Lesson 3: Setting and Focus

[Tamur]

Lesson 3: A Place for the Place

The Importance of Setting

Setting is a description of a certain place at a certain time, real or imagined. This is the stage on which a story happens. The setting isn't just a dull grey pile of wood spray-painted with whatever colour was at hand. Setting can be an ever-changing backdrop which influences the characters. In fact, setting can become a character in some stories. But setting can also detract from the story if it's given too much weight.

These days, setting has fallen out of favour, replaced by character. This is likely due to two factors.

First, we are no longer a society who walks. We take a train, take a bus, drive a car, ride a bicycle, a scooter, a motorcycle - anything to move faster. In societies where feet are the primary form of transportation, walking is most often considered a chore. Those who go on walks for the pleasure of seeing their environment, and to observe, are as rare as trees on the Serengeti.

Second, we're conditioned for rapid material presentation. Setting descriptions, by nature, have nothing to do with action. One of the major barriers to many pre-1960s authors, from Jane Austen to J.R.R. Tolkien, is their lengthy descriptions of the setting.

So, there needs to be balance. Without a vivid setting, it's hard to create real excitement or suspense because the reader can't be "right there". But with too much setting, a story is like a play in which the audience is instructed to sit and quietly and examine the props for the first thirty minutes.

A Broader Approach

Sometimes we think of setting as a description of geography, or buildings — anything inanimate. But setting can be thought of as much larger. It can encompass place, all physical detail, and time. Consider, for example, these two examples:

The man's hand rested gently on the butt of the old rifle. His gnarled fingers traced its graceful lines and lingered on the sharp divots in its otherwise smooth surface.

The old veteran's hand rested gently on the butt of his Enfield. His fingers traced its lines and lingered on angular bumps in its surface, reminders of the hand-to-hand horrors he had endured in Belgium.

A few things to consider here:

First, the phrase beginning with "reminders..." is background, but background is just a more detailed word for temporal setting — the events that led up to this moment in the story.

Second, I've bolded the parts of these sentences that, in the broadest sense, can be considered setting. Note that a majority of the words here could be considered setting. Physical detail and temporal setting are the way a reader forms a picture of what you're describing. It's the way your readers come to be "right there", in the midst of the action.

Third, note how much more of a picture you have of the old man in the second version. The reader comes to know something about his past, and could assume a few things about his present character, from a little nine-word addition. And it's time, not space, that's being described there.

Focal Points

Fourth, note the difference in focus between the two. In the first, the focus is on the physical detail of the present time event. In the second, the focus is all on the old soldier's back-story.

In the exercise this week, we'll consider another aspect of background: focus. As with a camera, words can blur some details and make other crystal clear. A good writer knows that in describing the setting, it's important to talk about the whole, but leave some things intentionally blurry while being razor-sharp in other areas. What is emphasised and what is left unfocused depends on your judgement as a writer.

There are a number of techniques to achieve this. One technique (used above) is to only add colourful adjectives in the targeted focal area. Another way to do this is by varying the sentence length. Short sentences in the midst of long ones grab attention. Use them. A third way is to hold your focal point in a paragraph off until the very last word or phrase.

ASSIGNMENT: Due a minute after midnight (00:01) GMT on Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Length: two half-page writings

As mentioned, we'll work on focus in describing a setting, but we'll just keep it to physical detail rather than background or other things we've talked about.

1. Choose one word from the following list: fence, door, shield, buttress, bowl
2. Imagine a physical place that fits with this word. Let's say you chose a door - where does the door lead to? Where is it coming from? What does it look like - cracked? Made of stone? Made of iron bars? What other items are in the area nearby? What can someone see who is looking through it (in either direction)? Imagine (or observe) this place in very high detail - you should be able to answer any random question about the space you're thinking of. Quick, does the ceiling have a pattern to it?
3. Now pick an intriguing detail you created or observed. In a half-page, describe the scene with a focus on that detail. This should be a complete description. But, when your reader is done, he or she should not be able to think of the scene without centering on that detail.
4. Pick a different detail and write a second half-page. Again, this should be a complete description, but the final effect is a focus on this detail. Use the techniques described in the lesson material, or use other methods that have worked for you in the past.
5. You're free to do even more of these and post them. I had a teacher at university who insisted we do ten of these in a row one day. Exhausting! But it made me stretch and experiment like I never would have otherwise.

Good luck, and thanks to everyone for participating! My offline help says she thinks it's funny being known as "offline help".