How do you decide on your setting?

Putputt said:

I've made a list of possibilities that come with each setting and I'm still no closer to making a decision. So how do you decide which setting works best for your story or should I just flip a coin or..?

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No, you let bunneh pick for yew -

*writes settings on bits of paper and puts them in a hat*

*totally rigs the ballot*

*draws piece of paper out*

Well, whaddaya know.... ANCIENT GREECE! Well, what are the odds...

Whuh... what do you mean they all say ancient Greece? hehehe, oh, you're so funny, hippo... course they don't...

*sets fire to bits of paper*

There. Decision made. You're doing historical fiction and there's nothing you can do about it coz THE HAT TOLD YOU TO!

Ok, run along and research everything about ancient Greece. EV-RY-THING.

Now.

With that many settings, you might need something more than a coin. Like a dice. One of those gaming dice with a zillion sides...

One way to decide is to think about what kind of characters you have, and what era/world would produce characters like that.

Or think about themes you want to explore; the Age of Exploration lends itself more readily to different themes than, say, the paranoia of 1950's America.

What tech level works best for your stories? Smartphones and satellites drastically alter your options. Even radio or telegraph lines alter your options...

If all else fails, close your eyes and imagine your book cover. What aesthetic are you going for?

Hope that helps...

Putputt said:

Helps more than Kalli's post did! fanks!

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Well, that's gratitude for you...

Anyway, WHY AREN'T YOU RESEARCHING???

What genre do you want to write?

What genre have you written?

If (as I think) you agent will be shopping an Egyptian/ancient Greece novel, then it might behoove (love that word) you to go for something similar but not the same?

If your story doesn't require the world-building necessary for futuristic sf or magic & sorcery fantasy, don't do it. It might be cool, but if the story doesn't need it, it will all sort of be stuck on there like those crochet dolls my aunt used to put on top of her rolls of toilet paper.

Put, first of all, *hippo hug!!!!!!!!!*



You've already rcvd. some good suggestions/questions to ask yourself relative to setting. Genre and world-building go hand-in-hand so yeah, I think a lot depends on what kind of story it is. Some lend themselves to world-building, some demand it; for some, setting isn't as critical. . .

I'd add this question, not sure if it'll do you any good but, Which setting makes your heart go pitty pat?

Wish I could help you more, Putputt.

I tend to be pretty vague with my settings, unless of course it's pivotal to the story. I've got one that's set in Louisiana, 'cuz it's got French and spirit stuff; another that I'm still undecided, but it's gonna have to be someplace where football (yes, American football) is heavily popular; and another where, well, it's gonna be traveling the whole globe--and not just traveling the world, but different centuries. I am scared of the research for that one. The rest of my stories are set in No Name, America. Or sometimes in a fictional town. I let the readers figure it out for themselves, haha.

If the plot/characters aren't pivotal to the setting, I always use some place that is local or that I am very familiar with.

The same way I "decide" on any other aspect of any given story. It just comes natural.

I don't conceive of stories as an assembly of "parts", of characters, of plot, of setting. I think in terms of story Everything else follows naturally.

caw

Where would you like to go on vacation for a month?

Gringa

I'd say just take a bit of time and play around with it. Take whatever parts leap out to you--characters, plot, themes--and try them out a bit, whether on paper or just mentally, and see what really clicks. There probably isn't some objective "best".

I did a lot of playing around with the seed of my current novel... for the longest time I wasn't even planning to write it, I just wanted to play with the characters, so if a particular time and/or place interested me, I'd try them out there, just for funsies. Then one day I was watching TCM and got sucked into my first silent film, and was like, oh yeah, I like the 1920s, let's try them there! And somehow that random decision coalesced the story, and I actually wrote it, and of course ultimately used the setting to shape and deepen the story. That said, if I were to decide to say to hell with all that work, I could still probably take the core of the story and do it somewhere/sometime else. It wouldn't necessarily be better or worse. Just I do like the 1920s.

So I guess the moral is go watch some TV.

I don't know what to tell you here. I've never had this problem. In my stories, the characters, plots, and settings are so closely intertwined that I couldn't change the setting without completely altering everything else.

Perhaps follow The Way of the Slacker: whatever will make the writing easiest.

