Setting as Character
I’d heard the phrase “The setting was a character in that novel” for years (okay, decades) before I had any clue what that meant.
Being a description-challenged author when I first started taking writing seriously, I was lucky if I remembered to give my characters clothes and hair color, let alone wax poetic on their surroundings. Because that’s what I thought was meant by the phrase “setting as character”. Paragraph after boring paragraph of the storm brewing overhead or the gently fading sunset or the wind whipping through the moors or the waves lapping at the shore. You know, all that crap I skimmed over when reading so I could get back to the plot.
(Hi, my name is Erica, and I am a setting-skimmer. *g)
As Lacey alluded on Monday, the first draft of Touched had setting issues. Three big ones:
1) Setting? What setting?
2) For an allegedly gothic romance, the tone was so not gothicky.
3) The description was just description. It didn’t matter.
I used to be setting-lite because I refused to include description that didn’t matter. That was always the stuff I skipped, so why bore my readers with paragraphs about the boning in the heroine’s stays or the landscaping in the hero’s yard? But that mindset attacked the symptom (boredom), not the cause (irrelevency).
The next novel I wrote was Hi-Jinxed, a story about an anthropologist’s fight for tenure and the apprentice tooth fairy who accidentally turns his assistant into a pumpkin. I got to make up an entire otherworld in that novel (Daisy comes from Nether-Netherland) and I had the best time coloring the story with–omg!!–setting. Why? Because the setting mattered. (And because it cracked me up.) The reader won’t skip a paragraph of setting if that paragraph is about the POV character interacting with her environment.
With Hi-Jinxed under my belt (what a weird phrase!), I turned back to the story I’d written a full year earlier (Touched) and the issue of its non-gothicness. And I realized, the problem was, once again, relevancy. Descriptive settings would come naturally if the POV characters were reacting to and interacting with their environment. This time when the heroine first lays eyes (another weird phrase!) on the hero’s house, his dark, creepy mansion looks dangerous and unwelcoming. And she’s right. At more than one point in the story, the scene antagonist is arguably the house itself.
Setting as character? I think so. Make it relevant to the characters, make the setting determine their actions or change their minds, make them fight for their goals and for their lives. But most of all, make it matter.
YOUR TURN: What do you think? Do you eat up every single word of description in a story? Or are you a closet setting-skimmer? What are some examples of books where the author did a particularly good job of making the description relevant to the story, or making the setting a character in its own right?
19 Responses
to “Setting as Character”
3 Trackback(s)
- Aug 20, 2009: Week in Review « BLOG of Historical Romance Author Erica Ridley
- Aug 20, 2009: Monday Update « BLOG of Historical Romance Author Erica Ridley
- Aug 20, 2009: Conference Series: Networking « BLOG of Historical Romance Author Erica Ridley
It really depends on the book, since Im not a writer. I love reading the descriptions and I dont skim unless its a book that I dont care for that I started. Or it becomes uninteresting. I dont believe in putting a book down no matter what I think of it if I have already started it because I think its only fair but yeah Im a very descriptive person.
Hi Michele! I tend to stick to books I’ve started, too. Although I’ve been known to skim a paragraph or two, it would really take a lot for me to give up completely. =)
Hi, my name is Haven, and I am a setting-skimmer as well.
Ok, seriously, there have been a few that I’ve read word for word, because like you said, EVERY word mattered.
I also stick with books, even if I don’t like them (there have been a few). What’s bad is when the sexual tension is so boring I skim that too.
I firmly think that if the author does it right, the reader will be unable to skim at all. That ever word will hold some type of key to the plot and those are the books I love!
As for writing a gothic story with gothicky stuff in it. I agree, you have to include the surroundings. The bleakness of it is a must. It’d be like Sleepy Hollow in full technicolor. It’d ruin the story.
Great post Erica!
Hi, Erica, and I hope you’re feeling better!
