Thriller 101

5 Minute Writer: Setting

• David

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David Gwyn: [00:00:00] Ah, the setting, some writers love it. They pour over every single part and have to eventually cut back over. What is a lengthy list of details for others? Writing setting is like pulling teeth but no matter how you feel about it, developing your setting is the key to a solid story.

Have you ever had the experience of reading a novel or even just a scene and you couldn't quite figure out the specifics of the. because of that, you couldn't picture the scene and you were immediately removed from the story, or perhaps there was just too much detail and you felt bored or like your time was being wasted.

I wanted to ensure I was building a quality setting in my manuscript without wasting reader's time. So I ran across this article written by Dwyer Murphy. He's a debut author of an honest living in this article. He talked about how to write cityscapes in fiction. And while he was writing about cities in particular, There was a lot to learn about writing, really any kind of setting I've linked the [00:01:00] article in the podcast description.

If you wanna check it out, here are my three takeaways. Number one, boots on the ground. It's probably not surprising, but one of Murphy's tips is to get to the location of your story. You wanna do your best to walk around in your setting, make note on the specificity of the. Generalities and mundane details just won't do if it's a city scape, don't just talk about the calves and the honking horns.

Talk about the omnipresent puddles at the crosswalk. Talk about the closed shops with metal gates, pressed and padlock to the sidewalk. Don't just talk about the smell of garbage. What about the flower shops or the burst of cool air and smell of fresh ground coffee and warm bagels. When someone opens a cafe.

It's sometimes the minute details that can make a place come alive. Number two, setting should match tone. In Murphy's article. He talks a lot about the kind of book he's writing. It's a detective American noir. It becomes clear that his setting is painted over by the genre. He [00:02:00] chose a romcom, just wouldn't describe this setting the same way.

So think about your tone and your genre. Does your description of setting match the expectations of readers for that genre? Number three? Try not to get overwhelmed in reality settings are far too vast to hammer out every single. That's not the point of this exercise. Anyway. Plus if you give space in your work for every single setting detail, you'll bore the crap out of your readers.

Anyway, take lots of notes on your setting, but in the end, be highly selective about what you keep. Remember your setting is also part of your tone. Make sure you're focusing on the parts of your setting that are both integral to your tone, but will also help develop the story you're trying to. In the past interview, I talked to Christopher Golden about how he develops his realistic settings in his best selling books.

Here's just a part of what he said. And you can find more of his interview linked in the description. 

Christopher Golden: it's about having enough research to feel like [00:03:00] I am doing the job. For instance, my novel Ararat is set in Turkey. And it was published in Turkey and it did pretty well there. And I did two interviews with journalists from the two biggest newspapers in Turkey and both of them from reading the book assumed I had spent time in Turkey.

and you'd be shocked at how little research Created that illusion. When it came to the actual, research into Turkey and what it would be like to be there, I only really needed to know. If you were going here, where would you fly into? What is the terrain like?

When you're trying to go from this little, like, where would you stay if you were going to climb Mount Ararat where would you stay? What's the nearest town. What's it like to get from there to the mountain and everyone and their sister has a travel blog. You know what I mean? And for me, it's [00:04:00] also about like, I'm a westerner.

The characters I was talking about were Westerners. So finding accounts by Westerners about their experience going in this case, you know? I did these three shark novels under a pseudonym and. Conversations with researchers at woods hole. Were a blast because they love having these conversations and the conversations always go something like, Hey, I need this to happen.

Can you tell me the most realistic way for me to do this and they would go, well, that would never happen. And I would say, no, no, no, no, no. You're missing the point I need it to happen. And I don't need you expert on this to believe me, but I need everybody else to believe me, 

David Gwyn: So how do you go about writing your setting? Do you have a system, a plan for what to do when you get stuck? Do you keep a notebook or write specifics somewhere else? Your setting will help [00:05:00] ground your reader in your work.

It's not enough to be descriptive. It also has to be carrying the weight of tone. And in some cases become its own character. Don't overlook the importance of setting it can make or break a manuscript. This episode was part of my five minute writer series. This is a new series I'm doing to help you save time.

It's free weekly advice that takes about five minutes to consume and is designed to give you the highlights without the fluff. So you can gain the knowledge without wasting time. That way you can get back to writing. I send these out as newsletters, videos, or podcast episodes like this one. If you want to ensure you don't miss out on any episodes.

Be sure to sign up and join the more than 150 writers. Who've trusted me with helping them achieve their writing goals. Plus you get a bonus edition right now. It's linked in the podcast description.


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