For some people it's easier to write their own world; for others--a completely made up world; for a third type--an alternative version of their own world; for a fourth type--an alternative version of their own world's past; for a fifth type--a possible near-future version of their own world.

Some people will use their professional experience and make their current or former places of work the setting.

Also, if you've already introduced a certain world, staying in it, or modifying part of it would be easier...

Or using something already mapped out by a generation of toilers: like zombies or vampires or space marines...

The Line of Least Resistance is The Way of the Slacker.

Stephen King stays in hotel. Stephen King writes about hotel. Stephen King lives in Maine. Stephen King writes about Maine. Dean Koontz lives in Cali. Dean Koontz writes about Cali. Mr. X used to be a lawyer--Mr X writes about lawyers.

The Way of the Slacker is to leave research or world-building to the enthusiasts and instead take...The Line of Least Resistance.

And who knows, maybe the surplus energy from not researching or world-building will flow not only into lolling on the sofa, but into beefing up the elements of the human condition, which can be argued is one of the points of writing novels...

I'm with blackbird and rwm4768 on this one. It's just all part of the story. And since you haven't had this problem with your other stories maybe the problem is with the story and not the setting.You say this is a new idea. Maybe it's just not fully formed yet and when you start writing it will come to you.

Putputt said:

It feels weird having to ask this because it feels like it should be quite obvious, and I've written 4 books without having to stop and think about setting. It all just came naturally as soon as I thought of the story.

But I just got an idea for my latest book and I realized the concept will work in pretty much any world. Contemporary, futuristic scifi, fantasy with magic and sorcery, or even contemporary with superheroes. Each setting comes with its own set of pros and cons and I am excited about all of them. I've made a list of possibilities that come with each setting and I'm still no closer to making a decision. So how do you decide which setting works best for your story or should I just flip a coin or..?

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Well, in your situation, I'd go for whatever one I most wanted to.

In general, I love deliberately choosing interesting backdrops for my stories. And then, in turn, the settings wind up tweaking the characters/story a tad.

In a lot of stories, the setting is kind of a silent but ubiquitous main character. You can't really just plop any group of people in any place and expect the story to go the same way, wherever they are. A story in modern day San Francisco is a totally different beast than a story in, oh, say, Ancient Greece. The culture, the attitudes towards POCs/LGBTs/women, etc -- all of this makes for a different feel. Usually, I like to develop my characters first and then figure out where they were, and that helps me to determine where they are.

For example: I have an independent female character, raised in a family of five girls. That tells me she feels a little overwhelmed in her family, and she wants to strike out on her own, and probably she's going to want to go as far away as possible to prove that she can do it. But she's used to having them near, so she's going to want to stay on the same continent. But maybe a different country, because after growing up in a big family, she wants to be seen as unique and maybe a little exotic. So I made her French-Canadian, from Quebec, and she ends up going to college in California, and that's where the story gets set.

I choose setting a bunch of ways.

* First, as others have said, setting is usually pretty intertwined with premise / characters / plot for me, so aspects of it are chosen for me.

* If I have a choice, I set it somewhere I know well. For instance, for my current series I could have chosen any sufficiently large metropolitan area (though each would have guided the story differently). I chose LA because I live here and I'm super lazy.

* For my current series I was excited about writing contemporary because I have a history of perfectionism in worldbuilding for past or future and also because I wanted to try my hand at contemporary urban SFF as a personal choice. But that's more a reason I was excited about my premise, because the premise was contemporary and I'd been wanting to do that -- it's not like I forced my premise into contemporary.

But it sounds like your question is more about genre rather than setting. Here's what I would recommend:

* For God's sake, choose a genre with a high tolerance for killing people. BECAUSE WE KNOW YOU AND YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT. You can get away with killing half your cast way more easily in SFF than you can in contemporary realistic YA fiction.

* Choose something that excites you. This might help eliminate milieus (milieux?). For instance, if Ancient Greece doesn't excite you, don't choose Ancient Greece (sorry bunneh). You're going to be spending a lot of time here.

* You may wish to take into account your future career. Your readers are less likely to jump genre, so you may wish to write in genres you've already written in and/or you know you'll write more in.