This is an interesting and, for me, relevant post. Because I tend to be long-winded, a bad writing habit I am anxious to get rid of, I have labored hard to trim down my narrative to a basic plot. In doing this, I now realize, I have gone to the other extreme, producing text that can come off as dry and bare bones. Whereas I used to write long, prosy accounts of what things looked like, smelled like, and felt like, now I get little notes in the margin asking me to supply these. Back to the writing board, I suppose…
Even though I don’t necessarily always read every word that describes the setting, I am aware that it is there. Setting makes a piece richer and more enjoyable, as long as it doesn’t get overdone. I think I’m still in the process of learning just how much to put in. Sigh.
For me, it depends on the book. Take CL Wilson’s two books. Both were well written and the setting was beautifully woven into the story. It was necessary and important. And I skimmed a bunch of it – not because it was boring, but because I was anxious to see what happens. On the other hand, JF Cooper writes beautiful setting and I read every word. I don’t think his books would interest me half as much if the long descriptions weren’t there.
As a writer, I try to weave in setting, but I do it more as an afterthought when I’m writing plot. Sometimes I just write a few beautiful paragraphs to give the reader a breather from the tension and show them what the character sees. Most of my setting, though, ends up being added in during subsequent edits.
Excellent post, Erica. It gives me something to think about (which is especially good for me right now since I’m editing again).
Haven: So true about sexual tension! In some books, I can’t *wait* for the h/h to get together. In others… I don’t buy it. I spent a lot of time this past year studying the craft of ST and am amazed how much I’ve learned!
Mary: Having started out the dry, bare bones way–one thing that helped me was to make sure everything I describe is not only relevant to the characters, but filtered through their eyes. That way, you’re only describing what you need to, and you’re sure to describe it in such a way as to enhance the story. Since you’ve mastered both extremes, I’m sure you’ll find the happy medium!
Hi B.E.! You make a good point regarding pacing. If the tension is high and I’m anxious about What!Will!Happen!Next! (it’s like that in my head *g) I’ve skimmed passages to get to the action. I guess it might be a good benchmark to pare down setting during the exciting sequences.
My chaptermate Rocki St. Claire does an awesome Pacing workshop, which I unfortunately had to miss this month b/c I was at the Maven retreat.
P.S.
I just read C.L. Wilson’s books this past week, too. (I’m in love with Bel. le swoon!)
There are very few books that I read every single word. I don’t like books with heavy description or more than a two or three page love scene. I want the action and adventure and a very fast paced read.
One author that I read her books word for word is Linda Lael Miller. She is excellent at setting the pace, gripping the reader in a choke hold from page one to the very end.
Very interesting topic!
Hi Cia! Before I’d ever written my first love scene, I remember I was part of a writer’s critique group with an author who said her love scenes routinely topped 20 pages or more. I remember being sooo shocked and wondering what on earth her characters got up to (and whether or not I really wanted to know *g). I have no idea what the average page count is for love scenes in the romances I write, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t broken her record. =)
Ooooh. Bel. *sigh* He’s a good one to swoon over. I can’t wait for October ‘08 to find out what happens next.
As a reader I do appreciate detail, but I do skim sometimes. Sometimes it becomes tedious. One author who is a great at setting is Julia Ross. I never skip over any of her words.
B.E.: I know! Such a long wait!!!
Jane: I’m not sure I’ve read her. Any favorites to recommend?
Hi Erica,
They’re all great. Start with “The Seduction” and then continue with “The Wicked Lover,” “Games of Pleasure” and “Clandestine.”
Erica, excellent, excellent post. I loved the last graf. I’ve always thought of setting as a character, especially since I write historicals. But I’ve never made it a character that could change the protagonists’ goals. How intriguing! I have to give that more thought.
Jane: Fabulous. I’ll check them out!
Keira: Thanks! I’m still working on mastering the setting as character thing, but I’m sure having a lot more fun with description now that I have a better understanding of when it works. Always something new to learn! =)
I definitely need to work on description as a writer; I don’t describe much except what the hero/heroine is currently doing. When I go back for edits I need to work hard at adding some more setting.
I love how you describe it as a character, and I think I agree. Books where it’s well-developed I read descriptions while sometimes when I feel it’s more stuffing than anything else, I admit I will skim through it.