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!
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