Setting & Scene

WHAT IS SETTING?

SETTING is a broad term. It describes the place, the time, and the social situation in which a story takes place.

For example, a bustling train station in the 1940s. Or the floor of the ocean 3,000 years in the future. What does it look like? What happens here? What kind of people or

creatures would populate this setting?

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WHY IS SETTING IMPORTANT?

Setting creates a world where your characters can perform and interact. The setting itself can reinforce factors that are important to the plot, themes, or core emotions of your story.

For example, a story about illness or heartbreak might take place in the winter. A story about American politics might take place in Washington D.C. Setting is everything to do

with the mood and circumstances that drive a story, so choose carefully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30CPmgVQNks

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WHAT IS A SCENE?

A SCENE is one piece of a story in which something takes place⏤ some thought or action begins, is

described, and then ends. Think of each scene as a pocket of action that is separated by the

passage of time or shift in location. Scenes build off of each other, and often demand associative

transitions.

For example, one scene could be a husband and wife sharing dinner and having a conversation about their

son’s failing grades. The following scene could show the son skipping school the next day. The two are separate

occurrences, but they have a link that is vital to the plot of the story- one could not be as well-understood by the

reader without the other.

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SCENES CONSIDER ...

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- Setting

- Character

- Action

- Dialogue

- Conflict

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TYPES OF SCENES

∙ - ABSTRACT: Abstract scenes represent a series of actions, often in the past

tense (we would go to the park in the summertime, and catch frogs)

∙ - PINPOINT: Pinpoint scenes involve actions occurring more presently⏤ a

more focused version (Johnny caught a frog at the park in the summertime).

Strong writing uses more pinpoint than abstract scenes. They are much more

fleshed out. If you find yourself using too much of “they would do this”, try to break it

up with a pinpoint scene or two, in which immediate action and dialogue occurs.

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SETTING & SCENE

A heightened focus on setting can

make for some extremely

powerful scenes. Here is an

example:

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“THE STORE in which the Justice of the Peace's court was sitting smelled of cheese. The boy, crouched on his nail keg at the

back of the crowded room, knew he smelled cheese, and more: from where he sat he could see the ranked shelves

close-packed with the solid, squat, dynamic shapes of tin cans whose labels his stomach read, not from the lettering which

meant nothing to his mind but from the scarlet devils amid the silver curve of fish this, the cheese which he knew he smelled

and the hermetic meat which his intestines believed he smelled coming in intermittent gusts momentary and brief between

the other constant one, the smell and sense just a little of fear because mostly of despair and grief, the old fierce pull of blood.

He could not see the table where the Justice sat and before which his father and his father's enemy (our enemy he thought in

that despair; ourn! mine and hisn both! He's my father!) stood, but he could hear them, the two of them that is, because his

father had said no word yet: "But what proof have you, Mr. Harris?"

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William Faulkner’s Barn Burning

“What works well in this scene? How can we read the overall tone of the scene and

qualities of the character from the way the setting is described?

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Cheese shop: The boy is crouched there because he’s hiding⏤ there’s tension, he’s eavesdropping on his father and someone his father is in conflict with. The vivid descriptions of the smell indicate that the boy is hungry. Furthermore, the tin cans tell us that he’s illiterate.

Faulkner uses something here called anOBJECT CORRELATIVE,

which is a set of objects, situations, or chain of events that expresses a character’s emotion.

INTERNAL EMOTION EXTERNAL WORLD

Descriptions of the external world (or setting) can be shaped to reflect a character’s perceptions and subjective state.

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EXAMPLES

Jennifer is doing homework on a Sunday at a crowded cafe. How does her feeling change the description of

the setting?

- ANNOYED: The couple sitting at the table next to her are chewing gum and gossipping loudly. She notices

how shrill their voices are, and how tacky their clothing is. The table is sticky with spilled coffee.

- CONTENT: The air thrums with pleasant conversation. The smell of baked bread wafts from the kitchen.

People all around laugh and grin at one another over colorful plates of food.

- DISTRAUGHT: The sky is overcast, washing the interior of the cafe in murky gray light. People blend together

at the tables, dark silhouettes that murmur inaudibly.

You can also work inversely. If you know your character needs to feel a certain emotion, choose a setting that would

have a good set of object correlatives to reflect their emotion. This is a great way to show instead of tell.

1. Activity #1Write about a time you felt euphoric. Rather than describe an emotion you are feeling via

thought, describe the setting⏤ what you were surrounded by, the people and objects in

front of you⏤ in a way that allows us to apprehend your emotions and the context of them.

1. Activity #2Field trip! For our setting and scene activity, we’ll be visiting three different locations. For

each location, find a spot to sit down with your notebook and write about your surroundings

for fifteen minutes. Experiment with different emotions and finding object correlatives.