Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.
Setting often act like characters. Many stories wouldn’t work without their settings. It is as true for The Lord of the Rings and the Discworld series, as it is for Wuthering Heights and A Christmas Carol. Can you imagine the latter happening outside of London, for example? Writers can exploit settings to get more from their tales/characters.
Settings or Characters First?
It would be interesting to know if certain authors worked out who their characters were and then chose the best setting. Or did they know the setting and that dictated the character they must write about? Also, can the setting mould their characters over time?
For my flash pieces, I usually know my character first. Sometimes I know I want to write one of my fairytales with bite (aka humorous fantasy not aimed at children) so that will tell me the setting and the kind of character I need to “serve” that.
Then there are tales where the character is at odds with their setting. They are the fish out of water and humour can come from that. (It could be used for tragedy too – so much depends on perspective here. Mind you, that could be said for life in general!).
Settings matter. One advantage of having film adaptations of books is you see the setting (and if you’ve read the book first, the fun of deciding whether the director got it right for the movie. Peter Jackson, I feel, was spot on for The Lord of the Rings trilogy).
I don’t think you need over-complicated settings. You just need a sense this character would live somewhere as the author has described it.
You can also get a sense of a character’s attitude to life by how they react to their setting. If they resent everything about it, they’re unlikely go get on with their neighbours (!) so what conflicts could that cause? If one character feels a setting is oppressive, but another does not, how do the two resolve their differences, especially if they’re a couple? One must change their mind or have to live with a setting they dislike or know their partner is putting up with for their sake (and that can cause resentment in time).
You can also show something of social status by how well or otherwise a character takes to being in a setting. John Watson, for example, is more at home with “ordinary” people in “ordinary” settings because of his work as a doctor than Sherlock Holmes is. No question who the snob is there!
Writers can use settings to show off their characters or to bring more out of them. That in turn can lead to more dramatic tensions in the story, more things for the characters to overcome, more things to keep those readers reading right to those magic words The End. And the setting itself can endanger the characters so they have to escape that too.
Simplicity
Simple writing isn’t easy. Nor is it simple in and of itself. Sounds odd? Maybe but those lines which look so easy to read will have been edited several times by their authors. The following quote sums things up well.
“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” — Blaise Pascal, mathematician and physicist.
Every flash fiction and short story writer would have sympathy here. I can get a first draft of a story down quickly. It is the polishing up and checking I have used the most appropriate words that takes time. It helps enormously to know no writer has ever written a perfect first draft. Shakespeare didn’t. Dickens didn’t. I’m not going to. That’s fine. It is what the editing stage is for.
But it is at this stage the craft of writing does take place. It’s not just a question of checking for typos and grammatical errors. It’s a question of asking yourself whether you have written what you need to write in the best way possible.
I’m of the generation which was encouraged to put in adjectives to “fill” their writing. The irony being as a flash fiction writer I now take most of those adjectives out because the last thing I want is to pad my stories. I was also encouraged to write as much description as possible. I am sure that was to encourage children to keep writing. Now I put in as little description as I can. I get my characters to do things/say things that move the plot along. Far more interesting done that way too.
The best simple writing never talks down to its readers nor does it necessarily stop the use of jargon, technical terms etc. What the writer goes on to do is ensure there is either a footnote to clarify meaning or to write what follows in such a way most people would be able to pick up meaning from context.
I am suspicious of over-complicated writing. I want to know what the writer is trying to hide! (Are they trying to make themselves seem more clever than they are?). In fiction, you should want your readers to follow your characters and their story.
For non-fiction, you’re sharing information you hope will be useful to others. So don’t hide that behind jargon or, for fiction, behind sub plots which don’t move your story onwards. It is far better to have a direct piece at 500 words than a padded one at 1000.
For my blogs, including here, I get my ideas down first. I look at how I’ve ordered things. I then look at whether I could’ve written them better. (The answer to that is always yes). Knowing what my style is here – a conversational one – helps because I can check whether what I’ve written fits in with that style. It should do.
I know I’ve mentioned this before but I think it bears repeating. I learned a long time ago if someone makes something look easy (writing, being a glider pilot etc) that same someone has worked their socks (or other items of hosiery of choice) off for years to get to that point. What they would have done over the years is found techniques to help them improve what they do and then get better at implementing these.
This is why regular writing, whether it is 50 words a day or 5000, is all beneficial. It is the regularity that helps. Practice doesn’t make perfect exactly. It does make you better at spotting the flaws quicker before your work goes out anywhere!
Conclusion
I see having appropriate settings for your characters and keeping your writing to the point as two basic building blocks. It helps with getting your structure right for your story or non-fiction piece. You can then focus on what is important – getting that draft down. Once you’ve done that, you’ve got something to hone. I adore editing. I love the way a story or blog post improves because I’ve got rid of what wasn’t needed. It does make a difference. It can make a difference to whether your piece is published or not too.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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It is surprising how settings can be changed, not always for the better. A Christmas Carol was reset in New York with Scrooge as a mean and nasty TV executive. ‘A selfish, cynical television executive is haunted by three spirits bearing lessons on Christmas Eve’.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096061/?ref_=ttls_li_tt
Indeed, David. I think that was the Bill Murray version. I like him but wasn’t impressed with the film. Maybe the original setting is TOO ingrained into us all!