How do you pick the setting for your novel?

The setting chooses itself for me, usually. Although, having said that, I have to say that the setting for "Angels Among Us" came from a very vivid dream that I had before I ever wrote the novel. The field and farm house stayed with me, as did a few other scenes which also found their way into the book.

eXtasy Books has picked up an erotic novel of mine, and again, the setting chose itself and this time is a world of my own creation which I've been writing about for seven years or more.

Then there's my YA mystery novel (which I'm still trying to sell), which is set in a town I made up. On the one hand, it's more work than using a place I know, but on the other hand, I'm not bound by reality.

I think of the setting as another character. My current WIP takes place in the small coastal Carolina town of Monroe's Folly. It's loosely based on a place I lived for a while, but as the story progresses you learn as much about Monroe's Folly as you do about the people who live there. Once I started writing it, I just kinda *knew* things would take place in Monroe's Folly.

If you read Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin series, the HMS Surprise is as much a character as any of the sailors. Same with the towns of Derry and Castle Rock in Stephen King's books. It's an entity in and of itself.

My story dictates the settings.

maestrowork said:

My story dictates the settings.

Click to expand...

Ditto!

Easy, I set all the stories in my home town.

As a fantasy/SF writer, the setting is usually one of the first things I think up. For my current WIP, I wanted the whole thing to feel vaguely reminiscent of Incan culture, but I also wanted to have the architecture of the Maya. I combined the two and set the story on a tropical world, and parts of it house the ruins of ancient cities where technology was highly advanced (23rd century stuff).

For my off-world protagonists, I wanted there to be a sense of decrepitude. There were six hundred years of barabarism on Earth after the breakup of a solar government, and they just got their act back together to send a mission in pursuit of the deep space colonists they'd lost contact with during the war, who incidentally have disappeared in the meantime.

I needed the setting to be tropical because the majority of the characters are sentient dinosaurs left over from experimentation by the humans who founded this paradise world (can't diclose reasons, it would spoil the ending of the books). It also gave me more opportunity to have bright imagery with the birds and flowers, contrasted with the dark imagery of some of the planet's inhabitants. My books simply wouldn't work in another setting.

In my case, I developed a character whose particular quirk determined a great deal of the setting. I realized that such a person would almost certainly not exist in the modern world and that it wouldn't be likely for such a person to live in a big city, either. Usually, my stories happen the same way - something about the character will dictate where and when he or she needs to exist.

As long as you are not creating a new world, write what you know. Base your setting on a familiar place. Enriching that setting will be easier because of its familiarity. You have the option of making the setting real or fictional.

Also, I agree with what everyone has said in the previous contributions, particularly Maestro. Let the story have its say.

For me, I go with what feels right. I very rarely use large cities as a setting, I just don't like them and I know the small town way of life better. Plus, I like the idea of being able to leave town and be in the middle of nowhere.

I seem to like writing in different time periods more than modern day. The last story I wrote was set in the late '70's, just because I couldn't see a serial killer going uncaught for very long nowadays and I wanted the killer to have a few free years or so.

The next one will be set in the '50's, for no particular reason. I just felt like it, and I wanted to set the story closer to home. Last one was set in Oklahoma and Colorado, so this one's going to be around roughly the same place I live, except 50 years earlier.

I can't wait to pick out the cars for the characters. I'm going to have a blast with my main character -- she's going to have a motorcycle, probably one from the '40's or very early '50's. *evil giggle*

It's the place where my characters decide to meet. I have no control over that choice, apart from it being someplace I know. Oddly enough, my characters seem to dwell only in those places familiar to me?!

I nearly always get the setting first. One of my writing proffs told me: "An alien creature in a familiar setting, or a regular human in an alien setting, but not both." Setting is critical to me as it dictates what the society will be, and the society largely dictates what the characters will be. But however it comes to you, welcome it!

The first novel, I set in the town where I grew up and takes place in the early 1960's. Since I left in 1965 when I was 14 and have never been back, it remains frozen in time for me.

I do not view it through any sort of nostalgic lens, mind you. We're talking about the rectum of the universe, friends; a steel mill town of 3000 people and a mental institution with 1800 patients, where walking home from school always held a element of danger. My fellow students often came to school sporting bruises and black eyes. Walking into door knobs and falling down stairs apparently reached epidemic proprotions amongst the elementary school population.

As a hard drinking, hard scrabble kind of place with 40 below winters, it's my version of Steven King's Derry, Maine.

As for the second novel, I've set it near where I currently live, in and around Vancouver as well as in a fairly generic suburbia.

