Setting sets the tone for a story that influences the characters and their actions. The setting itself can be a character.
Setting also can alter a story quite a bit. Just imagine how different any historical novel would be if it were to jump into the future. Or vice versa.
Next week I'll do a post telling you about the setting of my novel, Swept to Sea.
But today, I want you to give me examples of setting. What's the setting of the book you're reading right now? Or the book you're writing if you are writing one?
Also, for extra credit: how does the setting of the book you are reading affect your characters?
See you all next week!
I just read Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare which is set on the coast of Illyria (an ancient land by the Adriatic Sea), but the time period isn't necessarily mentioned. The setting would have seemed unique to the English audiences who first saw it, which set the mood for the entire play.
ReplyDeleteI also recently read the books in Anne Elisabeth Stengl's series, Tales of Goldstone Wood. These are fantasy novels, so they are set in another world, and the setting is very important, like another mysterious character with a mind of its own. Also, in the last book that is out so far, the story is set 1600 years before the other three, so this changes the entire world and feel of the story. I really like the settings of these books!
That sounds interesting, Cortney. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteSetting is definitely very important in some books, and makes the reading experience much richer.
ReplyDeleteI recently read a book called the Peshawar Lancers. It was an alternate-history book in which several comets hit the northern hemisphere in the 1800s and lead to years of bad crops and destruction. The people of Britain end up leaving (or at least the ones who can afford it), and migrating throughout the different parts of the British Empire, with the new capital being in India, and much of the story taking place within that very different world.