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Settings - Part Two - Outlining the Physical Environment

© Janet Kay Blaylock

In the last article, you learned about settings and how writers choose their settings. Some writers use a particular house or mansion for the crime scene. Other writers stage their settings outside and move the characters about throughout the novel.

Now, you are going to learn how to describe these settings that you have chosen for your novel. Making an outline of your setting is important. By having specific details of your settings in front of you, you won't forget an important description.

Let's start with a setting from your past. Can you remember the place where you grew up? This is the easiest kind of setting to describe because you are familiar with the environment. I lived on a farm northwest of De Soto, Kansas.

Settings - My Farm

I used to live on a farm from the time I was born until the end of the second grade. For the book I have written titled "Strange Happenings," I used my farm and the city that was nearby as the setting.

Our farm had a large two story farm house, barn, two sheds, chicken house, garage, and a smaller house. We lived near the Kansas River. There was a lane that led from the main road to our farm. On one side of the lane, we had our fields where we grew crops such as wheat, field corn, soy beans, pumpkins, squash, etc. On the other side of the lane, was a house where our neighbors lived. They gave my brother and I our dogs. I had to take the bus to school, which was in the city.

In my novel, I added an area for the woods, a shack near the river, a waterfall, and a fence around our back yard. All of these were important to the plot of my story.

Outlining Your Settings

When you decide on a place for your setting, then you need to start your outline. Let's say you are describing a place where you used to live or where you live now. Think about the following: environment, climate, people, buildings, entertainment, legal system, etc. There are several different elements that can be considered when you are outlining your settings.

Environment

When you are describing your environment, you need to think of the house and the land in the town, city, or country where you are placing your characters for your story.

You need to ask yourself these questions: Where do you live? What is your house like? Are there other buildings on your property? Is it a farm? Do you have animals? What about the scenery? Is there a wooded area? Are the lands flat? Are their mountains or hills nearby? What about lakes or rivers? Where is the city? What about roads that are nearby?

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