Setting: The When and The Where

I said it before and I'll say it again all elements of story telling are equally important, this means you've got to think about your setting!

This is an easy one for you fantasy and science fiction writers, but if you are doing YA, Romance, or contemporary fiction it can be really easy to overlook. You may think to yourself  Oh my story takes place in a generic high school is some undisclosed location so I don't really need to worry about it.

Where and when your story takes place can make all the difference. 

Here are a few things to think about when you are figuring out your setting.

1. Why do my characters live/work here?

There has to be a reason. My parents moved to Utah from Montana because my mother got a higher paying job offer and my father was unemployed at the time.

My in-laws moved because my Father-in-law was a police officer and he was tired of getting shot at. They moved to a place with a lower violent crime rate and better schools. Bonus they lived with his parents while they built their house.

Think about the things that brought your characters to their current location. Some examples: climate, schooling, weather, jobs, migration, fleeing the country, kidnapping, aliens, etc.

It may also be important to consider why they stay, especially if they live in a less than ideal situation. What is preventing them from leaving?

2. When do they live?

Think about his for a minute. I went to high school ten years ago. My parents bought me a cell phone at sixteen and my friends thought it was the coolest thing ever! No texting of course (too expensive), and it was only to call my parents and tell then where I was. A year later two more of my friend's parents got cells for them, but the other two members of my posse didn't get phones until they were out of the house and paying for one on their own.

If I am going to write a YA story that takes place in a high school now I had better make sure all of those kids have a phone or give a specific reason they don't (oldest kid of five with a single working mom who is struggling to keep the lights on) 

And if you think you can get away with not specifying a time you are wrong again. There will always be little things that give away your time period. Toys, clothing, hairstyles, cars, slang, etc. You will save yourself a lot of hassle if you declare a time and stick with it.

3. How does this place/time period effect or inform your characters?

I've got a story (that will probably never see the light of day) where a girl meets a vampire and falls in love. Done to death I know, but indulge me. How do these characters meet? In a community class where they are learning how to use a computer. Why are they there? Well it's the early 90's and they've both finally conceded that computers are not just a passing fad. So as you can see the time period is crucial to the character and the plot. It would be ridiculous for a 20 something woman to have no idea how to operate a computer now, so I've got to specify when this class is happening.

As to the where of the story they live in Alaska. Our heroine is attending college there. She used to spend her summer with her grandmother and the beautiful sunny memories of her childhood, paired with free housing made her college choice easy. She didn't realize the winters were so long and dark.  As for our vampire, what better place to hang out during the winter than Alaska? The days are short and the nights are long, and when thing start to change he heads for a different hemisphere. Do you see how the setting impacts the characters?

Some things to think about: How might characters behave differently if they are in a big city vs. a small town? A well off community vs. the slums? What personality traits, mannerisms, speech patterns might your characters develop in their setting?

4. Research, research, research! I cannot stress this enough! If you are going to have your story take place in a real place you had better know what you are talking about. Don't have it take place in a town you heard of once and let your imagination go wild because any reader from there is going to be annoyed and likely frustrated by your book.

If you are making up some modern day place you still need to know what sort of stores they will have (Wal-mart or a small Mom and Pop?) how close the houses are (suburbia or farm town) and what state the buildings are in. Do not leave this up to the reader. You are the creator so create.

This also goes for Fantasy and Science Fiction writers.If you are making up an entire world you need to pay even more attention to these kinds of details.

Your homework: Take a look at your setting. Is it lacking, ambiguous, or confusing? (Mine is) Now is the time to fix it!  I'll see you next week for Characters!

The Elements of a Story

A story, like everything that is built or created, is constructed of small but important parts. In a story (novel, short story, flash fiction) there are five crucial parts.

Check out this awesome Venn diagram I made for you!

As you can see we have Characters, Plot, Setting, Theme, and Conflict. These five parts overlap and combine to create your story. The venn diagram is a great visual because it shows how small the story as a whole is. You need to spend an equal amount of time figuring out and understanding each element of your story in order for the entire thing to come together. 

Another example would be a stool with five legs. I know that’s weird but bare with me here. If one of the legs is too thin (underdeveloped) or missing your stool is going to wobble or break and no one is going to want use it. 

Each of the elements of a story are equally important and deserve the same amount of attention and planning. Because each element is vital to the success of your story I am going to write a small post for each of them which I will link to from this post. Check back next Monday for Setting!