I like to use settings that I'm familiar with, as I think it helps me lend more credibility to the story. I either research the heck out of a place, or I use a place where I've lived. I think using real towns let readers experience a new place to visit, whether in real life, or just by book.

I like the way Stephen King uses Derry and Castlerock as his settings for his books. From all his books, these places are as real to me as anywhere else I've lived.

vmtwriter said:

I like to use settings that I'm familiar with, as I think it helps me lend more credibility to the story. I either research the heck out of a place, or I use a place where I've lived. I think using real towns let readers experience a new place to visit, whether in real life, or just by book.

I like the way Stephen King uses Derry and Castlerock as his settings for his books. From all his books, these places are as real to me as anywhere else I've lived.

Click to expand...

I wonder to how much of that is due to his description and how much to the reader's imagination? By way of example, in my first book, I describe a kitchen in an deserted house. In my mind, the kitchen I'm using is from a friend's house back when I was a kid. However, when my son read it he "saw" our kitchen with dishes piled high in the sink the time my wife left us for a week to visit relatives.

You bet we cleaned house before she got back!

my settings are either places I know, or places I would like to know. Most are set in rural settings very similar to my Pa hometown. It's what I know.

How do you choose your setting? The story (Which is not the same thing as the plot) invariably decides for me. Or a setting already in place decides the story. The aspects of story should feed off each other.

Your character should dictate what kind of setting they come from (You could not have characters with identical attitudes and views come from the midwest circa 1955, 1975, and 1995, even if that character is a bit strange for the era). Your plot should dictate what kind of a setting it can happen in. The setting itself should dictate how these things come into conflict, and why. If your story was inspired by "a startling visual image", or a concept for a climactic battle, or a reaction to another story, or a cool piece of tech, that inspirational nugget almost certainly includes implications about what kind of a setting it's playing out in.

The theme should be reflected in the place, not in the blatant way of pathetic fallacy, but in the whole of the place. A story about the clash of wealth and poverty would have a different tone set in an Ethiopean village than it would set in Chicago, even if the main character in both settings has the same attitude towards rich people and the same bare-bones outline to his backstory.

I kind of end up doing something preliminary, but don't get attached to it, and then the story picks it out for me.

Although I must say, some places are almost impossible to research. :|

My settings up until now have ...

1) been primarily dictated by the story

2) always been in a town or city in which I have lived.

I must concur with some of the previous posts. Know your setting like the back of your hand, whether through research or your own experience.

ileana

For me the 'setting' of the story is almost irrelevant. I have stories that are so generically set that I've no clue where they are. Such as the my story "Soldimehndi" set for publication on Sept 15th at Wild Child Publishing. I've attached the story to a particular place, but when it's read, the city it's in isn't even mentioned. Because my stories are almost always about character. So the setting has to be a character in and of itself.

Having said that, the setting derives from where the story is inspired. My straight horror novel "Not All Dreams" is set in a fictionalized version of Carlin, NV - because when I saw the image that started the short story that turned into a huge novel, the image was of a gal walking late at night down a particular stretch of street in Carlin. Plus I could put in the 'character' of the town.

My extended setting for my 'Eagle Ridge' series started in a roundabout way. I wanted to write a short story about a guy who is hounded by a ghost on a dark, rainy night with mist creeping along the ground. I kept thinking of the story as set in a graveyard and it wasn't working. I tried picturing it set in a city park and it didn't work. Finally one day I was driving along the shore of Lake Tahoe and as I went to Incline Village the story suddenly sparked, gelled and the short story has evolved into three novels with a fourth to be written soon.

Then when hiking up in the Columbia River Gorge a few years back, I passed a trail marker that showed the way to a particular set of falls. I immediately had an image of the layout of the larger city, realized how it would work as my own personal version of "Newburg" and how it accomplished everything I wanted in a particular setting. So my third setting was created. Including a limited history of the town.

So, I'd say don't sweat the setting, it'll come out in the story. Sweat the stuff that's most important. But always remember that the setting is the foundation of believability. Setting a 'wizard' story on a space station is a tough sell...as is a Sherlock Holmes mystery in Bupkus, Minnesota. Do what's right for the story and the setting will seem invisible, as it should.

Rabe...

I'm on the second planet in orbit around Tau Ceti, 11.9 light years from earth, on a typical earth like planet, but one that is Mesozoic in atmosphere and geology. I have twisted rope-like conifers, ferns, mushroom paddle trees, armadillo like creatures, Microraptors, and a very vicious marsupial lion that's ten feet tall and carniverous. I've crashed landed a buch of mis-fits on this rock, and now they have to survive a Starship Troopers type battle.

It's all made up but has to ring right according to the various core sciences.

Tri