Blog Post #6

So, four days left in October...I can definitely catch up, right?

The next exercise is about setting. It asks you to write down 10-20 facts about your setting and incorporate them into your novel.

So I'm writing a YA Urban Fantasy for my Nano project, and, as everyone knows, setting is super important in novels like this. After all, they're mostly set in worlds unlike earth, so the reader needs at least some of this explained so the story will make sense. Also, the setting is often part of the plot.

But really, setting should be crucial to every novel. After all, it has an effect on where your characters can go, what they do, even their mood and personality. If it rains a lot in your setting, how does your character feel about this? Does it prevent them from doing things? Rain causes traffic jams, accidents, delays.

The same setting also has a different effect depending on which genre you're working in. In a crime novel, for example, a lot of rain could severely hamper any investigation. In a sci-fi/fantasy novel it could prevent armies from moving or it could be acid rain and prevent people from going anywhere. Or it might be relief after a long drought. There are millions of examples.

I had some vague ideas about my setting before I started this exercise. But again, like in many of the other exercises, being forced to think about it in detail really helped.

I had to think about how it would make sense geographically. If you've got a rebel group hiding in the woods, for example, how is it that no one has found them yet? The woods must be large, or the areas between cities must be very sparsely populated.

I also had to think about the level of technology, and how the premise of the plot would affect the setting at the beginning. In real life things often happen randomly, of course, but they rarely do in fiction (and it annoys me a lot if they do, personally). Thinking about what people might have done to react to the situation in the book was really useful in developing a setting.

The other thing to think about was how the setting hindered or helped the characters. I probably need to work on this a bit more, but once I have I imagine it will be quite useful.

This was a fun exercise, mainly because I like knowing everything about my setting. I also love novels with strong and interesting settings.

The other part of this exercise is going back and including facts about the setting in your novel. I'm definitely going to go back and do this. If I have time, I'm probably going to plan out my plot again, incorporating all the exercises I've done.

Although I should probably finish all the exercises first...