Setting Moves Characters and Story

Following NaNo Prep Week 4 theme: Build a Strong World for Your Characters, NaNo guest Liza Wolff-Francis shares her expertise on how your setting can shape your story.

An obvious part of beginning a novel is the where of the story, the place, or setting, but sometimes as writers, we don’t think of it first, preferring to jump to plot or characters. The setting helps the writer and the reader feel grounded in a story. It also helps move the story forward. 

Setting includes landscape, like what a reader sees in a place. Where is this story happening? Other factors that make up the setting include season, weather, time of day, and time in history. Is where the story takes place an urban or rural environment? What’s the main religion? What language is spoken? Under what conditions do people live? You may or may not mention all of this, but as the writer, it’s important to know these things.