Writing Craft Vol. 3: Where is the story set in place and time?

(This section is about the type of setting that you’re probably used to, the place and time. I didn’t put it first; I put the “reality” and “rules” of the story first. But these two types of setting usually work together inseparably, so don’t hesitate to juggle as your particular story warrants!)

What’s more important, the reality of the story or the place and time?

Here’s something that surprised me when I started studying story setting:

The actual place and time of the story is usually less important than the reality of the story. Not always. But usually the genre itself is more important than the exact setting.

Even with historical fiction, the fact that it’s historical fiction about a given event is more important than the exact time and location of the story. For example, the fact that a story is about World War II is more important than the fact that it’s set in a particular poet’s garret in Paris on June 10, 1940. (And if it were set on June 11 instead, how much would that matter?)

Ideally, you will create a story opening that defines the reality of a story and the exact place and time.

But if you have to choose between defining expectations about the genre, tone, and reality of the story and defining the actual place and time of the story, define the reality first!

Should you give the exact place and time?

Readers generally like to know what place and time they’re in, even if it’s not the most important thing in a story.

Knowing the place and time helps them create associations within the story itself. Giving a name and a date creates a detail you can refer back to later. (See the previous section Going on Autopilot: Summary Details.)

My opinion is, if you can get away with defining a particular place and time for your story–whether real or fictional–do it! It usually won’t derail the story.

If you don’t give the place and time, you can quickly lose control of the reader’s imagination. One of my favorite movies, The Fall by Tarsem Singh, shows what happens when one character tells stories apparently about “Indians” from the American Wild West, but another character doesn’t make the same assumptions he does, and hears stories about subcontinental India.

Your readers can make some very different assumptions than you intend. It’s usually safer to give their imaginations something to fasten upon!

Defining place and time at the opening of the story

You can give the place and time of the story directly or indirectly, or both.

  • Directly: A screen that says “31-3-2057 London”
  • Indirectly: A Vauxhall-brand hovercar (Vauxhall is a British car brand)

Using both methods is even better. Letting the reader see a screen that says “31-3-2057 London” and showing a Vauxhall hovercar is a good way to define a future setting.

You can start a story with the chapter title London, 2057, but doing that alone isn’t enough. If you only give details that could apply to contemporary U.S. small towns, no one will really feel like they’re in a future London!

Keep in mind that if you want to start a story with details about place and time, make sure those places and times also communicate the genre, tone, and what kind of reality to expect.

Doing something like showing the reader a screen that says 3-31-2057 London counts, though: it tells the reader the setting is in the future and is therefore science fiction.

Defining relative places and times throughout a story

In my opinion, making sure the reader knows how much time passes during the story, and where the locations relate to each other, is more important than the specific starting place and time of the story.

That is, the exact date of the story often isn’t all that important, but the fact that Chapter 2 happens two days after Chapter 1 is generally very important.

To keep the reader on track, you will need to define:

  • When and where a story is set in relation to previous parts of the story.
  • Whether or not the story has shifted into backstory, dreams, or speculation.
  • When the story is back in the present moment.

Most of the time, you can literally start the first sentence of a new section with a statement of how much time has passed and whether the location has changed. You can also give a quick summary of what happened since the last time we were with the characters.

Here are some examples:

  • Two days later…
  • North of the main house was a ridge of trees…
  • Lost in thought, Octavia remembered the accident, ten years ago today…
  • We traveled throughout Europe for the next month…

If you go into backstory, remember to bring the reader back to the main plot thread!

You can do this with a phrase showing the character coming back to the present moment. You can also give some concrete sensory details that could only happen in the present moment. You can also use an action that would get the reader’s attention in real life to bring them back to the main story.

Here are some examples:

  • Shaking herself out of her wayward thoughts…
  • Coming back to the present moment…
  • Kaitlyn dug her fingernails into her palms. It was time to pay attention.
  • Mrs. French slammed the book closed, making Kaitlyn jump awake.

During intense conflict, keep the characters in the present moment. Letting characters wander into mental backstory slows down the progress of the conflict.

Instead, save extra material for slow scenes and/or reader check-ins most of the time.

(Next: Who’s telling the story? In every tale, someone has to let us know what’s going on!)

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