Writing Novels

Lesson 6: Advanced Techniques

Using the Setting

The setting should support what's going on in the scene. It should act as a character in itself. Use it as a metaphor for how your characters are feeling or what they are doing. For example, let the forceful water that tugs at your character's feet threaten to pull her off the rock she's sitting on while she fears that she's losing control of her life.

Rather than describing an entire room or landscape, focus on the specific details so that they imply the larger setting. For example, rather than telling your readers that the moonlight showed through the window, tell them that each piece of silverware beside your main character's dinner plate imprisoned a tiny moon. (Does your character feel that she is trapped or that she is losing parts of herself as the moon has?)

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