Why Setting Should Do More Than Sit There

I have had quite a good week this week and I will be going into that some more in a Substack newsletter coming on 1st April so lookout for that. You can sign up for my newsletter by clicking on the button below, and this will ensure you get all my news and information about upcoming workshops and courses. I will make sure you don’t miss a thing.

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In my daily social posts this week, I have been talking about setting. Setting is often treated as background; something to sketch in before the story gets going. But in stronger writing, setting isn’t something the story sits on. It’s something the story grows out of.

Place shapes behaviour. A conversation in a quiet library unfolds differently from one in a crowded café. I know I am a different person in each of those places – in truth, I am probably more unpredictable in the quiet setting. Lots of people are like that, noisy when they are supposed to be quiet, and quiet when they are allowed to be noisy! A character returning to their childhood home will notice things a stranger wouldn’t. Setting is never neutral; it’s always influencing what happens.

This means we don’t need to describe everything when we are writing a scene in a story. Instead, we should focus on what matters in the moment. What does your character notice first? What do they avoid? Which detail carries emotional weight?
Setting can also do the work of emotion. Rather than explaining how a character feels, let the environment reveal it. A cluttered room is maybe the sign of a mind too over-crowded and pre-occupied. A too-bright kitchen might indicate a character is over-compensating for something dark in their life. A long empty road might be a metaphor for a difficult journey or truth a character has to face. Filter everything through perspective, because no two characters experience the same place in the same way.

And don’t forget that setting can shift. Light fades, weather turns, a space empties. These changes can mirror or even drive what’s happening within the scene. The key is restraint. A few precise details will always carry more power than a full inventory.

Take one of your scenes. What single detail could you change or add to make the setting more meaningful? This will work if you are stuck and finding it hard to just put words down. Take a breath, do this exercise (let’s call it for fun!) and see what comes out. Let me know in the comments what you discovered and whether it helped you.

​Until next time, Happy Scribbling!