The Importance of Setting in a Story

The Space Coast Authors of Romance (STAR) is about to open their contest. The LAS (Launch a Star) contest is one of the best, providing each finalist with a chance to be seen by both an editor and an agent. The success rate of those writers selling is very high. Judges for the contest are trained and each year, judging rules are reviewed. As a member of the committee, I was asked to give a brief talk on judging the Setting of a submission and thought I’d let our readers take a look at what I’ve come up with, so they can add to it. A Fuzzie review, as it were…

One of the first tasks a writer needs to accomplish is to draw a reader into her story. A reader wants to know who, what, when, and last, but certainly not the least, where. A compelling setting enhances a story, and, in some novels, like those of Karen White, Patti Callahan Henry, Anne Siddons and other writers of the South, setting almost becomes a character in the book.

Each scene should begin by giving the reader a sense of time and place. In literary works, many paragraphs may describe the setting. In other genres, it may take just a sentence or two to give the reader the who, what, when, and where. In all cases, it is important that the five senses flow throughout.

“She sat in the classroom, where they were to meet after the last student had left for home.”
Those two sentences are pretty sterile. Compare them to this, where setting is introduced.
“The last student left her class room at Avondale Middle School, murmuring a hurried good bye as he raced to catch the four o’clock bus. Josie Kingman shuffled the spelling papers on her desk and rubbed her hands together in an attempt to heat her cold hands. Jake Whitcomb, the handsome new principal, was to meet her there in less than a minute. “
Obviously, those sentences were done in a hurry but you get the point. The setting adds tension to the scene and the reader has a better idea of who, what, when, where. If it were important to the story, the writer could go on and describe the sights inside the room or what she sees through the window, the smells, etc.

The setting should enhance the story, not slow it down. If the description doesn’t add anything meaningful, the words are wasted and the pacing is slowed.

Be aware of too much setting, as well as too little, and enjoy creating spaces that invite the reader in.

Have anything to add? How do you react to setting in the stories you read?