Story SettingsHow to improve your writing!

You can start your story by thinking about the setting.

Where does your story take place?

Is it inside or outside?

What is the weather like?

Which of your senses can you use to describe

the setting?

When does your story take place?

Manipulatethe reader with the setting.

•Use place as well as the weather, time of day and season, to create a setting.

Create atmosphere / mood.

• For example:

– a walk along a green shaded lane on a summery afternoon (makes you feel relaxed).

– but the same lane on a dark, wintry night (would feel very different).

Use your senses to add detail to bring the setting alive

• What can be seen, heard, smelt, touched and tasted?

• If the reader is to enter your world, s/he needs to be able to:

• see it• hear it• touch it• taste it• smell it

Base settings on places that you know - plus some invented detail.

• Think of places where you have been.• Close your eyes and look at all the details

around you. What can you see?• Now use your imagination to change the

place. Add some interesting details.Do you want details to make your setting seem:• dangerous?• frightening?• fun?• safe?• peaceful?• strange/ uncomfortable?

Use the setting to create atmosphere

For instance, you might use a frightening place such as an empty house - or you can take a very ordinary place and make it seem scary by making it seem unusual, dark and cold.

Remember:•Do not get

bogged down in too

much description or you will lose the

pace of the narrative.

Use real or invented names to bring places alive

• Names help to make your setting more real and more believable.

‘A boy walked down a street’ shows us nothing, but ‘Lugs O’Neill limped down Butcher’s Row’ starts to catch our imagination.

Once you have built the setting you can bring in the characters.

Who is there and why?

Have fun creating your story setting!

Tranquil / peaceful

Unwelcoming / ominous

Misty and mysterious

Fearful and threatening

Stormy - scary, frightening

Happy and inviting!