The Question of Setting

[Starbeam]

He's a poet, first of all, so it's really hard to get a lot of stuff out of him about prose type stuff. We had a novelist as the head of the department when I first went there (part of the reason I went there), but she transferred out before I even got to have a class with her and they brought in this guy. He's just a lit snob, partly, and he's also just...odd. He says that when he reads, he can't visualize what he's reading. It's just words on the page, so he's all about making it look good on the page and making the words sound good next to each other.

Yeah, I've noticed that poets tend to look at writing a lot differently, and they are odd people.  With poetry, it's completely understandable to work with the shape of the words, that's sometimes a big part of the poem.  I took a couple poetry classes, and I did find them helpful with just learning a new way of looking at words and how they relate to each other and the image that they create.  Helpful for when you want to describe something in a different way than it usually tends to be described.

I'm going to try to get some more out of everyone before I graduate, but I'm starting to look elsewhere to improve my craft.

A few suggestions with this, and most of them have been suggested by others around here, Stephen King's On Writing, JB's Livejournal, and the Writing Excuses podcast.  There are lots of other resources for writing out there, but for me, those are the ones that I continually return to.

[comprex]

And there's always Google Earth, or that old standby, the Road Trip, which you could at least try to write off as a business expense at the end of the year.

This is where I am on this.    Practice  -research- at the same time you're practicing writing.   Pick the setting to ease the storyline and set mood.

Otherwise you're stuck in writing where you live.   Because your knowledge of everywhere else gets -dated-.   

[belial.1980]

Sounds like your professor has a chip on his shoulder. I wouldn't worry about him. Just write what you feel. 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

This is where I am on this.    Practice  -research- at the same time you're practicing writing.   Pick the setting to ease the storyline and set mood.
Otherwise you're stuck in writing where you live.   Because your knowledge of everywhere else gets -dated-.   

I am not at all convinced that deliberate research is the way to go.

Or put it another way; everything is research.  The trick is figuring out what it's research for.

[daylightdreamer]

Yeah...I really think that no matter where it's set there's going to be research involved. I mean...even if I set it in my home town where I've lived almost all of my life, I would still have to do research on the setting because I don't know everything about it and I forget things. But it's easier because it gives you a starting point for that research.

Like I said, I think I'm going to leave it, and I've got the rough outline of my novel done...now I'm going back through and breaking things down to fill in the important details I'll need while writing so I don't get lost. If I decide to change it later....Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess. >>; Thanks for all the help everyone.

[meg_evonne]

Did some thinking about this.  It seems to me that setting can be dictated by the story that you tell.  I mean there is a completely different feel from NYC to San Franciso, Seattle to New Orleans, Chicago to Miami.  If you have a midwest mindset to your story, I do think you have to be true to the story.

[daylightdreamer]

Did some thinking about this.  It seems to me that setting can be dictated by the story that you tell.  I mean there is a completely different feel from NYC to San Franciso, Seattle to New Orleans, Chicago to Miami.  If you have a midwest mindset to your story, I do think you have to be true to the story.

Yeah, exactly. That's actually a big part of why I ultimately decided to keep it where it is for now. I'm from the midwest and Chicago just...Well, when I was talking to a friend of mine about the whole setting change thing, he pointed out to me that the big draw of Chicago is he rich history that you can play off of. Not to say that other cities don't have gritty histories, but Chicago is just ingrained in the culture as having a history of crime, mobsters, political corruption, etc and I just like the overall feel of the setting better. I mean, New York has a history like that as well, but it's different.

Plus, after outlining everything, it's important to the story that it's a major hub city in the US, which basically boils down to in a very broad, general sense, New York, Chicago, and LA. I've planned things out with my world based on that and Chicago just works the best. Hopefully I don't regret that later. 

[thausgt]

Did some thinking about this.  It seems to me that setting can be dictated by the story that you tell.  I mean there is a completely different feel from NYC to San Franciso, Seattle to New Orleans, Chicago to Miami.  If you have a midwest mindset to your story, I do think you have to be true to the story.

Brings to mind the old song, "New York State Of Mind". I've always had trouble really figuring the idea out in detail (probably because I've never been closer to the Big Apple than somewhere in eastern Pennsylvania), but I have acquired an appreciation for the difference between, say, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The real trick is, as Meg points out, establishing the 'feel' for a given locale.

I guess the next question would be to try and imagine the story playing out somewhere else. Does that affect the flow? For example, the Dresden stories mostly take place either in real-world Chicago or the Nevernever. If Jim downed an injudicious quantity of, say, mojito, and set a story in Miami, it might allow Thomas a chance to hog the spotlight a bit more than he already does, but Harry would be absolutely miserable in his spellworked coat. (And Mouse would be equally miserable in his perfectly natural coat, but I digress.) The most important point, though, is that Harry simply fits better in Chicago, with its layers of physical constructions mirroring the social and magical landscape, which in turn mirrors Harry's own complexities.

Wandering back to the topic, see if you can get a grip on the 'look and feel' of your chosen setting. See if you can determine what about your vision of the setting sets it apart from anyone else's, especially the intangible elements. Is there a particular neighborhood or building that consistently gives you a particular emotional reaction? Are there any urban legends that really capture your attention? Even if you can't use them in your stories without jumping through copyright laws, are there particular songs you associate with the setting or components thereof? (You can play them in the background while you write; can do amazing things with the 'themes and moods' of your drafts.)

Good luck!