Setting description

Writing scenery in 3-D

Introduction

Scene and setting description is what paints the picture in the reader’s mind for where they envision the characters are taking action, interacting with each other and with external events, and where they are having a conversation through dialogue.

Setting is critically important—it grounds readers in the story’s physical reality.

In some stories, the setting itself acts as a character. Think of a ship battling through a hurricane. The antagonist in the story isn’t a person—it’s the storm.

You’ve probably read books that spent so much time describing a scene, and in such detailed, unimportant ways that your eyes gloss over. You might skim ahead until something interesting happens.

Well, that’s too much description.

Maybe you’ve read a book where you couldn’t really picture where events were taking place.

That’s not enough description.

And maybe you’re reading along, everything is going just fine, then the story mentions snow on the ground, and you’re like, “What? I thought it was summertime.”

Photo by Matteo Catanese on Unsplash

That’s not enough description at the right time.

Last week, we focused on character description. The same techniques apply to describing anything from the kitchen to the landscape to the weather. Not too much, not too little, just enough, and at just the right time.

Description in narrative summary

In our session on scenes, we discussed narrative and narrative summary. This is most often how setting description is relayed to readers. It’s often at the beginning of the scene—in the scene transition—to help ground readers in the new scene. But you don’t usually want to bog readers down by writing a page or two describing the setting at the beginning of a scene.

As with character description, too many details becomes difficult for a reader to absorb and retain.

This might be the opening paragraph of a new scene, with a bit of narrative summary to set the stage:

Susie opened her front door and thought twice about going to her sister’s house. Dark clouds rolled in from the west. The now bare branches of the oak tree in her front yard swayed in the wind, which seemed to pick up speed while she debated whether or not take her umbrella. A few drops spattered on the driveway, making the decision for her.

We’re seeing the setting through the character’s point-of-view.

We’re grounded in the immediate setting (she’s at her front door looking out at the rainy day).

This single paragraph of narrative summary describes the physical setting (the weather, in this case, but it might be a beautiful mountain view or the grimy inner city of a tenement apartment building or a spaceship hurtling through space in the Year 3000).

The new scene is set up with this transition; we know what’s happening, and in whose point-of-view we’re in.

The one word ‘now’ on the line ‘now bare branches’ also gives a clue to the time of year, as if these branches recently had leaves but no more.

The setting is provided, just enough, at just the right time (before she decides to go out or not). Don’t surprise readers later in the scene when she gets rained on if readers might have assumed it was a sunny day.

Blend the setting description with action

Not blended, it might read like this: