Fiction Workshop 6 Setting

What is setting? Maybe:  

•         Time and place

•         We need pointers so that we get a film in our heads.

–        What might these be for time?

•         Weather

•         Plants  

•         Darkness / light

•         Festivals

–        For place?

•         What our senses tell us (See “Writing with the senses” see below)

•         Some areas perhaps need a little more:

–        Fantasy

–        Science fiction

–        Historical

–        Exotic

Description can:

•         Create atmosphere

•         Explain something the reader needs to know

•         Help the drama

•         Show character

•         Contribute to the plot

•         Work on symbolic, allegoric and prosaic levels

Writing with the senses:

–        Always produces good writing

–        Think about your setting and write about:

•         What you see

•         What you hear

•         What you smell

•         What you taste

•         What you feel

•         Your emotions and thoughts  

 

A quick creative writing exercise

–        Write a short scene about something that happened yesterday.

–        Write about what you :

•         Saw

•         Heard

•         Smelled

•         Tasted

•         Felt  (in both senses of the word) 

–        Look at what you’ve written?

•         How have you indicated place?

•         How have you indicated time?

Note that this can produce writing that is too rich so ask whether it adds to:

•         Character

•         Plot

•         Atmosphere

•         Reader’s understanding 

•         Symbols

•         Says things clearly once

•         (though consider when repetition is effective – often three repetitions, no more and no less, are effective.)

 

Extension and Contraction

Think of a story you’d like to write.

Think about the opening.

Write for ten to twenty minutes with your senses. Write about: 

·         What you or your character sees

·         What you or your character hears

·         What you or your character smells

·         What you or your character tastes

·         What you or your character feels

·         Your and / or your character’s emotions and thoughts

Now for the editing. Strike out anything which does not:

·         Tell us something about:

o   Character

o   Plot

o   Atmosphere

o   Setting in time or place that we need to know in order to understand the story.

·         Symbolize something of the story

·         Say something only once

·         Repeat effectively

 

Writing Exercise: Description without the Exposition

Write about an everyday process e.g.

•         as making a cup of tea

•         cleaning your teeth

•         switching on your computer

 

In your reading

Take a small passage of description from any book you have found interesting and look at what every single word adds to the reader’s experience.

Consider whether the writer has wasted any words.

Can you see any word, phrase or sentence which works is multi-tasking?    

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