* On the flip side, you might want a personal challenge of doing something completely different, regardless of your future career considerations.

* Your prose has a brisk, snarky style and a quick, sarcastic wit, which you seem to like using. Consider how you want to be able to write this and what references you want your characters to be able to make (and how you want to anchor their personalities). For instance, one thing I love about contemporary SFF is that I can make geek culture references.

* If all else fails, maybe try writing a page in each subgenre you're considering and see which comes to life?

Wow. Hard to add a lot to slhuang's post. That was brilliant.

I'm going to agree that if you like lots of blood flowing, SFF is the most likely route. And I assume you're building a reader base? Unless you're tired of it and need a break, it would seem like the most logical move to go that route.

Unless, (and I know Kallithrix would agree) you put it in ancient Greece. Blood was supposed to flow in ancient Greece. The body count was incredible. And all because Agamemnon was a jerk, and poor Helen just wanted a fling.

But writing what you know can be very good advice as well. When I wrote my California Trail novels, I had to actually pull out my charge cards and drive the trail or I couldn't do it. (I bitched and moaned, and I had four-wheel drive. Our ancestors were tough.)

However, that isn't working for my ancient Greece story. At least I grew up in a Mediterranean climate.

SF, first and always.

... what?

slhuang said:

* Choose something that excites you. This might help eliminate milieus (milieux?). For instance, if Ancient Greece doesn't excite you, don't choose Ancient Greece (sorry bunneh).

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Well... fine. You don't HAVE to set every novel in ancient Greece.

Some exciting novels are set in Egypt too

CathleenT said:

Unless, (and I know Kallithrix would agree) you put it in ancient Greece.

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She doesn't necessarily have to set it in ancient Greece just because... blood thirsty hippo.

There's always Rome.

First, I decide genre. It's tough to write anything well unless it's firmly set in a given genre.

I try to use setting I know extremely well. Poor setting usually means poor sales, and no one likes a generic setting. I good realistic, detailed setting is a character unto itself, and the foundations the entire story rests on.

If I can use a setting I know extremely well, then I use it, and I use enough detailed description to bring it to vibrant life. If the readers can't see it, I failed. If it's a setting most editors and readers are unfamiliar with, so much the better. Common and routine to a write is often esoteric and fascinating to those who haven't spent time there.

Even when I make up a town, or an entire world, it's still home sweet home in most ways. I may change all teh names, I may add some details, or take away some details, but the basic setting is one I know so well I could walk it blindfolded. I try to make it so realistic and detailed that if a character picks up a rock and throws it at something, that rock will be there, and any reader could do to that spot, pick up the same rock, and throw it.

All the things I make up are also as real as I can possibly make them, and moved to this setting. Added to this setting, not replacing it.

If I'm forced to use a setting I don't know well, then I learn as much about it as possible before putting it in a story. Setting matters, and even if it's completely invented fantasy world, being able to place the familiar inside it makes everything come to life.

I suggest using a setting you know extremely well as a base. Think about this. How many stories have you read that used your hometown, your neighborhood, the exact place where you grew up?

To you, these places are everyday common, but to editors and readers, they're new and exciting.

You don't pick your setting, it picks you. Or really your characters do - they know their world.

Personally I think I'm drawn to historical real-world settings because it automatically raises the stakes. I do write some contemporary but there is always an element of unreality (or the absurd, as oddly enough they're often dark comedy). Somehow my imagination just can't work in something too close to my own life - I need some sort of distance to get permission to "lie."

But as someone born and raised in Richmond, Virginia it's kind of a no-brainer I would be interested in the American Civil War - though strongly from the Union/African American perspective once I was old enough (~12) to understand about slavery. I latched onto the French Revolution as teenager - it was right around its bicentennial, it had badass women, and I was an angry, gothy/nerdy middle class kid being bullied in the affluent suburbs. Both have been a big influence on my Gilded Age novel so even if you don't use a setting outright, it still comes into play.

While I realize now just how much research I need (and can never know everything - that's why I need some help from academics, etc.), there is the advantage when you're writing 19th century that when you get stuck in your draft, you can kind of wing it with from what you've absorbed from Westerns, classics from the period, etc.