Writing Mystery in a Sci-Fi World
Writing Mystery in a Sci-Fi World – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 63 “You need to indicate to the reader right away that you are writing a science fiction story.” In “Episode...
Tagged: setting
5 Ways to Avoid “White Room Syndrome” and Bring Life to Your Fiction by Linnea Gradin
Bring life to your settings and avoid “White Room Syndrome” by weaving in details, focusing on sensation, and giving context.
Descriptive Writing: Painting with Words by Keri Kruspe
Descriptive writing is necessary for any author to use, painting clear pictures in the minds of readers. Keri Kruspe goes into the details to teach us how to use descriptive writing effectively.
Write Your Novel: Settings — Make Them Do More
I can see it now—you and your Aunt Myrtle at Thanksgiving. “What’s your book about, dear?” she’ll say over turkey and gravy. And you oblige her by saying, “Well, my heroine—that’s Artemisia Bullwinkle—finds a body in the pantry and figures out that the heir and her true love—that’s Froggie Muckbottom—did it. She sends him to the Big House, where he catches chilblains and she knits him woolen booties. And it all happens in Regency England.”
Use Setting and Background to Meet Reader Expectations
Setting should never be an afterthought in your story planning. Where you place your characters—and how you describe their geography, time period, and other setting elements—can expand or clarify themes, build story unity, tighten plot structure, intensify suspense, motivate and explain character, and intensify reader involvement.
How To Write the Setting of a Story: Finding the Right Place
Your characters do not act in a vacuum. They live somewhere—in a house, an ocean, a country, planet, period, zeitgeist, vacuum. Often they travel to somewhere else, or aspire to. They carry baggage—metaphorical as well as literal. They have history and a future, cultural attitudes and speech patterns.
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