would your character see based on her past, her interests, her personality, her situation?
E.G.: Church (building, small group, or large sanctuary filled with worshipers)
Example of setting in a devotion:
Matthew 8: 23-27
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
The rain lashed at their faces and backs like a stinging whip brandished by some evil force. The wind, brutal and fierce, tossed their fishing boat, rendering their efforts futile. As the fishermen clutched the boat, giant waves snatched them up to heights they’d never been before, only to let go at the peak of their fear and send them crashing back into the churning waves below.
Peter’s stomach clenched in fear as another giant wave hurled the boat sideways. Surely we will all perish, he thought. He cast a glance in Jesus’ direction; his master was asleep in the stern. How can this be? Is He not aware of the storm which is about to take our lives?
“If only Peter had kept his focus on Jesus, instead of the storm,” we are so quick to judge. Hindsight is so wonderful, isn’t it? It’s easy to trust God when we can anticipate the outcome or when life is all roses and glorious sunsets. But what about those times when we, ourselves, are in the midst of the storm and all seems lost? What about those instances when our very lives are in peril? Or the life of someone we love? Platitudes at moments like these are like words in the wind, especially when our trials reach such terrifying heights that we cry out, “Lord, I am perishing!”
It is precisely in times like these we need to remember God is in the storm. It may seem like he’s sleeping while we are weeping. We don’t like His silence and long for Him to reach out His all-powerful hand and still the storm. Yet God is never oblivious, though He sometimes allows us to reach a point when we can no longer rely on our knowledge, our skills, or our resources and are compelled to fall at his feet in complete surrender. Peace is not the absence of storms, but the presence of Jesus in the midst of our storms.