Setting - The When and The Where

Character - The Beings

Plot - The Things that Happen

Conflict - The Struggle

Theme - The Main Idea or Central Belief

So you want to write a story but,

So you want to write a story, but [insert your excuse here]? Well I've got news for you, if you want to write a story you have to get rid of the negative thoughts and behaviors that are holding you back. Over the years I have heard (and given) a lot of reasons not to write, so today I'm going to list a few of my favorites and tell you how to come to terms with them.

“I don’t have time to write.”

Really? You are currently browsing a writing blog of your own volition. Just how long have you been cruising around the web? I don't believe that you don't have time. And if you are reading this while on the phone, eating lunch, and rushing from one class (or meeting, or child related crisis) to another I've got some harsh news for you: you've got to make time.

No one is going to do it for you, and if you've got a family they will monopolize your time and energy if you allow them to. Here is the bottom line. Do you want to write? Yes? Then if you really want it you will find, or make, time.

“I suck at writing.”

Oh psssssh. I don't believe that. Well maybe a little. But talent is just a matter of time and practice. We would live in a sad, sad world if every musician who picked up an instrument for the first time had that attitude. The skills and talent will come with practice. And I’ve got lots of practice coming up in the following blogs, so just keep trucking!

“I don’t have any good ideas.”

That's okay. We've all got to start somewhere. There are a lot of fun ways to generate ideas. One way is to start with the question What if? Take something ordinary in you life, like crossing the street for example and start asking yourself What if?

What if that car didn't stop? What if I somehow managed to leap over it? What if aliens abducted me seconds before the collision?

I will have an entire blog post dedicated to generating Ideas, but for now, just start looking around and asking: what if?

“I've got writer's block.”

Writer's Block means one of two things. You've run out of ideas (see previous excuse) or you are waiting to be inspired. Trust me on this one, don't wait to be inspired! You will never get anything done.

If you are serious about writing you are going to have to come to terms with putting absolute crap down on a page and accepting that you can revise it later. It hurts, I know, but no one ever said writing was easy. If they did they were lying.

If you are feeling stuck because you don't know where to take your story next, make something up. You are a writer, that's what you do.

Don't worry too much about this one, I'll have a post dedicated to my favorite block busters (yes that is a pun) coming soon.

“No one is going to want to read my story.”

I've been pretty snarky and sarcastic up until now, but I'm about to get really serious and harsh here. Are you ready? Okay. Why do you want to write? That is a serious question that I am seriously asking you to consider.

Are you writing so that you can be the next [inset famous author of your choice here] and make tons of money? Sorry, you are in the wrong line of work. Chances are it's not going to happen.

Are you writing because you have a story inside of you that you have to get out before it drives you mad? Then why do you care if no one wants to read it? Write for you, a little indulgence and self love never killed anyone.

Are you writing because you have a story that you think will touch someone? Then write it. If only one person ever reads your story and laughs or cries, for a second, then you've made the world a better place.

If you aren't sure why you're writing, take some time to ponder it. It's something you should definitely know.

“I just don’t think I could handle being rejected.”

I get that, I really do. I used to be afraid of rejection too, until I learned to look at it differently. Rejection either means your story was not what “they” were looking for, or your story wasn't good enough. Ouch right? Here's the thing. You are not the little black marks on a page. No one is saying that they don't want you, they are telling you that the little black marks on the page aren't good enough.

You can handle this in one of two ways. You can curl up in a ball and cry, vowing never to write again, or you can look at your story and ask: “What can I do to make this better?”

“I'm afraid to try because I might fail.”

I hear you on this one too. I used to be one of those people who would never even start something unless I was sure I would succeed. Terrible right? Here is how I dealt with it. One day I asked myself what failure meant to me. I decided that failure is simply proof that I tried, didn't succeed, and needed to try harder next time. That's not so bad right?

“Why bother? There is no such thing as a new idea.”

Well you are sort of right and sort of wrong. Writers are always stealing/borrowing ideas from each other, but then they do something that blows this argument out of the water: they put their own spin on it.

Here's an example for you. The same draft of a story could be given to me and my good friend Jae Randall. I guarantee one of those drafts would come back with weird Fantasy/SciFi elements and the other would come back dripping with Unresolved Sexual Tension. Jae and I are different writers so we can never write the same story.

The same goes for you dear reader. No one but you can write a story your way, and as my good friends at NaNoWriMo say "The world needs your story." So stop making excuses and start writing!

P.S. Have any other excuses? Post them in the comments and let me at 'em!