Often times I find myself struggling with the idea of setting. Like I must know all the specifics of any location I want to write about. In a sense, it’s true that you must. If you are going to write about a specific place that exists in the world we know, you must have at least a basic, and preferably an extensive knowledge of the place about which you are writing. Be it through experience or research, knowing your concrete setting is important. However, have you noticed that many works take place in made up venues that simply are reminiscent of actual places? I think this is a perfectly legitimate way to go about creating a setting. To take the essence of a place you enjoy, and create a vivid new, fictional setting based on that essence. Of course there are the basic subcategories. Big city, small-town, suburbia, rural life, etc. But those are the broadest strokes a writer can make. From this broad stroke, you must create more detail. One of the best ways to go about this is to start from the largest brush stroke you make, and add vivid imagery in increasingly detailed steps until you have created a thriving, vibrant environment for your characters to thrive in.
Perhaps you are lacking on plot because you simply can’t find a realistic playground for your characters to develop themselves in. After all, even the most three dimensional of characters cannot leap off a page or transform in any literary way whilst stuck in a gray blob that vaguely resembles setting. Perhaps setting is often overlooked by readers, it becomes background, or you may think so. But honestly, how often would you continue reading a story if the surroundings weren’t vibrant, very well detailed and explained in such a way that you truly felt as though you could see them in your mind’s eye? The idea is to create an environment that is crystal clear, while still giving the reader a way to worm their own ideas into it, so as to create a deeper reader connection. It is not easy, and it is most certainly a delicate balance that can take a lot of liberties and a lot of time and care to finally end with something you truly want to share with your readers, but when all that effort ends in a dynamic setting for your characters to play around in, it is more than worth it.
